neumu [ cinematronic ]




	In America
	Jim Sheridan Samantha Morton, Paddy Considine, Sarah Bolger, Emma Bolger, Djimon Hounsou 2003		Passionate, circumspect writer/director Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot") fills the endearing, partially autobiographical film "In America" with his own sweat and blood. It's the rare movie that's smart, genuine and heartwarming while keeping the sap content to a minimum. In the early 1980s, an Irish actor, his wife and two small daughters sneak across the Canadian border to the U.S. They head for New York City, seeking a better life and trying to escape a personal tragedy. This benign family of illegal immigrants moves into a squat in a bad neighborhood. The father hopes to make a living in the theater; he quickly learns it's not an easy route to take. Both Mom and Dad look for jobs that pay under the table. They enroll the girls in a local Catholic school. New challenges test them at every turn. As wife and husband, the superb Samantha Morton and the equally adept Paddy Considine create people you care about. Real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger, who play the daughters, are natural charmers, unaffected by the camera's presence. And Djimon Hounsou provides a sterling character sketch as a mysterious neighbor who could have sunk to caricature, but is, instead, a vivid addition to the funny, sad, ultimately optimistic "In America."