A new home. A new life. Seen through eyes that see everything.
Overview
A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.4/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.80/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 76
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Jim Sheridan
Production
East of Harlem (UK), Hell's Kitchen, Irish Film Industry, Fox Searchlight Pictures
Cast
Samantha Morton, Paddy Considine, Sarah Bolger, Emma Bolger, Djimon Hounsou, David Wike, Michael Sean Tighe, Juan Carlos Hernández, René Millan, Nick Dunning, Frank Wood, Merrina Millsapp, Bernadette Quigley, Adrian Martinez, Des Bishop, Jason Salkey, Neal Jones, Bob Gallico, Sara James, Randall Carlton
Curator Review
Verdict
A tender, grief-struck immigrant drama that balances hardship with warmth, wonder, and strong performances. It can be sentimental, but it earns most of its emotion through small details and lived-in family dynamics.
Best for
viewers who like intimate family dramas
fans of immigrant stories and New York-set character pieces
people who respond to grief narratives with hope and tenderness
audiences who appreciate child performances and emotional realism
Skip if
you want a plot-driven or high-energy film
you dislike sentimentality or overt emotional uplift
you prefer stark, unsparing realism over lyrical drama
Overview
In America is a small film with a big emotional reach. Jim Sheridan turns a family’s move to New York into something both ordinary and quietly magical, finding humor, fear, and tenderness in the day-to-day work of surviving grief and starting over. The movie’s strength is its patience: it lets the family feel real before it asks you to feel for them.
Worth noting
Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine ground the film with performances that never overplay the pain, while the children give it a sense of innocence that keeps the story from sinking into despair. Djimon Hounsou adds a crucial layer of warmth and mystery, helping the film widen from a private family story into something about community, loss, and unexpected grace.
Bottom line
It is sentimental, and occasionally you can feel the film reaching for your heart, but it usually earns the gesture. If you’re open to a heartfelt drama that believes in resilience without denying sorrow, this is an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Christof88 (4★) · 173 likes
One of my first reviews was about *The Holdovers*, in which I expressed my disappointment that there aren’t more filmmakers focusing on small, human moments. But isn’t that a valid point? There are plenty of directors, like Jim Sheridan, who have valuable autobiographical stories to share with audiences.
However, the landscape for independent cinema has changed since the early 2000s. There isn't a lot of financial incentive for movies like *In America*, a small but precious story about a young… more
Sandy · 118 likes
My daughter has been wanting to paint her room, because it’s pink and not her thing anymore. I told her I’d be happy to paint it with her, but would like to do a neutral color, for resale value and so she isn’t locked into a color scheme. Listen to me, I’m such an adult! A hate it. Where did my whimsy go?
Here’s a family, in the throes of grief, eking out an existence, and still they have the… more
Colin the dude (5★) · 94 likes
There was time and a place where this film meant a whole lot to me. Big, big stepping stone movie if you were fourteen or fifteen and seeing this in a theater in the Fall of 2003. I count it as just the second film I ever dropped tear at in public. This happening to you for the first or second time of your life; it means something. It's visible evidence that you've completely given yourself over to a movie.… more There was time and a place where this film meant a whole lot to me. Big, big stepping stone movie if you were fourteen or fifteen and seeing this in a theater in the Fall of 2003. I count it as just the second film I ever dropped tear at in public. This happening to you for the first or second time of your life; it means something. It's visible evidence that you've completely given yourself over to a movie.… more
Ian Curran (3★) · 62 likes
A sweet, wholesome story of family and immigration that’s held together by some really strong performances. I was genuinely surprised by how solid the accent work was by the English actors.
I had to knock a star off for Jim Sheridan perpetuating the stereotype of Irish people as rubes. He allowed an Irish family be represented on the big screen as not understanding what Halloween was. Halloween!! We invented the fu€k’n holiday. That would be like if Coppola made it so the Corleone family didn’t understand pasta.
Unforgivable. Ya did us dirty Jim.😔
Luke Bonanno (4★) · 41 likes
Why did it take me over twenty years to see In America, an acclaimed film I've heard some enthusiastic things about? I suspect it's a combination of:
1) The generic title.2) The cast I've not seen enough of/been sufficiently impressed by to actively pursue their filmographies.3) The fact that it's just so tough to get a read on low concept movies from their marketing.
Anyway, I'm glad I finally saw this because I'd rank this right alongside In… more
For audiences who respond to memory, loss, and the sense that love outlasts grief.
Topics
immigrant drama, family grief, hopeful tone, early 2000s, New York City, sentimental realism, coming to terms with loss, humanistic drama, child perspective, indie drama