I resisted watching this for a while, due to the critical praise.

hm?

I stopped watching films with critical praise around the time I saw Slumdog Millionaire. It was so bad, I realized Oscar-buzz was a bad thing, and I limited my viewing habits.

For example, I refuse to watch Birdman, The Artist, Moonlight, etc.

Pardon?

i love Birdman.

Ah, got it.

It was a nice, understated film but I felt it was fortunate to get the Oscar nominations.

I thought this was a real cracker of a film about immigration. The departure, the voyage, adjusting, carving out a life, making decisions like the rest of us as flawed humans.

The casting and acting was excellent too, the characters were universally really brought to life (even the really mundane ones) to the extent I wouldn't even want to single anyone out. They really made a little go a long way and avoided being overly sentimental, melodramatic or romantic which is a rare thing indeed these days.

Top drawer and only misses out on complete greatness as it was just a little contrived how easy everything fell into place for Eilis on both sides of pond. It could have done with a slightly more gritty realism on both sides of the Atlantic and still left her with the same quandary. But maybe it was just being faithful to the book.

8/10