4. Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) - Brooklyn
At the start of Brooklyn, the adaptation of Colm Tóibíns novel by director, John Crowley, and screenwriter, Nick Hornby, our protagonist, Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), is low on self-esteem and lacking in identity. She is unconfident and vulnerable, maybe even a little naïve. Then, after a big move to Brooklyn, New York, where education and general life prospects are a whole lot better than in Eilis native Ireland, she flourishes, becomes a real woman, wiser, more attractive (notice how for so long she is framed in close-ups - her face filling the screen - but when we realise what an attractive young woman shes becoming, the camera tends to pull out and show us all of her), more sure of her direction. This might sound like a pretty standard coming-of-age scenario, and while it definitely has elements of that it remains that Eilis, as played by Saoirse Ronan in a staggering performance, is far from ordinary, instead presenting herself as a woman torn between two loves on opposite sides of the Atlantic but never in real need of either. The film is essentially about the complexities of the immigrant experience, but Eilis, who is in virtually every shot, transcends them, ending the film as woman influenced by her loves and journeys, but not defined by them.