It seems almost impossible that Saoirse Ronan is only 30 years old, given that the Irish actress has been giving tremendously moving and intellectually mature performances for literally decades at this point. The four-time Oscar nominee is the rare child star to seamlessly segue into grown-up fare, the most recent of which was the 2024 one-two punch of the Steve McQueen-directed war film "Blitz" and the Nora Fingscheidt-helmed recovery drama "The Outrun."
With the star officially back in awards conversations for those two well-received roles, it's a good time to revisit one of her most acclaimed performances: as Eilis Lacey in the 2015 romantic period drama film "Brooklyn," which you can stream on Max through the end of January. It will leave that streaming service on Jan. 31, so hurry with your rewatch!
Why you should stream 'Brooklyn' before it leaves Netflix
A big-screen adaptation of the 2009 Colm Tóibín novel of the same name, "Brooklyn" sees Ronan deftly tug at the heartstrings — without succumbing to schmaltz — as Eilish, a young Irish woman who immigrates to New York City from small-town Enniscorthy in the early 1950s to find employment. She builds a new life there in the titular borough, not to mention a romance with a charming Italian-American fella (Emory Cohen) but is drawn back home by a family tragedy and other pulling obligations (including a connection with a lovely local lad played by Domhnall Gleeson).
And though Ronan has routinely served up high caliber acting throughout her career, from "The Lovely Bones" to "Lady Bird" to "Little Women" and beyond, "Brooklyn" is arguably the actress at her best, with the star poignantly capturing Eilish's internal struggles of longing, uncertainty and determination through bittersweet bits of body language — thoughtful micro-expressions and fluctuations that masterfully add up to a profound change for the character. In his review for The New York Times, critic A.O. Scott called the actress a "performer of remarkable force and sensitivity" and praised how Ronan "uses everything — her posture, her eyebrows, her breath, her teeth, her pores — to convey a process of change that is both seismic and subtle."
You can catch Saoirse Ronan in her Oscar- (and BAFTA-, and Golden Globe-, and SAG Award-) nominated performance in "Brooklyn" on Max until the end of the month; after that, you'll be able to stream the period drama with a Hulu subscription or you can rent or buy the title on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play or YouTube.
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