I have become a big fan of actor Saoirse Ronan.  I have seen her in Brooklyn and yesterday in Ladybird.  Both times she makes her character so real.  What I find most interesting about Ronan is that her face does so much of the acting.  I love that.  She truly absorbs the character and I find myself watching her intensely.

Ladybird

Ladybird is a coming of age movie about Christine McPherson who renames herself “Ladybird.”  The movie takes us through Ladybird’s senior year of Catholic high school.  Ladybird’s family financially struggles which makes her feel a little out of place at a private school. She is that girl who is restless, outspoken, creative, and just knows there is something more for her out there in the world to grab.  The relationship with her mother is complex – loving, yet difficult, and sometimes borderline abusive.  Laurie Metcalf does a wonderful job playing the part of a hardworking mom who has done a better job than her mom, but struggles to give Ladybird the kind of love that a teenage girl looks for in a mom. The next character in the movie is the city of Sacramento and Ladybird’s love/hate relationship with her hometown.  The movie Ladybird does not try to make a strong statement about anything.  It tells a lovely story of a girl turning into a woman and all the pitfalls that transition entails.

Brooklyn

Ahhhh, Brooklyn.  Probably my most favorite recent move.  I have watched it at least five times!  It is a beautiful layered story of a young immigrant girl who leaves 1950’s Ireland to find a better life.  Saoirse Ronan plays the role of Eilis Lacey brilliantly.  Again, her facial acting drives home her emotions.  It is a story of loneliness, love, and responsibility.  Eilis finds herself torn between her past and her future – her hometown and the new life she struggled to create.  The cinematography and costumes are incredible.  This movie truly transforms you back in time – in Hollywood romantic fashion.

Ladybird and Brooklyn both tell a story of a young girl’s transition into her future. Both movies relay the common struggle between the good and the bad of one’s hometown.  One takes place in 2003, and one takes place in 1953.  One is low budget, one is not.  Both have the talented Saoirse Ronan playing the lead.  My recommendation – see both – but for sure see Brooklyn.