In America review

There are times when all directors overstep the mark and make 'pet projects' that perhaps lay bare their personal lives a little too freely. Jim Sheridan's In America is a classic example. Having achieved a great deal of success by filming the lives of other notable characters (My Left Foot, In The Name Of The Father), Sheridan now turns to his own family. The results are mixed at best.

The film opens strongly with a nervy border crossing into the United States by a young Irish family. Mother and father (Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton) are trying to start a new life in New York with their two young daughters (engagingly played by Emma and Sarah Bolger). The family is still grieving after the recent death of their other child Frankie.

With little funds to their name and Daddy hellbent on an acting career, they move into a dilapidated apartment block, full of drug users, thieves and the strange, reclusive artist downstairs (Djimon Hounson). It is at times a desperate struggle to survive financially and the spectre of the dead child looms large over all of them.

Sheridan claims this to be his most honest film yet, and his most personal. This may well be the case but there are numerous apparent disparities. Sheridan and his family did move to the Big Apple during the 80s, but as Artistic Director of the Irish Arts Centre it is doubtful that he and his family would have lived in such squalor. There are also times in the film when the financial difficulties, and their subsequent resolution, beggar belief - notably in an excruciating fairground scene, and a fairytale ending which seems just too good to be true.

Most disconcerting however is the inclusion of the deceased child. Co-written by Sheridan and his two daughters, many audience members might believe this is based on an actual family tragedy. The truth, nonetheless, is that this did not happen: the child is based on Sheridan's own brother who died as a young boy. Taking liberties to enhance a storyline is one thing, but this smacks of a cruel and unwise manipulation of the audience.

Clearly nobody had the temerity to question the Sheridans about their own sense of honesty: and neither did anyone stop them from adding sugary scene after sugary scene. The actors all bravely plough through, but the collective talents of Considine (surely destined to become a major star), Morton and Hounsou are wasted on this lightweight fluff.