The Oscar-nominated romantic drama Brooklyn, adapted from Colm Tóibín’s book of the same name, has a moving and thought-provoking ending. Saoirse Ronan stars in the 2015 film as Eilis Lacey, a young Irish woman who immigrates to Brooklyn in the 1950s. While caught between two homes, Eilis finds herself in a love triangle with Tony (Emory Cohen), an Italian American plumber in New York, and Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), a well-off suitor back in her hometown of Enniscorthy. Brooklyn was a critical hit and was nominated for three Academy Awards — Best Picture, Best Actress (for Ronan), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Named by the BBC as one of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century, Brooklyn is a heartwarming historical tale about what it means to call somewhere home. Ronan was already one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation, but Brooklyn bolstered her reputation for providing poignant, powerful performances. One of the reasons why the movie is so unforgettable is its touching final scene that brings the themes full circle and provides a satisfying conclusion to the love story. The film adaptation of Brooklyn has a very different ending than Tóibín’s source novel, but it’s just as memorable.
What Happens In Brooklyn’s Ending
Eilis Chooses Between Her Two Lives
When her sister, Rose (Fiona Glascott), unexpectedly pᴀsses away, Eilis returns to Enniscorthy to help out her mother (Jane Brennan). Before she leaves her new location in New York City, she marries Tony, who shows her the Long Island land plot where he intends to build their family home. However, in Enniscorthy, Eilis becomes nostalgic for her old life and considers never returning to Tony in Brooklyn.
She takes over Rose’s old job as a bookkeeper while being wooed by Jim, who insinuates that he intends to propose to her. Eilis is then forced to make a definitive choice when her cruel former employer, Miss Kelly (Bríd Brennan), figures out her secret. Miss Kelly’s blackmail reminds Eilis of how she had felt oppressed and held back when she lived in Enniscorthy.
When she finally has enough of Miss Kelly lording her secret over her, Eilis reinstates her commitment to Tony by saying her full married name. Eilis tells her mother about Tony, then leaves a farewell note for Jim before returning to New York to start her life with her husband. In the heartwarming final scene, Eilis reunites with Tony in Brooklyn, choosing not only which suitor she wants to commit to, but also the place she considers to be her home.
Why Eilis Decides To Go Back To Tony
Eilis Sticks To Her Commitment Despite It Being The Scarier Option
At the end of Brooklyn, after weighing her options within the movie’s love triangle, Eilis makes the definitive decision to break things off with Jim and return to Tony. It’s not clear if spending her life with Tony is exactly what Eilis wants to do, but she realizes that going back to Tony is what’s right. Regardless of how she feels about Jim, she made a commitment to Tony when she married him.
Making Eilis happy seems to be Tony’s top priority — he even plans to build them a house from scratch — whereas Jim’s wealth and ambition make him a little self-absorbed.
After building a new life in Brooklyn, Eilis feels she belongs there. Jim may be better suited for Eilis than Tony, but Tony was much more committed to her than Jim was. Making Eilis happy seems to be Tony’s top priority — he even plans to build them a house from scratch — whereas Jim’s wealth and ambition make him a little self-absorbed.
Still, Jim seems like a better match for Eilis. It’s possible that she never really loves Tony and that she only starts dating him out of fear of loneliness. She doesn’t choose to go back to Tony of her own accord; she only makes the decision to return to her marriage when Miss Kelly learns that she has a husband back in America and threatens to reveal her secret.
Who Eilis Chose In The Novel’s Ending
The Original Ending Is More Ambiguous
Colm Tóibín’s novel ends slightly differently than the movie adaptation of Brooklyn starring Saoirse Ronan. In both versions of the story, Miss Kelly hears through the grapevine that Eilis has a husband back in New York and uses that information to bully her. Eilis still chooses Tony over Jim in the book, but the story ends more ambiguously as Eilis takes a taxi to the dock. The novel, which doesn’t have the movie’s sweeping romantic finale in which Eilis makes it back to Brooklyn and embraces Tony, leaves the story more open-ended.
The movie adaptation adds an extra scene when Eilis is traveling back to Brooklyn. She encounters a young woman embarking on her first journey to New York and gives her all the advice she needs to hear about feeling homesick and building a new life. This scene mirrors the earlier scene in which Eilis makes her first trip to America and a more seasoned traveler takes her under her wing. In terms of Eilis’ character development, this can be seen as her reᴀssuring herself that she made the right decision to leave Jim behind and go back to Brooklyn.
Is There A Sequel To The Movie Brooklyn?
A Sequel Novel Will Continue Eilis’ Story
In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Colm Tóibín confirmed that he’s working on a sequel to the original Brooklyn novel: “I got an idea. It is a sequel with all the same characters, but something else.” While Tóibín will continue the story of Eilis and Tony on the page, there’s no official confirmation that this sequel novel will be turned into a sequel movie. In the same interview, the author cast doubt on a potential film adaptation of his upcoming follow-up: “We were so lucky the first time… It would be unlikely you would get that luck a second time.”
If Tóibín comes up with a satisfying sequel story in the next novel and the director and screenwriter behind the first movie return, a follow-up film adaptation could work wonderfully.
It might be best to leave Brooklyn as a standalone film. Whereas movies like Star Wars and Spider-Man are tailor-made for sequels that continue their heroes’ adventures, Brooklyn is a more contemplative film focused on themes and emotions. What makes Brooklyn so special and memorable is more difficult to replicate than the action-adventure spectacle of those blockbusters. But Saoirse Ronan has never given a less-than-stellar performance, so if Tóibín comes up with a satisfying sequel story in the next novel and the director and screenwriter behind the first movie return, a follow-up film adaptation could work wonderfully.
The Real Meaning Of Brooklyn’s Ending
Brooklyn Challenges The Idea Of “Home”
Thematically, Brooklyn is about the meaning of the word “home.” When Eilis first arrives in Brooklyn, she feels terribly homesick and longs to return to her family back in Ireland. But after meeting Tony and falling in love, she comes to see New York as her home. When she returns to Enniscorthy, she feels homesick once again, this time for her life in Brooklyn.
Eilis’s return to Brooklyn resolves the theme of “home” beautifully. What it means to call somewhere home has less to do with the actual geographical location than the love that exists there and the people who share that location.
How The Brooklyn Ending Was Received
The Ending Further Elevated The Acclaimed Movie
Brooklyn was an acclaimed movie all around, but the ending seemed to elevate the period drama in the eyes of critics, making it something even more special. In Glenn Kenny’s review of Brooklyn at RogerEbert.com, he pointed out that the movie might incorrectly be seen as a light and entertaining romance movie without anything of consequence to say. However, he argues that the ending disproves that, feeling that it is a thought-provoking comment on how life is about acceptance rather than the right choice:
The persistent feeling that this movie so beautifully creates is that even when the world is bestowing blessings upon us, it’s still at the bottom a sad place, and the key to an emotionally healthy existence involves some rooted acceptance of that. The movie ends with Eilis having made some substantial steps to that accepting place, and also determined to move purposefully forward.
Peter Bradshaw’s review at The Guardian also spoke to how Brooklyn‘s ending deals with the complex idea faced by many immigrants. Eilis returning home in the movie’s third act is not just about giving her doubts about her new life in America, but also a way of strengthening the idea of that new life when met with a reminder of what she left behind:
Brooklyn addresses the great dual narrative of the emigration experience: the new life abroad and the ghostly, parallel life that might have been lived at home. The question of de-emigrating and returning home to Ireland after having tasted life in the United States is also what Brooklyn is about: an idea rich in anxiety, anti-climax but also a kind of relief, and a feeling that the American adventure could be mentally salvaged as a learning experience for life at home.
Finally, Todd McCarthy’s review in The Hollywood Reporter commented on watching Brooklyn with the crowd at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, noting how the movie drew the audience into the story so effectively that the ending elicited very excited reactions from the crowd and a feeling of satisfaction:
There are developments in the late-going that produced audible gasps from the audience at the Sundance world premiere, all of which lead to a personal decision and dramatic conclusion of convulsive emotional power. It’s the sort of climax that is rarely attempted today, much less achieved with such skill and effect.
