…………………………………………………

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Movie Review

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1945 drama film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner. It’s a slow, but strong movie.

………………………………………………….

“I wonder what people did before they invented coffee“

…………………………………………………..

Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s. Based on an an immensely popular book of its time, this property was so famous in fact that it was referenced by Looney Tunes once. I haven’t read it myself, but it sounds like one of those sprawling family sagas that were all the rage back then.

The film did not adapt the entirety of this book, but only one large section of it, which was a great choice as it felt more streamlined in that approach. Still though, the pacing was overly slow and leisurely to the point that the film never properly engaged me as a viewer. It’s also a family saga that is at times way too melodramatic and emotionally manipulative, but it does have a lot of heart and it’s undeniably charming and effective in its power of family narrative.

The film is best seen for the terrific performances from its terrific cast. Joan Blondell plays so well the (for the time) shockingly promiscuous aunt and she’s one of the most memorable personalities here. Dorothy McGuire is very solid as a mother and she was always quite an underrated actress in 1940s Hollywood.

But the standouts are Peggy Ann Garner and James Dunn. Garner was honored the juvenile award by the Academy, which was quickly discontinued, but in this instance this win was highly deserved as she’s just wonderful in this role. She imbued the film with a lot of endearing innocence and childlike inquisitiveness that were so charming to witness. James Dunn also received an Oscar for his impressive turn in the most difficult role of a drunken father who ends up dying. He’s so great here, in fact, that it was odd that he never got another signature role afterward.

…………………………………………………..

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn also represents the beginning of Elia Kazan’s career, and at this point he was very good, but far from great as the movie lacks the more cinematic and elevated qualities of his best works. It’s well shot, solidly scored and overall competently made, but hardly truly epic and cinematic by any means. It just felt long and it did not stand the test of time as effortlessly as some other epic dramas of the period, but in its honest, intimate approach at depicting one family’s struggles it felt modern and heartwarming.