Gold in the Streets

The American immigrant experience gets a youthful, contemporary spin in Elizabeth Gill's Gold in the Streets, but despite some gritty acting the outcome is schematic and familiar. Liam (an overly cherubic Karl Geary) arrives in New York City wide-eyed and painfully naive, but with the luck of the Irish he gets to crash in the Bronx pad of streetwise Owen (Jared Harris) after his contact falls through. His adopted household runs the spectrum of Irish immigrant types: in addition to the cynical, money-hungry Owen, there's Paddy (Aidan Gillen), a wanna-be Yank who seeks quick assimilation by romancing a rich girl, and Des (a poignant Ian Hart), a depressive alcoholic fuck-up. After a year of revolving romances, histrionic arguments, bonding embraces, sucky jobs, and random violence, Liam's life comes full circle in a conclusion that's both manipulative and unfulfilling. Like some of its characters, Streets looks for the easy payoff but ends up cheating itself. Screens at the Copley Place Tuesday the 16th at 7 and 9:15 p.m. and Wednesday the 17th at 12:30 and 2:45 p.m.

-- Peter Keough

Back to the Boston Film Festival index