Brooklyn Page #15

EILIS:

Just for a month or so. I know it

would make her feel a little

better.

Tony doesn’t say anything.

EILIS:

Please speak.

TONY:

Will you marry me before you leave?

EILIS:

You don’t trust me to come back?

TONY:

Marry me. Marry me. We don’t have

to tell anyone. We can do it

quickly, and it will just be

between us.

EILIS:

But why do you want to do it?

TONY:

(agonised)

Because if we don’t, I’ll go crazy.

EILIS:

Would a promise not be the same?

TONY:

If you can promise, then you can

easily do this.

Eilis sighs, nods, smiles weakly.

TONY:

(heartfelt)

Thank you.

102 EXT. MRS KEHOE’S HOUSE. NIGHT 102

They have arrived at Eilis’s lodgings. They stand on the

sidewalk outside the dark, quiet house and kiss.

EILIS:

Come inside.

TONY:

Really?

(CONTINUED)

102

103

104

105

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 73.

CONTINUED:
102

She leads him down the little path to her private entrance in

the basement and unlocks the door.

INT. EILIS’S BEDROOM. NIGHT 103

Eilis and Tony enter the basement room. Eilis takes off her

coat, and Tony stands there awkwardly.

TONY:

So this is it? This is where you

live?

EILIS:

Yes, and if you make one tiny noise

she’ll evict me.

Shyly, she walks towards him and kisses him gently. The kiss

becomes more passionate. Eilis pulls his shirt out from his

trousers and runs her hands up and down his back. They move

towards the single bed without speaking. Tony lifts Eilis’s

skirt and undoes his trousers and lies down on top of her.

All the time, there is a sense that Tony is taking his cue

from her, that he would stop the moment Eilis expressed any

doubt or fear. But she moves out from underneath him and

discreetly removes her panties. Tony pulls his trousers off

and takes off his boxer shorts.

They make love. Eilis tries hard not to panic at the feeling

of Tony inside her, but she’s clearly shocked by the

sensation; meanwhile Tony is much noisier than she would want

him to be, and that panics her further. Eventually he is

still, and he lies on top of her for a moment.

A floorboard creaks above their heads. Tony looks up, looks

at Eilis.

EILIS:

Oh, there’s no point in worrying

now. Stay with me.

Tony gets off her, stands up, takes the rest of his clothes

off and gets into bed. Eilis hesitates, then starts to

unstrap her bra.

EXT. MRS KEHOE’S HOUSE. DAY 104

Eilis comes home from work. She pushes at the gate to the

basement, but it has been padlocked.

INT. DINING ROOM, MRS. KEHOE’S HOUSE. EVENING. 105

Eilis is making herself some scrambled eggs in the kitchen

for her tea.

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 74.

105 CONTINUED:
105

Mrs Kehoe is sitting at the kitchen table reading the

newspaper. There is a frosty silence. Patty comes in and

fills the kettle.

MRS KEHOE:

Patty, I’ve put a lock on the

basement gate. Just for peace of

mind. You never know who might try

to get in there.

She folds the paper, stands up and leaves the room.

PATTY:

As God is my witness, I heard

nothing last night. Nothing at all.

But it sounded lovely.

Eilis looks away, embarrassed.

106 EXT. CITY HALL. DAY 106

Eilis and Tony walking in to City Hall, hand-in-hand. Both

have bought new suits for the occasion, but they are on their

own.

107 INT. CITY HALL. DAY 107

Eilis and Tony are in the waiting room in City Hall; there

are a couple of other parties waiting to get married, but

they really are parties, with friends and parents and

siblings. The group sitting nearest to them contains an eight

or nine year-old boy, Frankie’s age, who is bored, and

getting into trouble with his parents. Tony leaves Eilis

sitting on a chair and starts fooling around with the boy:

they play bat and ball with a rolled-up newspaper and a light

plastic ball that the kid has been playing catch with. The

boy’s father comes over.

BOY’S FATHER

Is he annoying you? Because he was

annoying me.

The father is Irish.

TONY:

No, no. I got a brother the exact

same age. Hey, are you Irish?

BOY’S FATHER

(grinning)

Is it so obvious?

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 75.

107 CONTINUED:
107

TONY:

I’m just about to marry an Irish

girl, so I guess I notice it more.

There are a lot of you in Brooklyn.

BOY’S FATHER

Sometimes it seems as though there

can’t be anybody left at home.

Where’s your girl from?

TONY:

Enniscorthy, in County Wexford.

Have you heard of it?

Tony throws the kid a gentle pitch with the ball.

BOY’S FATHER

I think my wife has family there,

but she’s got family everywhere.

TONY:

It’s the same thing with my family.

If you believe anything my dad

says, the Fiorellos own most of

Italy. I don’t understand why we

ever left.

The other man chuckles. Tony calls over to Eilis.

TONY:

Hey, Eilis. Come here a second.

An official from County Hall emerges from an office and

addresses the waiting room.

OFFICIAL:

Anthony Fiorello and Eilis Lacey.

TONY:

Maybe another time.

BOY’S FATHER

Good luck.

Eilis takes his arm. Tony kisses her on her cheek and they

walk off to get married.

108 EXT. MRS KEHOE’S HOUSE. NIGHT 108

Tony and Eilis are kissing outside Mrs Kehoe’s. Eilis breaks

off and looks at him.

EILIS:

Will we ever tell our children we

did this?

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 76.

108 CONTINUED:
108

TONY:

Maybe we’ll save it for some

anniversary.

EILIS:

I wonder what they’ll think of it?

TONY:

They’ll believe that we saw a movie

and ate hot dogs. They won’t

believe that on our wedding night I

dropped you off at Ma Kehoe’s and

went home.

Eilis smiles and kisses him again. The camera pans back to

show the married couple, kissing in the dark with nowhere to

go.

FADE TO BLACK:

109 EXT. CHURCH IN IRELAND. DAY 109

A sunny Sunday morning. Eilis is emerging from Mass arm-inarm

with Mary. Suddenly we see what we haven’t been able to

notice before:
Eilis has come back from America a different

person. She’s older, and more sophisticated, her clothes are

better and brighter than those of anyone else from her town,

her hair-style classier, her skin a different colour. Mary,

meanwhile, has been aged very quickly by grief and

loneliness.

Eilis’s emergence into the Sunday morning light is

complicated. People are excited to see her, but at the same

time they know they have to be respectful of her recent loss.

Her friend NANCY - Eilis’s age, pretty, bubbly - is, however,

just overwhelmed with excitement, and pushes through the

emerging congregation to greet her. Eilis breaks into a broad

smile.

EILIS:

Nancy!

In a modern age, or a less buttoned-up culture, they would

fall into each other’s arms and squeal. There is that level

of excitement, but they channel it through the clasping of

hands.

NANCY:

You look so glamorous!

MARY:

(sourly)

I told you so.

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