IN AMERICA is the story of an Irish family that moves to New York to escape the memory of a child who has died tragically. The father (Paddy Considine) is an aspiring actor and the mother (the great Samantha Morton) is forced to take a waitressing job as the family can only afford to live in a drug infested Hell's Kitchen tenement. The two young daughters (Sarah and Emma Bolger) rely mostly on each other since the parents both seem to be numbed by grief. It's a very episodic film, filled with snatches of moments as the family settles in to their new home. Johnny, the father, can't find acting work and takes a job as a cab driver. The kids start a new school where they are inexplicably alienated from all the other students. Things go along, and a pregnancy threatens the health of Morton's character. The circumstances of the child's death, whic hovers over everything, are never explained clearly--references are made to falling down the stairs and to a brain tumor. Most predictably, the family is pulled out of the doldrums by their encounter w/ a neighbor (Djimon Hounsou, in a role so symbolic he should have had "Life Force" written on his clothes) who is dying of AIDS. Of course, he reminds the family what's important. (Hounsou actually performs with great warmth and makes the best of this cliched role). The movie is constructed so that just when things seem at their worst there's a moment to remind us how great life really is (a snowball fight, a bizarre scene at a street fair)... It ends on an up note, although I'm not sure it's earned. Made with great skill and affection by Jim Sheridan, who directed and cowrote the autiobiographical script with his two daughters. Morton and the kids are good, but Considine can't suggest the necessary degree of inner turmoil. Worth a look ...