Passes the Bechdel test

Brooklyn

Name: Brooklyn
Released: 2015

2015. Directed by John Crowley, written by Nick Hornby and Colm Tóibín.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
22 women characters. 16 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 21 scenes out of 153.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Ireland, early 1950s. Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman working in a grocery shop. She has greater ambitions and moves to Brooklyn, New York, leaving her mother and sister, Rose (Fiona Glascott), behind. She is terribly homesick but eventually settles down, finding a job, studying to be a bookkeeper and meeting a nice young Italian man, Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen). Things are going well, but then she learns that Rose has died, and decides to return to Ireland, temporarily. She and Tony hastily get married, and then she sets off back to Ireland, alone. Life is about to get complicated.

Released: 25 Nov 2015
Genres: Drama, Romance
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.5 / 10
Metascore: 88 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars. 38 wins & 161 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Eilis 319 lines, woman
Tony 106 lines, man
Mary 51 lines, woman
Mrs Kehoe 43 lines, woman
Jim 37 lines, man
Father Flood 36 lines, man
Georgina 30 lines, woman
Nancy 30 lines, woman
Miss Kelly 27 lines, woman
Miss Fortini 25 lines, woman

Full cast, 46 people

Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey
Domhnall Gleeson as Jim Farrell
Emory Cohen as Tony Fiorello
Jim Broadbent as Father Flood
Julie Walters as Madge Kehoe
Jessica Paré as Miss Fortini
Eve Macklin as Diana Montini
Brid Brennan as Miss Kelly
Fiona Glascott as Rose Lacey
Jane Brennan as Mary Lacey
Nora-Jane Noone as Sheila Heffernan
Jenn Murray as Dolores Grace
Eva Birthistle as Georgina
Michael Zegen as Maurizio Fiorello
Matt Glynn as Priest
Maeve McGrath as Mary
Emma Lowe as Mrs. Brady
Barbara Drennan as Shabby Woman
Gillian McCarthy as Timid Woman
Eileen O'Higgins as Nancy Byrne
Art Campion as George Sheridan
James Corscadden as Ship Waiter
Emily Bett Rickards as Patty McGuire
Mary O'Driscoll as Miss McAdam
Samantha Munro as Dorothy
Jane Wheeler as Bartocci Customer #1
Adrien Benn as Diner Waiter
Alain Goulem as Joshua Rosenblum
Max Walker as Young Man
Iarla O'Lionaird as Frankie Doran
Ellis Rockburn as Young Man at Dance
Erika Rosenbaum as Bartocci Customer #2
Ellen David as Mrs. Fiorello
Christian de la Cortina as Laurenzio Fiorello
Paulino Nunes as Mr. Fiorello
James DiGiacomo as Frankie Fiorello
Tadhg McMahon as Boy's Father
Hudson Leblanc as Boy at City Hall
Paul Stewart as City Hall Official
Niamh McCann as Maria
Denis Conway as Mr. Brown
Karen Ardiff as Mrs. Farrell
Gary Lydon as Mr. Farrell
Áine Ní Mhuirí as Mrs. Byrne
Mella Carron as Girl on Deck
Karen Belfo as Lady at the Cinema (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 153

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	5	0
5 to 8	37	0
9 to 12	26	1
13 to 16	9	2
17 to 20	20	0
21 to 24	12	0
25 to 28	23	0
29 to 32	19	0
33 to 36	15	2
37 to 40	3	0
41 to 44	10	15
45 to 48	15	11
49 to 52	2	0
53 to 56	35	0
57 to 60	37	17
61 to 64	30	7
65 to 68	35	10
69 to 72	4	4
73 to 76	18	18
77 to 80	32	21
81 to 84	10	2
85 to 88	3	1
89 to 92	4	0
93 to 96	21	23
97 to 100	14	7
101 to 104	5	2
105 to 108	22	14
109 to 112	19	5
113 to 116	31	11
117 to 120	13	5
121 to 124	16	28
125 to 128	0	7
129 to 132	12	6
133 to 136	14	6
137 to 140	13	4
141 to 144	20	0
145 to 148	23	0
149 to 152	16	0
153 to 153	1	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

EILIS: Miss Kelly, might I talk to you later? MISS KELLY: Not if what you’re going to say will cause trouble for me in some way or another.

MISS KELLY: The nine o’clock mass is over, girls. Here they come. MISS KELLY: Mrs Brady, what would you like this morning? MRS BRADY: Half-a-dozen rashers, please. MISS KELLY: Of course. Eilis will get that for you now.

EILIS: There. It wasn’t so hard to decide after all. ROSE: Is that really everything you own? Oh, Eilis. I should have looked after you better. I should have taken you shopping twice a year, summer a… EILIS: You’ve bought most of the clothes in this case. That’s one of the reasons I’m going, because I can’t buy my own. ROSE: If it was just that, I’d spend every penny I had on you, gladly. But I can’t buy you a future. I can’t buy you the kind of life you need.

EILIS: I’m so sorry about the smell. And the bucket. GEORGINA: Oh, don’t worry. The whole boat stinks. Even First Class. I’ve just been thrown out of there, by the way, so you’ll have me throwing up in h… EILIS: The bathroom door was locked all night. GEORGINA: Oh, those bastards. That’s what people do. They keep the bathroom for themselves on rough nights. We’ll fix them.

GEORGINA: We have a peace treaty. EILIS: With next door? GEORGINA: Yes. They have given their solemn word never to lock the bathroom door when they’re not using it. They know they’re out of their depth with … GEORGINA: Are you going to America to live?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 74 are women's.

644 lines from women, 229 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

22 women and 17 men in the cast. 16 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 24 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 68% of the words (7,211), men 32% (3,323). Women have 74% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 49% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: John Crowley (man)
Written by: Nick Hornby (man)
From the novel by: Colm Tóibín (man)
Produced by: Finola Dwyer (woman), Amanda Posey (woman)
Shot by: Yves Bélanger (man)
Edited by: Jake Roberts (man)
Music by: Michael Brook (man)
Production design by: Tania Bijlani (gender not listed), François Séguin (man)
Costumes by: Odile Dicks-Mireaux (woman)
Cast by: Fiona Weir (woman)