[5][6] He added that the goal that John had while scoring for the film, was to underscore the emotions and the internal state of Eilis' (Saoirse Ronan) mind so that "it could not be very cheesy".
[7] Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Brook recalled that scoring for the scene where Eilis receives a marriage proposal from Tony (Emory Cohen).
In terms of mirroring the emotional journey of Saoirse Ronan's character in the movie, the score is perfect, moving from heartache to harmony to disharmony and back to normality again.
Yet where the score really impresses is in its tact: never schmaltzy but always sincere, Brook manages that incredibly difficult trick of jerking the tears without ever seemingly overly manipulative.
[9][10] Mark Kermode, writing for The Guardian opined that music plays a key storytelling role, and "the new verses and old choruses of Eilis’s life rehearsed amid contrasting dancehall scenes".
He added "in one sublime sequence that echoes the poetry of the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York, Eilis serves a communal Christmas dinner to the downtrodden men who 'built the tunnels and bridges', one of whom (played by angel-voiced Iarla Ó Lionáird) stands to sing the traditional Irish love song Casadh an Tsúgáin.
Wisely, Crowley allows Ó Lionáird’s voice to ring unaccompanied before Michael Brook’s orchestration appears (wonderful to hear a score that is lyrical without recourse to the ladle), a montage of silent faces offering fleeting portraits of homes left and loves lost.