BEWARE when the lights go up at the end of In America the chances are you'll be dabbing away a little moisture from the corner of your eye.

But don't worry, there is no false Hollywood sentimentality about this film, despite its title.

This is a warm, uplifting story of loss, love and hope that ultimately fills the heart and makes one feel that life is not so bad after all.

A young family from Ireland mum and dad Sarah and Johnny (Morton and Considine) and daughters Christy and Ariel (real life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger more of them later) arrive, illegally, in New York with a view to starting a new life.

They carry with them the shadow of a tragedy, the death of their son and brother Frankie, and see America as a chance to lay the boy's ghost to rest and build something new for the four of them.

They set up home in a run down tenement, befriend a sad artist (Hounsou) downstairs, and generally struggle to make ends meet, with Johnny, an actor, taking auditions between taxi jobs, and Sarah, who is soon pregnant, working as a waitress.

They attempt to go about their lives with smiles on their faces, but all the time their happiness is blighted by the sadness they all feel, and which Johnny seems to feel the most.

This film could so easily have wallowed in its own schmaltz, but under director Jim Sheridan's assured, sensitive guidance it is expertly handled.

He never manipulates his audience, but rather draws us into the story so we share this family's emotions, the most overwhelming of which is love.

Sheridan also creates a remarkable sense of time and place, as we follow the family through heatwaves and Halloween and snow, through more sadness and more anxiety.

There is also a scene at a fairground which is as tense and devastating as anything you will see in a horror film or crime thriller.

The magic of the movie is conjured with the story being seen from the children's points of view, particularly through Christy's narration and her occasional camcorder clips.

These girls are wonderful. Their performances are so natural it makes you wonder if they know what the word "acting" means and they tackle the most difficult and emotionally-charged scenes with award-worthy conviction.

They also have the faces of angels and there will not be a dry eye in the house when Christy does her solo singing slot at the school production.

But let's not take anything away from the grown ups Morton and particularly Considine give quietly powerful performances that combine anger, pain but above all the hope for the future that is the foundation for this film.

It's a film that is all the more poignant when you realise that it is semi-autobiographical Sheridan's own brother, Frankie, also died as an infant.

OUT! rating: 8 out of 10

Film writer Stephen Webb reviews IN AMERICA

Starring: Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, Sarah and Emma Bolger, Djimon Hounsou

Director: Jim Sheridan

Certificate: 15

Running time: 103 mins

Showing at: Cineworld, Swindon