Breaking & Entering Review

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"Breaking & Entering" reviews

Movie

Breaking & Entering

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-04-26 23:29:00

Rating

3/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Breaking and Entering isn't as profound or penetrating as it aspires to be, but it's an admirable, and sometimes moving, film.

Story

Breaking and Entering is sometimes contrived, as films of this sort tend to be, but is executed smoothly enough by screenwriter/director Anthony Minghella to succeed on some levels. Will (Jude Law) is an architect whose office in the seedier King's Cross area of London is ransacked by thieves. He tracks one of them down and encounters Amira (Juliette Binoche), a Bosnian immigrant single mother with whom he becomes infatuated. Their illicit relationship ultimately has unforeseen consequences for all concerned, including Will's girlfriend (Robin Wright Penn) and Amira's son Miro (Rafi Gavron). There aren't many laughs, but the film does try to offer an insight into what drives – and impedes – its characters' emotional impulses

Acting

Law is good, Binoche is better than good and Wright Penn is better than usual. If there's one element that elevates Breaking and Entering to a higher level, it's the performances. Vera Farmiga, who played the only female role of any consequence in The Departed, delivers a scene-stealing turn as a resilient Bosnian streetwalker, while the always-welcome Ray Winstone turns up (all too briefly) as a canny cop.

Direction

Given the success of Paul Haggis' Crash and the films of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, it's no surprise that other filmmakers are adopting the same attempting to cure (or at least address) various social issues by having disparate characters whose seemingly random interactions have consequences (both good and bad) for all concerned. Minghella, an Oscar winner for The English Patient, does have a knack for bringing out the best – or at least the good – in his actors, even those in smaller roles. At least, Breaking and Entering is more comfortably paced than Minghella's last film, the picturesque but lugubrious adaptation of Cold Mountain.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 3 stars.

Movie

Breaking and Entering

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-11-09 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

Director Anthony Minghella downsizes his locations budget and returns to London for his latest film, but the results are something of a mixed bag. Jude Law stars as Will, a successful architect with a crumbling home life, whose state-of-the-art workspace in Kings Cross keeps getting broken into. Will decides to stake out the office and ends up following teenage freerunner Miro (Rafi Gavron) home to the flat he shares with his mother, Amira (Juliette Binoche - "Chocolat"), a Bosnian refugee. Sure enough, Will finds himself falling for Amira and the two begin an affair.

Minghella makes terrific use of his London locations and the gorgeous photography actually makes Kings Cross look like somewhere you might want to live.

Law and Binoche are both pretty good and there's strong support from Martin Freeman (reprising his slightly befuddled routine from "The Office" as Will's business partner, Sandy), Ray Winstone (as a sympathetic, scooter-riding cop) and Vera Farmiga ("The Departed") as a scene-stealing prostitute. The problem is that the supporting characters and their sub-plots (particularly Sandy's crush on the office cleaner) are actually far more interesting than Will and Amira, but Minghella's uneven script completely abandons them at around the halfway mark.

In addition, the film is saddled with some truly atrocious dialogue and a misguided ending that aims for heart-warming sentimentality but ends up falling horribly flat. Ultimately, the film is worth seeing for its performances and photography but the story fails to deliver the required emotional punch.