Breaking And Entering
Cast: Jude Law, Juliette Binoche
Direction: Anthony Minghella
Rating: ***
Based on Anthony Minghella’s own original screenplay, this intimately-scaled drama marks a break from the Oscar-winning British director’s previous blockbuster literary adaptations (‘The English Patient’, ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’, ‘Cold Mountain’).
‘Breaking and Entering’ also marks his return to filmmaking in London for the first time since his auspicious debut, ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’, back in 1991.
The lives of several characters collide, revealing the changing face of the multicultural mega-city. At the pivot is a landscape architect (Law), who has recently shifted his swish office to a down-and-out neighbourhood.
Soon, the place is burgled by a gang of Serbian immigrants. To add to his woes, the architect’s long-term relationship with his Swedish girlfriend (Robin Wright Penn, uncharacteristically vapid) flounders.
Quite foolhardily, the smarmy Brit winds up having an affair with a Bosnian refugee (Binoche) whose son (striking newcomer Rafi Gavron) is one of the teen-thieves.
For a while, the outcome of the love-triangle is tantalisingly hard to predict but the film falls apart disastrously toward the morally reprehensible finale.
The extremely verbose script also glosses over a number of important issues from the socio-economic disparity between the affluent and the have-nots, to the impact of new immigrants on the thriving metropolis.
On a more positive note, the production values are of Minghella’s usual high standards, with the sleek camerawork and the plaintive music score by Gabriel Yared and Underworld, contributing to the overall impact.
Jude Law, working on his third movie with Minghella, is convincing enough. The stellar supporting cast includes Ray Winstone as a glib-talking cockney cop and Vera Farmiga as a hooker with the proverbial heart of gold.
Ultimately, thanks to yet another luminous performance by Juliette Binoche (‘Chocolat’, ‘Hidden’), ‘Breaking and Entering’ is well worth the price of admission.
Rating
Outstanding:*****
Very Good: ****
Good: ***
Average: **
Poor: *
