Breaking and Entering - 11-06

By: Clayton Davis
Anthony Minghella’s latest work is as anomalous as it is rapture. The Academy Award winning director of The English Patient has brought brutal honesty of a different type of culture but I’m afraid the middle acts of the film leave the audience too disenchanted and by the final act when it finally does pick up, we are already lost in the quarrel of deceit and dialogue. Minghella brings us the story of Will, (Jude Law) an architect who has just opened up his own company with his long time business partner Sandy (Martin Freeman). Unfortunately, they open up on a rough side of London and have a few “B & E’s” before taking it upon themselves to sniff out the culprit. The culprit however, is a young fifteen year old boy, Miro (Rafi Gavron) who works for a gang of thugs who consists of his late father’s side of the family. The acrobatic Miro must jump railings, rooftops, etc. in order to shake authorities but somehow finds himself intrigued by Will’s architecture.


When Will is not sniffing, he is distancing himself away from his long time girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and her behaviorally challenged daughter Beatrice. The strain on their relationship has been ten years in the making with their unmarried lifestyle and soon to become familiar nature. After many nights of sitting and having conversations with the local and extremely humorous prostitute, (Vera Farmiga) Will discovers his guilty party and pursues Miro all the way to his home. In Miro’s home he lives with his hard-working and loving mother, Amira (Juliette Binoche) and Will’s attraction is sparked immediately before even fathoming a mention of Miro. The two start a very involved and passionate love affair with Amira having no knowledge of Miro’s extracurricular events.

Minghella does a fantastic job of wrapping us in the story from the premise of the film but somewhere in the ladder we are left on the side of the road in an unbalanced rising action. In its 120 minutes of running time, the audience meets and greets the characters; we are brought intimately with each of them and like Minghella’s previous works, he introduces us with much dialogue but in this case it was not enough to suffice. While I admire the honesty, truth and expression of human weakness of the picture, I needed a little more to pull me along the story to keep me progressing. As usual Gabriel Yared’s score is evident and gives great conviction to each scene along with the beautiful camera work and editing and fortunately, the performances were sufficient enough to keep me intrigued in the story.

Jude Law regrettably is “Dan” from Closer for a good duration of the film but rest assure by the final act he gives his best performance to date. Not entirely sure what happened the first 2/3 of the film but Law completely lost himself in “Will” for the resolution and emerged a true leading thespian. It is Law’s final performance that saves the film from being ordinary to something a little more. I’m uncertain of his chances with the “Gold Man” because we’ve seen a Jude Law like this before and he’s had excellent chemistry with Minghella as we saw in his previous nominated works. I suppose there’s too much flaw in his armor to carry it all the way to battle.

Juliette Binoche has proved time and time again that she is a reliable actress to carry a film. As the refugee survivor “Amira,” Binoche stretches out her legs to give us someone utterly heartbreaking and unlike what we’ve seen before. The admiration for “Amira” is in her strong and undying espousal for her son. Amira is determined to set her son straight on a path and you can’t deny the love between them. It is in the intimate moments of laughing and kissing between the mother and son, that we find the emotional center of the tale. Minghella really deserves praise for directing and showing us one of the best mother-son moments of contemporary cinema. Binoche and Gavron are truly that good.

The standout and M.V.P. of the film is the no-less than perfect Robin Wright-Penn as Oscar’s favorite lady; the suffering wife or in this case girlfriend. Wright has taken large steps in Indie films the past few years but she gives the Swedish and beautiful Liv, a sense of humanity that actresses like Winslet and Weisz can only pull off. “Liv” is an attentive mother, a loving girlfriend, but a woman with a tortured soul that by credits end you bring home with you. Despite some of her accent flaws, which came from time to time, Wright never leaves “Liv” unattended and gives the film the backbone needed to walk a very rough road. If there’s any aspect of the film to nominate it is Robin Wright-Penn for charisma, zeal and dedication to a role that sounds formula-matic on paper but no formula in sight. There’s much fondness in “Liv” and many women can relate to her character which is probably why she’s so great. As this was being touted as Minghella’s best work to date, I might pass on that notion. We could see a worthy screenplay nomination and a much needed Maria Bello-like nomination for Robin Wright-Penn. (I’m telling you, it’s that good) Other than that, nothing spectacular about the movie although it may appeal to crowds of Minghella stalkers and lovers but not to this critic.

Grade: ***/****