Review: Breaking and Entering

UK release date: 10th November

Writer/director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) has assembled an impressive international cast for this thoughtful adult drama. The film captures the cultural and social maelstrom of the King’s Cross area of London, while probing the emotional confusion of a young architect working on its regeneration.

After opening an office in the heart of the district, Will (Jude Law) is infuriated when two break-ins occur in quick succession. Meanwhile, his long-term relationship with his Swedish-American partner Liv (Robin Wright Penn) is in difficulty. He mounts his own night watch at the offices and follows one of the young thieves home — the rooftop acrobatics of the young thief are especially impressive, albeit that they are laboriously counterpointed with the gymnastics of Liv’s troubled daughter. Instead of reporting him to the police, Will begins a tentative relationship with the boy’s mother, Amira (Juliette Binoche), a Bosnian refugee who works at home as a tailor.

This is an intelligent and articulate drama, but it is weighed down by an excess of metaphors about breaking (and mending) things, and ultimately seems cold and overly contrived.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 118mins

Review by Brian Pendreigh