By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Jude Law | Juliette Binoche | Robin Wright Penn | Vera Farmiga
Country: united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2007
Running time: 120
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443456/
Bruce says: “It’s hard to image how a film with so much potential could leave one feeling totally empty but Anthony Minghella’s flat, soulless BREAKING AND ENTERING does just that. Minghella’s script is the basic problem. It is obvious where Minghella wants to take the viewer; where Minghella fails is in how he tells his story and develops his characters. A star studded cast struggles embarrassingly to create meaning and message. To no avail.
“Law plays Will Francis a landscape architect involved in a huge gentrification near King’s Cross. His firm is broken into, computers stolen. A second robbery occurs. When the authorities show little interest in pursuing the case Will and his partner (Martin Freeman) stake out the neighborhood late at night to hopefully catch the thieves red-handed the next time they strike. After several futile night watches, a young boy (Rafi Gavron) tries to break in. Will chases him and, although he does not catch the boy, he does learn where the boy lives.
“Will’s beautiful, near perfect wife (Robin Wright Penn) has an autistic daughter (Poppy Rogers) who takes up much of her time; time that Will feels belongs to him. To ease the pain of being slighted, he strikes up a relationship with a prostitute (Vera Farmiga) then gets involved to a greater extent with Amira (Juliette Binoche), the mother of the teenager who is one of the thieves.
“Not since Catherine Deneuve went blue collar in DANCER IN THE DARK has such a glamorous actress played such an unappealing, nondescript role as Juliette Binoche. She is not particularly convincing as a poor immigrant nor is Farmiga as an Eastern European prostitute although both women make obvious efforts to invigorate their roles. Although Jude Law is appropriately vacuous in an Alfie-like manner, his character is not one to stir any emotion other than ennui. Robin Wright Penn, Chlotrudis Best Actress Award winner for SORRY, HATERS, is given surprising little to do. The cinematography aptly documents the hip gentrification of the King’s Cross area in London but fails to enhance the bland, uninteresting story. 2 cats”