Breaking and Entering (2006)

Will Francis (Jude Law) opens a new architecture office in the transitioning London neighborhood Kings Cross. He and his girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright Penn) are growing distant and her autistic daughter Bea is one of the reasons. Meanwhile Amira (Juliette Binoche) is worried about her son Miro (Rafi Gavron) slipping into criminal activity. They're from Bosnia and his father was killed during the war. Miro is teamed up with his cousin Zoran (Ed Westwick) in the family crime business. They break into Will's office to steal computers. Miro steals the valuable miniatures for his own artistic work and is given Will's personal computer as a reward. They rob the place a second time and Will's partner Sandy (Martin Freeman) almost runs into them. Detective Bruno Fella (Ray Winstone) investigates. Will and Sandy decide to stake out their own offices and encounter prostitute Oana (Vera Farmiga) working in the area. One night, Will catches Miro and follows him all the way home. Instead of directing the cops to the thieve, he starts a relationship with his mother.This is written and directed by Anthony Minghella. I have no specific problems with the directions. It is all about the writing. It is overloaded with class warfare melodrama. Everybody has their own dramas. There is just too much. That's not to say there is nothing worthwhile. Binoche is amazing in this. If this is a simple movie about her and her son, this could be an award worthy performance. Again there are so many characters who each have their own drama. Minghella could easily cut out Sandy and Oana. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Will and his family drama either. The complicated melodrama is simply too complicated.

Though I would rate it six out of ten, still it is one of the movies I got fully engrossed in, while watching it alone in a theater and couldn't stop myself writing a good review. It had few moments of emotional intimacy, likely to be impossible between complete strangers in real world, because we too often end up hurting people and a strange defense mechanism of formality exist among us, preventing such moments from happening. I am not a big fan of Jude Law, but he manages to seem believable and this one is not an exception. In the whole bunch of actors Juliette Binoche stands out, she has this hint of compassion in her expressions, making her look so beautiful, but it is her acting that makes this movie special and recommendable.

I do not like to speak ill of the dead (except Hitler and Stalin) but this awful, awful film showed that Anthony Minghella's career was on the slide when he unfortunately passed away. Not that I have liked any of his previous efforts - Truly, Madly, Deeply was an unbelievable bad joke, English Patient overblown with repellent characters, Cold Mountain a waste of space and ridiculously portentous after the big explosion! This though is an attempt at a noughties art-house cross between Antonioni and Bergman that is boring, artificial with again totally uninteresting characters. Jude Law cannot open a film (he just repeats his Closer persona who is looking for love but cannot stop sha***** other women), Robin Wright Penn is a moody Swede going nowhere who is a double of Ulrika Jonsson! Juliette Binoche is prepared to get her kit off to blackmail and not look too good in the nude - brave but irrelevant!And how can you go with a script where the hero talks to his dysfunctional step daughter about communicating to each other in metaphors!! An original screenplay that sounds and looks like a stage play! Possibly the worst and most unprofessional aspect of this movie is the absolutely awful quality of the lypsynching! Give it a miss - theatre audiences obviously did!

Don't be misled by the title. Even though there is some burglary in this film, it is not the story of a crime. It is the story of a man, two women, two children, and the complex relationships they endure amongst themselves and those around them. If you are looking for an extremely well acted and excellently produced adult drama, this is it.Breaking and Entering offers us two families in crisis. Will Francis and his wife Liv - they refer to each other as husband and wife even though they are not legally married - have reached that point in their relationship where communication has ceased. There is further stress upon the relationship caused by the problems of Bea - her daughter, his stepdaughter whom he loves as his own. Bea appears to have some form of autism in which she cannot sleep and possesses unreasonable fears such as her fear of the color yellow. Needless-to-say, most of Liv and Will's time at home is spent dealing with the problems of their daughter.At work, Will is a successful architect and developer who, along with his partner, is working on a massive renewal of the King's Cross area of London. In the film, King's Cross is an "iffy" area peopled mostly by members of the lower class - many immigrants from a variety of countries. Will's office is in a converted warehouse and is suffering regular burglaries which are somewhat of a mystery to the police because the criminals seem to have possession of the alarm codes. The cleaning crew is suspect, but Will and his partner think there is another answer. They begin to stake out the business at night.Through the burglaries, we meet the other family in crisis. Amira is a Bosnian refugee who is struggling to make a life for herself and her son, Miro who - under the influence of his crooked uncle - is part of the team committing the crimes.After an unsuccessful attempt at another break-in by Miro, Will follows him home but does not confront him. Will discovers that Amira does sewing in her home. He decides to try to find out more about the boy by taking some clothes to his mother to be altered. Things get really complicated when Will becomes enamored of Amira.This film is filled with great actors and great performances lead by Jude Law as Will and Juliette Binoche as Amira. I must admit that I really like Jude Law as an actor and in my mind, Juliette Binoche can do no wrong, so just watching these two interact was an exemplary treat. The young actor, Rafi Gavron, who plays the son is amazing. Plus, these three are supported by a long list of excellent actors headed by Robin Wright Penn and Ray Winstone.I find a certain weakness in the ending of the film in the reaction of Will's wife to the whole situation. I don't know any woman who would have made the decisions she made. To say more would spoil the film for anyone interested in watching it, so I'll just leave it at that. If you enjoy watching interesting and complex adults dealing with interesting and complex problems, you'll probably really enjoy Breaking and Entering.