Movie Number 7 of 2022.
Movie: Belfast
The Cinema: Village Cinemas Rivoli, Camberwell.
Stars: 5
First up, I have to say up front that I've been a Kenneth Branagh fan for over 30 years. Love him to death, always have, always will. He's one of my favourite actors and directors. And yes, even if he is a lovey, I hold him very dear. Belfast is his passion project.
It is fantastic.
I would be saying this even if it wasn't a Ken Branagh film.
It's just wonderful.
Mirroring Branagh's own life, growing up on the streets of Belfast in the late sixties when "The Troubles" began, this is the simple story of Buddy (Jude Hill), a kid who loves his family, football and getting into the odd bit of trouble as little kids like to do. He loves his mum (Catriona Balfe of Outlander fame) and his dad (Jamie Dornan, using his own accent for a change) who spends a lot of time working in England, and his Grandma (Judi Dench) and his Grandpa (Keiran Hinds) and doesn't really understand what all this trouble is about, until it all gets a bit close and the tensions land in his street, the barricades go up and the family are in the thick of it.
The film takes place over the six month period from when The Troubles land on the doorstep until the family make the move to England in the early part of 1970 to a safer life free from Molotov cocktails, barbed wire and the insidious nature of religious persecution.
There is so much good in this film. The performances are all first rate. Jude Hill carries the film as Buddy, the little kid trying to make sense of all that's going on around him. He can't understand why the Catholics are so bad - the street he's lived on, everybody got on well, even if the Catholics have some strange rituals (and they appear to have more fun than they do in the local Protestant Church where it's all fire and brimstone).
Dad just tries to keep out of it all with a great deal of difficulty while wanting to protect his family. Mum tries to hang on to the life that was, as the inevitable becomes more apparent. There are threats from the local standover men, as well as family tragedies. There are also some wonderfully funny moments in this as well - mostly around some of Buddy's antics.
Filmed, for the most part in black and white, this helps to give a more nostalgic feel - and Branagh has always worked well in black and white (In the Bleak Midwinter also known as A Midwinter's Tale is one of my favourite Christmas movies ever - even if it is about Hamlet). It's also makes the back streets of the Belfast suburbs intrinsically beautiful, in a scary, harsh fortified way.
The music is 90% Van Morrison - again, something to relish and love.
The direction is seemless too. Charming, funny in place, incredibly tense and frightening in others, beautifully moving in others.
Okay, I've stated by Branagh bias, but this is a most excellent film, it deserves all of the Oscar talk. It's just wonderful.
I'll be seeing it again.
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