It\u2019s kinetic and violent and terrifying. It\u2019s also too clean, an indication of the fact that Belfast<\/em> is not just a movie photographed in black and white, but a story told that way \u2013 the Troubles as coming-of-age narrative, a thing that is often just kind of happening in the background while a young boy reckons with bickering parents and how to talk to girls. It\u2019s not that it\u2019s tasteless, per se; one can argue (and many certainly will) that the film is told from that child\u2019s perspective, and that\u2019s how he would perceive it. But it still makes for an uneasy mix of fond memories and breaking glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Buddy (Jude Hill) and his family are Protestants, but not to the point of fighting about it; \u201cThey\u2019re friends, they\u2019re family, same as us,\u201d shrugs Granny (Judi Dench) of their Catholic neighbors. \u201cThey just kick with the left foot.\u201d Buddy\u2019s Pa (Jamie Dornan) tries to think optimistically – \u201cThat whole nonsense will end soon enough\u201d \u2013 but the most aggressive of the instigators are harassing him, making pronouncements like \u201cCash or commitment\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re either with us or you\u2019re against us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Branagh\u2019s screenplay treats organized religion with the proper reverence (none); Buddy and his brother only go to church because Granny insists, and the man of the cloth they encounter there is rendered as a caricature, a sweaty, screaming preacher who thunders about the road to hell before turning to his real interest: \u201cNow, money.\u201d But the clashes in the streets are getting scarier, so Pa begins contemplating \u201can escape route\u201d: to London, or Sydney, or Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Ma (Caitriona Balfe) is resistant. \u201cThis is our home,\u201d she insists, and the push-pull of comfort vs. change is at the heart of the story \u2013 the difficulty of going from the ease of home to the challenges of starting over, albeit in a safer place of greater opportunities. The picture is at its best when it gets explicit about that tension, and the speech where Ma articulates that question is poignantly written and beautifully played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unsurprisingly, considering the writer\/director\u2019s pedigree, the best thing about Belfast<\/em> is its performances. Balfe and Dornan make a believable long-term couple, in that they have excellent chemistry and also clearly make each other insane; you can see the heat that brought them together, and also how it\u2019s barely sustaining them anymore. (Also, between this and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar<\/a><\/em>, I guess Dornan can act, which comes as quite the surprise after slogging through three Fifty Shades movies<\/a><\/em>.) Little Jude Hill is tremendous in the leading role, capturing the wonder and curiosity of his age, and (most memorably) the pure, heartbreaking terror of his reaction when the notion of moving is first floated. And Dench and Ciar\u00e1n Hinds are delightful as the grandparents, reveling in their comfy byplay, spouting wisdom, helping him navigate his first schoolboy crush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cinematographer is Haris Zambarloukos, who\u2019s been shooting for Branagh since Sleuth<\/em>, but this is his most strikingly photographed film since Dead Again<\/em>, even if the black-and-white seems chosen primarily to earmark the film as his Roma<\/em>. (And some of the deviations from it are a more than little peculiar.) Branagh blocks most of his important scenes in cleanly composed, locked-down two- and three-shots, sometimes through windows and doorways, which gives the film a sense of eavesdropping on lives lived. And as such, we witness tragedy and joy in equal measure; there are a couple of short, throwaway dance scenes between the parents that tell us everything we need to know about their relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few small missteps along the way. The carefully framed appearance of a Thor comic is the kind of big, dumb wink you\u2019d expect from something like Ghostbusters: Afterlife<\/em>, and the use of old Western movies on the family television is a touch heavy-handed, considering where the narrative ends up. (And while it\u2019s certainly just a case of poor timing, I don\u2019t envy a filmmaker releasing a movie with this much Van Morrison music in it right now.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, Belfast<\/em> is unabashedly and unapologetically sentimental, which will probably result in success a-plenty this award season. But like many a historical drama of that ilk, there\u2019s something surface and hollow about the whole thing. Branagh\u2019s screenplay is so informed by nostalgia that the stakes never quite feel as high as they should \u2013 it\u2019s light and sparkling, and in a way that doesn\u2019t seem connected to the material at hand. “Belfast” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/belfast2-1024x682.jpg\")
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