Breaking and Entering

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.

BREAKING AND ENTERING takes you inside the council housing of London and the rough edges of Kings Cross with a look at the difference in the relationships of a Bosnian Refugee and her son, in contrast to that of a London Architect and his partner, and her autistic daughter. When their paths meet through "breaking and entering" their stories collide in a film with solid performances from the cast.

Remembering the bombing of Kings Cross in 2005, and having lived in that area as a graduate student at London University, the film location was such an interesting match for the darkness of the characters, and their own issues and complexity. The shots of the Camden Locks, and the trees that dot the water, made the story come alive with watching Law and Binoche, and the son, Miro, each with their own problems to solve.

BREAKING AND ENTERING is a timely film as it shows the "melting pot" of London with its different races and refugees who have created a city of millions who have arrived in England to escape their past. And that is also the case of Robin Wright Penn's character and her daughter from Sweden. The characters journeys come to a conclusion which fits the theme of redemption and moving beyond the past. A very complex, but a satisfying film.

How does one choose a film to view? Often it is the subject matter - here the fraught relationship between landscape architect Will and both his partner of 10 years Liv (who has an autistic daughter) and his new lover Amira (who has a thieving son). Sometimes it is star - in the case, Jude Law who has to choose between his American partner who has an obsessive approach to parenthood (Robin Wright Penn) and his Bosnian refugee girlfriend who works as a seamstress (Juliette Binoche). Other times it is the director - on this occasion, Anthony Minghella who writes as well as directs as he returns to the north London milieu in which he located "Truly, Madly, Deeply".

All of these are reasonable reasons for wanting to see "Breaking and Entering", but I confess that it was the supporting French actress Juliette Binoche that drew me to the work. I've been in love with her ever since her first English-language appearance in "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being" in 1988. She is simply beautiful in a bewitching manner, while always convincing as an actress, especially in vulnerable roles.

This is a multi-layered work in which the title can be taken in three ways: the obvious sense with the robberies perpetrated by Amira's son Miro; the deeper sense with Will's emotional assault on Amira; and still another sense as the middle-class Will and his like invade the traditionally working-class area of Kings Cross.

Those who need car chases or special effects in their movie experiences should avoid Mighella's parable, but those who value thoughtful and nuanced works will find much to admire here.

In London, the British architect Will (Jude Law) lives with his Swedish mate Liv (Robin Wright Penn) a worn-out relationship, without the former passion, consumed by the dedication of Liv to her autistic daughter Bea (Poppy Rogers). The needy of love Will and his partner Sandy (Martin Freeman) have an ambitious architectural project to improve the dangerous neighborhood of King's Cross where their firm Green Effect is located. The practitioner of parkour and refugee from Serbia Mirsade a.k.a. Miro (Rafi Gavron) breaks in Green Effect in the night to deactivate the alarm system to burgle computers and others electronic devices with a gang of compatriots leaded by his uncle. Will decides to stake-out during the nights to find the culprit, and he witnesses Miro trying to break-in the firm again. Will pursues Miro and finds his address, where Miro lives with his seamstress mother Amira (Juliette Binoche). Will does not call the police, and on the next day, he visits Amira with the pretext of sewing a coat. Will gets closer to Amira, visiting her everyday, and more distant from Liv, When Miro finds that Will had been in his room, he tells the truth to his mother and she decides to give Will's laptop back to him. Will sexually desires Amira and she has an encounter with him to get pictures to compromise and blackmail him.

"Breaking and Entering" is another great movie of Anthony Minghella that explores the theme of second chance in life through a dramatic triangle of love of the needy lead character and the maternal love of two mothers. Jude Law performs a successful but needy of love architect that misses the passion and attention of his girlfriend; Robin Wright Penn neglects her mate and gives her total attention to her daughter; and Juliette Binoche is a Serbian refugee capable of any sacrifice to save her son from prison. Their daughter Bea and son Miro are the key elements that trigger the plot. The lead trio has magnificent and credible interpretations and the story concludes with a final non-commercial redemption. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Invasão de Domicílio" ("Invasion of Domicile")

The unexpected coming to alter what is already our daily routine. Doing something for one specific purpose without realizing that we are being lead by fate , I presume, to an existential cul-de-sac. This is the stuff that fairy tales are made off, also great drama, great comedy and all the natural ingredients of what is laughingly known as our daily existence. This is Minghella's most moving film to date - and that is saying something. His obsession with darkness hidden in his characters hearts is as universal a theme as unrequited love. Minghella loves his characters and the darker they are, the stronger the love. I didn't love Jude Law this much since Mr. Ripley and Juliette Binoche is heart breaking. Brilliant. I sat in silence after the film was over. Tears running down my face. It hadn't happened to me in many many years.