Review of Belfast (2021) by Markhreviews — 02 Dec 2021

“Belfast,” the new film by writer/director Kenneth Branagh (who starred in the “Wallander” TV series, various Shakespeare productions on stage and screen), is a love letter to his childhood home filmed in black-and-white. The film is set in 1969 in the midst of the Troubles between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. But for eight-year-old Buddy, armed conflict is a secondary backdrop to much more important matters: swooning over the smartest girl in his class, watching US-made Westerns, going to the cinema. Armed with a cardboard sword and a trash can shield in the opening scene, Buddy frolics in his mixed Protestant-Catholic neighborhood where everybody knows, and takes care of, everybody else.

Branagh’s consistent use of Buddy’s point of view is the film’s greatest strength and also its weakness. The film is thoughtful, sweet and earnest. But this consistent use of a child’s perspective blurs and blunts the jolting realities surrounding Buddy, who is insulated by his watchful parents and nurturing neighborhood. The storyline is slight. It centers on a series of seemingly random remembrances by Branagh about his childhood. (In case anyone wonders whether Buddy is Branagh, there’s a brief scene of Buddy reading a “Thor” comic book. Branagh directed the film by the same name in 2011.) The only creative tension is whether the family will join Pa in England, where he is employed on a construction project. (Branagh’s father was a plumber and carpenter.) Even so, there’s plenty of material to celebrate a love of family, to seed the suspicion that there’s a much larger world out there and to experience the sad wistfulness of loss.

Despite the flimsiness of the storyline, several elements make this film a must-see. First, Branagh has assembled an amazing ensemble of actors. Judi Dench (one Oscar, 67 total awards, 179 award nominations) and Ciaran Hinds (a veteran character actor and Belfast native) are excellent as Buddy’s grandparents. Caitriona Balfe (“Outlander’) and Jamie Dornan (apparently used to being portrayed in shades of gray) are stellar as Ma and Pa. In his first feature film, nine-year-old Jude Hill (Buddy) is simply amazing. His energy, enthusiasm and wide-eyed innocence will totally capture any moviegoer with a soul. Showing his nascent dramatic range, Hill convincingly inhabits the role of an eight-year-old.

Second, Belfast native Van Morrison provides the dramatic, energetic score. The soundtrack blends familiar tunes with striking new songs that open and close the film. Throughout, Morrison provides an ideal texture for this piece. Finally, the cinematography of Haris Zambarloukos (“Death on the Nile,” “Locke”), who seems to revel in stark nighttime imagery, further elevates this film.

The epigram at the end of the film reads “For those who stayed. For those who left. And for all the ones who were lost.” It’s an excellent summation of Branagh’s desire to be all-inclusive in his nostalgic tribute to an earlier, simpler time – that actually wasn’t.