Review of Belfast (2021) by Compi24 — 01 Feb 2022

A sweet peek into the origins of one of Hollywood's most successful multi-hyphenates, what "Belfast" seems to lack in intrigue or dramatic bombast, it makes up for with genuine tenderness and sincerity.

I cannot, for the life of me, pin down why I didn't like this movie more. The truth probably lies somewhere within the "what 'Belfast' seems to lack in intrigue or dramatic bombast" portion of the above, as I genuinely did find my interest in things stalling every now and then, acquainting myself with the clock on my phone more times than I would've liked.

I'll say that I reckon this lack of investment more so comes from the sort of "two ships passing in the night" phenomena that'll sometimes happen between me and a perfectly fine movie; one of those ships being the movie, the other being my specific preferences as a filmgoer.

Still, I'm happy Branagh has a movie like this under his belt, as it's always good seeing a filmmaker use the medium to make sense of themselves/a part of their life/etc. Just wish I could've been as wowed as so many others.