Breaking and Entering (2006)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Blistering performances.

I enjoyed this a lot. It gives a very competent multi-dimensional representation of the concept of duality.We have a tale of dissonance, a tale of 2 families, each involving a "troubled" kid obsessed with dance/acrobatics (1 autistic, 1 refugee). 2 moms living in foreign places (1 brunette, 1 blond). 1 man with fair hair in the middle, connecting the dots. All of them are struggling to find peace, both on a personal and family level. The dialogue and the overall pace/rhythm of the story complement each other very well, inherently exploring miscommunication and incongruity.Among the broken souls, there are multiple forceful break-ins, whether physical or emotional. Those "crimes" ultimately trigger responses at the end, whether physical or emotional. The man in the center is the only one guilty of both types of "crimes", committing them on every level, both in the past and present, even against nature. A subsequent question to ask is, did we achieve equilibrium?See this. It's probably Anthony's best work. Such a shame that we lost him shortly after this.4/5 - Worth a watch, it's very good, very human

Breaking and Entering is a romantic drama film that stars Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, and Robin Wright Penn. Set in a blighted, inner-city neighborhood of London, the film is about a successful landscape architect whose dealings with a young thief and his mother cause him to re-evaluate his life.It was written and directed by Anthony Minghella.Will Francis is a successful landscape architect who runs an upscale business with his friend Sandy in the King's Cross section of London, a neighborhood that has long been plagued by crime and poverty but has lately become the target of a major gentrification program. Will's longtime girlfriend is Liv, a lovely woman troubled by a lack of communication between herself and her husband and emotional problems with their teenage daughter, Bea, who can't sleep and is obsessed with gymnastics. A thief has broken into Will and Sandy's office not once but twice, taking Will's laptop and the company's computer equipment, and Will begins spending his evenings at the shop in hopes of catching the culprit in action. The burglar strikes a third time, and while giving chase, Will sees him make his way into a shabby apartment building. Will learns the criminal is Miro, a 15-year-old refugee from Bosnia. Without revealing what he knows, Will makes the acquaintance of Amira, Miro's widowed mother -- a Bosnian refugee who makes a living as a seamstress. As Will starts bringing Amira business on a regular basis, the two begin an affair which continues even as Will maintains his relationship with Liv. The complicated interactions involving class and culture that ensue between all these characters remain fascinating despite the fact that this film feels contrived and superficial.Unfortunately,characters don't act logically as the screenplay manipulates them towards deconstructing various social issues.Overall,not all parts of the script are equally well-developed and it leaves us too chilly to care.

Like most other people commenting here, I had watched many of Anthony Minghella movies before watching this one. So I started with great expectations and watched it carefully.It is an intense drama and grips you till the end. Good, compact storyline. The casts did an amazing job. Juliet Binoche displayed one of her best performances. Excellent camera work. These are the things on the surface.On a deeper level, the strength in the portrayal of human emotions depicted in the characters is the biggest success of the movie. Characters are multi-faceted, and like regular human beings full of contradictions and even plain-faced lies and yet in the core of their hearts is the ray of human love. The end of the movie made me a little emotional reflecting that this is how we are the humans.A great movie and I would recommend it.

Don't be misled by the title. Even though there is some burglary in this film, it is not the story of a crime. It is the story of a man, two women, two children, and the complex relationships they endure amongst themselves and those around them. If you are looking for an extremely well acted and excellently produced adult drama, this is it.Breaking and Entering offers us two families in crisis. Will Francis and his wife Liv - they refer to each other as husband and wife even though they are not legally married - have reached that point in their relationship where communication has ceased. There is further stress upon the relationship caused by the problems of Bea - her daughter, his stepdaughter whom he loves as his own. Bea appears to have some form of autism in which she cannot sleep and possesses unreasonable fears such as her fear of the color yellow. Needless-to-say, most of Liv and Will's time at home is spent dealing with the problems of their daughter.At work, Will is a successful architect and developer who, along with his partner, is working on a massive renewal of the King's Cross area of London. In the film, King's Cross is an "iffy" area peopled mostly by members of the lower class - many immigrants from a variety of countries. Will's office is in a converted warehouse and is suffering regular burglaries which are somewhat of a mystery to the police because the criminals seem to have possession of the alarm codes. The cleaning crew is suspect, but Will and his partner think there is another answer. They begin to stake out the business at night.Through the burglaries, we meet the other family in crisis. Amira is a Bosnian refugee who is struggling to make a life for herself and her son, Miro who - under the influence of his crooked uncle - is part of the team committing the crimes.After an unsuccessful attempt at another break-in by Miro, Will follows him home but does not confront him. Will discovers that Amira does sewing in her home. He decides to try to find out more about the boy by taking some clothes to his mother to be altered. Things get really complicated when Will becomes enamored of Amira.This film is filled with great actors and great performances lead by Jude Law as Will and Juliette Binoche as Amira. I must admit that I really like Jude Law as an actor and in my mind, Juliette Binoche can do no wrong, so just watching these two interact was an exemplary treat. The young actor, Rafi Gavron, who plays the son is amazing. Plus, these three are supported by a long list of excellent actors headed by Robin Wright Penn and Ray Winstone.I find a certain weakness in the ending of the film in the reaction of Will's wife to the whole situation. I don't know any woman who would have made the decisions she made. To say more would spoil the film for anyone interested in watching it, so I'll just leave it at that. If you enjoy watching interesting and complex adults dealing with interesting and complex problems, you'll probably really enjoy Breaking and Entering.