BELFAST

 

BELFAST - a film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh is a love ballad to the city of his birth. Most of the actors were also born in Belfast except for Judi Dench (who gives her best performance in years.) Filmed almost entirely in black and white - noir turned on its head - with vivid color blasting into the picture frame when the characters are at the local movie theater or referencing life outside the realm of the small late 1960’s Belfast neighborhood at the beginning of the period of strife in Northern Ireland that is known as “the troubles”.

This is also a domestic story as seen through the eyes of an observant nine-year-old boy “Buddy” who is becoming more aware of the growing strife that will eventually befall Northern Ireland. Belfast is seen as a community that embraces both Catholics and Protestants - everyone knows everyone else and looks out for them regardless of their religious beliefs. There is a collective feeling of shared encumbrance and tender loyalty to place.

BELFAST begins with violence - portending the future, though the film does not mire itself in blood and guts. Rather it concentrates on Buddy, his brother, grandparents, and parents - seeing the whole picture from the view of one frame which encompasses an entirety. His father “Pa” (Jamie Dornan) is away working in England coming home every two weeks. His mother, the beautiful Irish actress “Ma” (Caitriona Balfe) rules the roost while her husband is gone and is fiercely devoted to her family-a tigress protecting her young-racing down the street to protect them or in a scene dancing with her husband both breathtaking in their elegant moments of visual light in the midst of the gray darkness.

The extended family includes the wonderfully wise grandfather, “Pop” Ciaran Hinds who his grandson Buddy adores, and his wife “Granny” played by Judi Dench - not glamorized but a realistically looking grandmother with an edge that comes with living a life of both coquettish love and furrowing fatigue.

As the fighting escalates between Catholics and Protestants the decision whether to leave or stay in Belfast - a city that has enveloped and insulated them since birth is a difficult one and the crux of BELFAST. There is poignancy, warmth, and kindness portrayed in this film and I shed some tears - for me always a sign of sentiment - not sentimentality.