Purely Joyful Movie!

Absolutely amazing

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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.

I watched this film for Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Penn, without knowing it was a Anthony Minghella film. Afterwards I thought how typical this was of a Minghella film - beautiful cinematography - especially some mirror and reflection shots and the filtering of colours, and some shots equal that of Hitchcock - two things, two situations happening at once. It had beautiful music - by the same composer who composed for The English Patient and Cold Mountain, Gabriel Yared. Yet it is an unrealistic story.I loved the film knowing that the story was implausible. I mean, think about it, which man would fall in love with his office cleaner? What man wouldn't prosecute someone who stole his whole company's computers and his personal one, not once, but twice? And what women would take a man back who have cheated on him? Yes, he loved her, and yes, he felt shut out of his own girlfriend's world but he still cheated, I doubt their relationship can last much longer. But, you feel sympathy for each of the characters. Each are flawed, each have difficulties to deal with, whether family, history, or immigration, or loneliness, or poverty. You know that it's a film and their behaviours are not what you expect in real life, but that is what I love about it. It is unpredictable, not like ordinary Hollywood films - which I don't usually like. I thought not only the acting was really moving and invoked much sympathy, but it had shown areas of London, that I, a Londoner, had not seen before. Also, despite much sadness this film also gave lots of laughter, which was great. I thought Jude Law and Juliette Binoche were exceptionally good in this, and Bea and the policeman. Penn and the son were less moving or less powerful characters. I actually love the metaphors and the fox, the prostitute, as well as the jumping and running over walls, and the changing of London, reconstruction - linked with the reconstruction of Bosnia, and the references to the war. I personally think that the Bosnian/Yugoslavian war is generally unknown to the world, it happened during the same time of the end of Apartheid but yet people do not know the suffering behind it, nor the stories behind it. I hope this film can have an educating impact on the audience, who may wish to research about the war afterwards. If you like this film, you should also consider watching In My Country - with Juliette Binoche, and she plays a journalist whom report about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I thought it was such a moving and shattering film and Binoche was simply brilliant! She then has a Afrikaans accent!

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.

"Breaking and Entering" is about breaking the shells that separate people and entering their lives. While there, they cause pain and joy to each other, they get engaged - and this is what is required for people to be together. Parallel between social projects and individual lives is director's solution, by example, how these social projects may become real – they must be validated through individual lives of participants. Jude Law needed this role to show his actor's skill – not just good looks – in my estimation he did well. Juliette Binoche, besides being as always adorable, plays role of Serbian Moslem émigré very believably. The rest of characters are supporting and did a good job. Director's work was solid – not brilliant but very professional and credible. Positive: Good cast, deliberate attempt to build a situation that would address a social condition using individual-social metaphor, solid craftsmanship in directorial work. Negative: The ideas are not well develop and too simplistic. The "Breaking and Entering" as a step in overcoming individual alienation is unconvincing. Conclusion: If you wish a food for thought, albeit imperfect, see this film – for me it will always beat "The Dark Knight" (9.2/10) or "Star Wars" (9/10). The rating of 8 was given on the background of everyday's trash produced by Hollywood encouraged by mindless crowds filling movie theaters and elevating ratings for such trash to the astronomical levels - for them Socrates' "An unexamined life is not worth living" has no meaning.