Belfast movie watch FREE
“Belfast movie” is unquestionably Kenneth Branagh’s most personal film to
date, but it’s also sure to have universal resonance. It depicts a
violent, tumultuous time in Northern Ireland, but it does so through the
innocent, exuberant eyes of a nine-year-old boy. And it’s shot in
gentle black-and-white, with sporadic bursts of glorious color.
In
recalling his youthful days in an insular neighborhood in the titular
city, Branagh has made a film that’s both intimate and ambitious—his
“Roma,” if you’ll forgive the inevitable comparison to Alfonso Cuarón’s
recent masterpiece. That’s quite a balancing act the writer/director
attempts to pull off, and for the most part, he succeeds. It’s hard not
to be charmed by this love letter to a pivotal place and time in his
childhood, and to the people who helped shape him into the singular
cultural force he’d become. Belfast movie Long before the dedication that plays in
front of the closing credits—“For the ones who stayed. For the ones who
left. And for all the ones who were lost.”—we can feel Branagh’s wistful
heart on his sleeve.
Belfast movie review
And yet, because we’re witnessing the
events of the summer of 1969 from the perspective of a sweet child named
Buddy—Branagh’s stand-in, played by the irrepressibly winsome Jude
Hill—there can be an oversimplification of the upheaval at work, as well
as an emotional distancing in the way the film is shot. We see and hear
things the way Buddy does: in snippets and whispers, through open
windows and cracked doors, down narrow hallways and across the cramped
living room, where “Star Trek” always seems to be on the TV. (Haris
Zambarloukos, who has shot several of Branagh’s films including
“Cinderella” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” provides the evocative,
black-and-white cinematography.) When a Protestant mob charges down his
block as he’s playing make-believe in the middle of the street, trying
to root out the neighboring Catholic families, the trash can lid he’d
been using as a toy shield suddenly becomes a vital piece of protection
against flying rocks.
This is the constant push-pull that serves
as a through-line in “Belfast movie.” It’s a film that frequently feels at
odds with itself, resulting in equal amounts of poignancy and
frustration. Ultimately, though, the sincerity on display wins you over.
You’d have to be made of stone otherwise, especially in the simple,
quiet moments when Buddy learns valuable life lessons to the strains
of Van Morrison. (Yes, the words feel cheesy as I’m typing them, but
gosh darn it, that kid is adorable Belfast.) It’s a lovely touch that the girl
Buddy has a crush on—a pig-tailed blonde who happens to be Catholic—also
happens to be the smartest student in class, and the way he woos her
inspires fond laughter.
Watch belfast movie
Given Branagh’s longtime stature as
an actor, it’s no surprise that he’s drawn warm, authentic performances
from his top-tier, perfectly chosen cast. Within this modest,
working-class, Protestant setting, Buddy views his parents as movie-star
glamorous—larger-than-life as the actors in the pictures he yearns to
see each weekend at the local movie house. Known to him (and to us) only
as Ma and Pa, his mother (Caitriona Balfe) is elegant and feisty, Belfast while
his father (Jamie Dornan) is charismatic and kindhearted. Judi Dench
and Ciaran Hinds have an effortless chemistry as his grandparents,
teasing each other mercilessly from a place of deep love and affection
and a lifetime of commitment—to each other, to this place. The scene in
which they transition breezily from giving each other a hard time to
dancing in the living room, Pop serenading Granny in her ear as he holds
her close, is perhaps the film’s highlight.
How to watch Belfast movie
It’s a brief
respite from the growing danger that’s surrounding them, disrupting the
feeling of camaraderie that’s connected families on this block for
decades, regardless of their religious or political beliefs. Buddy
struggles to understand The Troubles, as they’d come to be known, and
entreats the grown-ups he trusts to enlighten him. These exchanges may
seem cutesy but they hammer home the senselessness of the violence that
tore this region apart for so long. They also affirm once again what
astonishingly subtle actors Dench and Hinds are; the way they find
nuance and heartache in simple platitudes is a marvel to behold. (And
speaking of Marvel, Branagh inserts a brief but clever reference to his
own role as a filmmaker shepherding along the MCU.)
Within the
steady hum of the threat Buddy and his family face is an impossible
decision: Do they stay in this neighborhood where they’ve lived their
whole lives, where everyone knows everyone Belfast, or do they move somewhere
safer and start over? Pa’s work has been taking him to England for weeks
at a time as he tries to pay off his debts—maybe the whole family
should just join him there? Or perhaps a city that’s idyllic but far
away, like Vancouver or Sydney? The achingly romantic final shot signals
their choice in a way that hits harder than any of the nostalgia that
came before it.
"Belfast movie" will be playing in theaters starting November 12th.