Review: In 'Belfast,' director Kenneth Branagh tells a warm, personal story of childhood in Northern Ireland
The hardest moment in childhood is when you realize your parents aren’t superheroes, all-powerful beings with the ability to make all problems disappear — and Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical memory play “Belfast” beautifully captures life just before that moment.
After showing what Belfast looks like today, in living color, Branagh takes us back to August 15, 1969 — and, in black and white, depicts a happy summer day on the street where 8-year-old Buddy (played by newcomer Jude Hill) plays St. George with a wooden sword and a dustbin-lid shield. Then real fighting interrupts the reverie, as young thugs come down the street to target the homes of the Catholics living there. Buddy’s family is Protestant, but his Pa (Jamie Dornan) doesn’t subscribe to the terror tactics of the mob. Unfortunately, Pa is in London, where the jobs are, leaving Ma (Caitriona Balfe) to fend off the thugs’ extortion demands.
Buddy notices the changes in the neighborhood, as barricades go up and everyone gets questioned before entering the street. Being 8, though, he’s got other pressing concerns — like scoring well on his weekly maths exam, so he can be seated closer to the smart Catholic girl he has a crush on. Or hearing the romantic advice of his grandfather, known as Pop (Ciarán Hinds), and how he met Granny (Judi Dench) all those years ago.
Branagh, who wrote and directed, moves from memory to memory, of reading comic books and going to the movies, of getting sucked into petty crime by his cousins, of regretting it even before he’s caught. The boy gets glimpses of bigger problems, whether it’s from news reports on the radio or the barely understood arguments his parents have about possibly leaving Belfast because of the joblessness, poverty and growing threat of sectarian violence.
Branagh leans reliably on the music of Belfast native Van Morrison, and references the TV and movies as markers of both the era and the emotions. “Star Trek” represents the promise of the future, while the British marionette adventure “Thunderbirds Are Go” is an icon of heroic helpers, and “High Noon” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” telegraph the moral battle Pa is being drawn into for the sake of his family. Bursts of color pierce the black-and-white images, when young Buddy experiences the wonder of the movies (a clip from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”) or the joys of the theater (with Branagh’s late friend, John Sessions, as a hammy theatrical version of Marley’s ghost).
Dornan and Balfe are nicely paired as Buddy’s parents, with Dornan’s quiet resolve contrasting nicely with Balfe’s more emotional outbursts. Hinds and Dench are delightful, as Buddy’s grandparents dispense hard-won wisdom and show by their example the joys of a long marriage.
Like John Boorman’s “Hope and Glory” or Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Branagh’s “Belfast” is an imperfect recollection, since the light of history is refracted through the distorting lens of childhood. But the memories are sweet and magical, and it’s difficult to begrudge Branagh’s desire to live them again.
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‘Belfast’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, November 12, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for some violence and strong language. Running time: 98 minutes.