Childhood in a turbulent time in nostalgic ‘Belfast’
If you didn’t know Kenneth Branagh’s new film “Belfast” was based (somewhat) on his own childhood, you probably wouldn’t know it by the end either. That’s a good thing.
This isn’t a portrait of the artist as a young man. We see a love for theater and cinema, but no nascent Shakespeare affinities or even performative tendencies. In “Belfast,” set in 1969, Buddy (Jude Hill) is just a normal kid living in the Northern Island city with his ma (Caitríona Balfe), pa (Jamie Dornan), brother (Lewis McAskie) and grandparents (Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds) during “the Troubles.”
It’s a child’s-eye perspective of a complex
time, when neighborhood streets turned into war zones, and kids were left wondering how they were supposed to tell whether someone was Catholic or Protestant or remember where the no-go zones were.
Yet “Belfast” is no gritty drama. The Troubles are merely a backdrop to this nostalgic crowd-pleaser, filmed lovingly in crisp, clear black and white (by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos) and set to upbeat Van Morrison music. And it’s going to be catnip for some audiences and infuriating to others, who may equate the glossiness with superficiality.
“Belfast” will get dinged for its sentiment, for its earnestness, for its broadness, for its sometimes witty and sometimes
grating folksiness and for it being a movie to take your mother to that she’ll probably enjoy.
So many films are described as love letters — to places, to time, to people, to even the idea of cinema — that the phrase has almost been rendered meaningless. But “Belfast” really is the quintessential cinematic love letter. This is a movie that you can imagine Branagh’s family would be proud of, which regardless of what happens on Oscar night, is the only review that matters.
“Belfast,” a Focus Features release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “strong language and some violence.” Running time: 97 minutes.