PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES
Kenneth Branagh is a bit too determined to smile, smile, smile in this Oscar-bait memoir of his Belfast childhood, writes
Sir Kenneth Branagh has made his name as his generation’s most visible declaimer of the great speeches of Shakespeare on screen and as a reliably safe helmer of films in a variety of genres, from Marvel’s Thor to his star-studded Agatha Christie reboots.
But Branagh did not appear suddenly one day on the stages of London solemnly enunciating the existential angst of Henry V and Hamlet. He was born and grew up in the troubled streets of 1960s Belfast, the son of Protestant working-class parents who, when he was nine, left Northern Ireland for England.
It’s to this period in his life that Branagh has turned for what is his most personal film — Belfast — and one he stubbornly chooses to reflect only through the naïve eyes of his childhood stand-in Buddy (Jude Hill), a youngster dreaming of superheroes and Boys’ Own adventures while oblivious to the increasingly dangerous realities of the world around him.
Buddy is far more concerned about his father’s (Jamie Dornan) long absences from home on the job as a construction worker in England and the emotional toll this takes on his long-suffering mother (Catríona Balfe) than he is about the divisions between Protestants and Catholics that are threatening the stability of life on his charming Belfast street. He also has the anxieties and heart thumps induced by his crush on a young girl at school to worry about. Luckily, the sage wisdom of his working-class grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds) is on offer to help him navigate the pangs of young love. When the Troubles begin to cause problems for his father, the family must decided whether to stay or go, a decision that will change Buddy’s life forever.
Shot in richly nostalgic black and white by cinematographer Harris Zambarloukos and scored evocatively by the well-loved hits of Northern Ireland’s most famous soul son Van Morrison, Branagh’s ode to his childhood is a tender portrait of the innocence of his early days that avoids delving too deeply into the Troubles and their pervasive effects on all aspects of life during that period.
It’s thus an adequate enough humaninterest drama that benefits from some strong performances — particularly from Balfe and the always reliable Hinds and Dench — but is ultimately safe-bet sentimental Oscar bait.
This has been borne out by the film’s seven Oscar nominations, and Branagh certainly knows how to tickle the tear ducts when he needs to. One can only wonder how much more affecting and provocative his memoirs may have been if he’d made them the subject of a film earlier in his career when the bigger social and political forces at play were impossible to ignore.
As a film about Northern Ireland, Belfast is a little too faithful to its author’s commitment to remember the best of times and ignore the worst to make inroads into the difficult task of confronting the country’s dark and murky past.