Belfast is the new film by Sir Kenneth Branagh and stars Jude Hill as a young boy in Belfast, Ireland in 1969 he lives with his Mum and Dad played by Catriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan and likes a young girl named Katherine at school as well as spend time with his grandparents played by Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds but his life is turned upside down as the Troubles begin between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and his family will be faced with a difficult choice whether to stay or to leave for a better life.
Belfast is an okay film but before I delve into my problems with it I want to talk about what I did like about the film and that is mainly the performances, little Jude Hill is wonderful and I wish that he was in the conversation regarding Best Actor at the Oscars this year as he really deserved a nomination, so much of this movie rests on his little shoulders and he carries it so well that I really enjoyed watching him.
Catriona Balfe is also good as his Mum while Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds often anchor many of the films best moments as the grandparents with the good natured humour and wise council.
However I think Branagh’s script has a conflicted tone to it, on the one hand it wants to be this childlike fable about a young boy growing up with this element of wonder and positivity to it yet on the other hand it wants to seriously document the Troubles and how it all began and I wish Branagh had made either film and let that be the driving force particularly regarding the Troubles which is a dark period in Irish history that deserves a movie all on its own whereas here every time the little boy and his family went down the street I thought “Their going to die either by a gunshot or a shop explosion” and because of that I began to lose interest after a while.
And so that was Belfast and its an okay film and that is really down to the performances and less to do with its tonally mishmashed script, 2 out of 5.
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