| Overall Grade: |
B- |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
B- |
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| Direction: |
B- |
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| Visuals: |
B- |
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'Breaking and Entering' Is Too Ripe
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Apr 14, 2007
6
of
7 people found this review helpful
When Anthony Minghella directs adaptations, the results are almost always rewarding. They certainly impress the Academy Awards voters, who named "The English Patient" the best picture of 1996 and showered "Cold Mountain" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with nominations.
Minghella also has a knack for bringing out the best in Jude Law, an uneven performer who has been nominated twice under his direction: for best supporting actor in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," and for best actor in "Cold Mountain."
Unfortunately, when Minghella directs original screenplays ("Mr. Wonderful," to name his least successful film), the results are usually thinner, less rich, less exciting. Even Law seems uninspired by the material in his third Minghella collaboration, "Breaking and Entering," which is based on Minghella's own story.
Everyone talks like that, including Law's chummy business partner (Martin Freeman) and a heart-of-gold hooker (Vera Farmiga) whose worldly advice could have been lifted from "Irma La Douce." Whenever Minghella the screenwriter seems in doubt, he tends to spell out everything, and Minghella the director often fails to rein him in.
During a nightmarish dinner-table scene, Penn claims that she's trying hard to hold this family together. When a plate breaks, she literally picks up the pieces and tries to reassemble it. By the time Law's character is criticizing his own penchant for obvious metaphors, the self-consciousness reaches fever pitch.
Perhaps the topper belongs to Penn: "When you hurt so much, you can't hurt twice." Are we that far here from "Love means never having to say you're sorry"?
Minghella treats all of his characters with a compassion that makes the riper dialogue almost tolerable, and the actors bravely deliver it as if they meant it. Binoche comes off best, partly because her unstable widow, who is easily the most complex character, has witnessed real horror and responds rashly but understandably to a romantic opportunity. |
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