DVD Review: Breaking and Entering

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Breaking and Entering (2006)–***

The first thing I asked myself after Breaking and Entering ended was, “Is this an original movie or an adaptation?” That’s a question I don’t often think to ask, but it struck me as an important one considering the textured, complex storytelling.

Had Breaking and Entering been based on a novel, I wouldn’t have appreciated it nearly as much as I do knowing it’s an Anthony Minghella original. That may seem like a bad way to judge a film. But considering the utter dearth of original adult dramas coming out these days, Breaking and Entering becomes a refreshing reminder of what studios are able to do when they loosen the reigns.

Jude Law stars as Will Francis, an architect with a vision to revitalize London’s King Cross district. He and his partner (Martin Freeman) set up their office in the middle of the blighted area, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they are quickly burglarized.

Francis uses the robberies to get out of his house and away from the wife (Robin Wright Penn) who doesn’t appear to have the same love for him she once did. On one of his many stakeouts, he finally does see the burglar and follows him home. What he finds is unexpected. The robber is just a 15-year-old kid, and Francis’s first intention is to simply confront the boy’s mother, Amira (Juliette Binoche). But something happens when he finally meets her. Francis’s passionless marriage catches up with him and he indulges in an affair that may come back to haunt him.

Amira is a refugee from Sarajevo who came to London to escape the war in her homeland. Her affair with Francis, an upper-middle class architect, is loaded with political sentiment. Yet, it’s not the thrusting together of the rich and the poor, the Englishman and the immigrant, that is responsible for the film’s most dramatic moments. The more political ideas are drowned out by the aching insecurity that envelopes Francis’s life.

Jude Law isn’t entirely to thank for his character’s powerful story. His performance is subtle and safe when compared to the work he’s done in the past. He doesn’t get inside Francis like he did Dan in Closer or Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley. He might not have been able to do so because the role should have gone to someone 10 years older.

Binoche and Wright Penn, on the other hand, give equally subtle, but entirely more focused performances as the women in Francis’s life. Binoche specifically engages the audience as both a sensual object of Francis’s desires and a motherly protector whose joy doesn’t come from her liaison with Francis, but from her son’s existence. Her performance is the only one that defies Minghella’s script and pushes this often restrained film where it should go.

Still, the film is assured enough for you to disregard its passiveness. Minghella mines for metaphor with Francis and does so competently. Plus, he’s never been a filmmaker one could describe as sensationalist. Breaking and Entering is the sensual and dramatic film we can expect from Minghella. Without the constraints of a novel to get in the way like they did with Cold Mountain, Minghella’s first original work since Truly, Madly, Deeply certainly is a pleasurable encounter.

Bonus Features:
-Director’s Commentary
-6 Deleted Scenes