Movie: Breaking and Entering

For someone who closely follows the movie industry and who watches about 200 movies every year (and making a complete list) Breaking and Entering kinda went under my radar. But I am not surprised by it because i do confess that this happens often when movies are not as talked about on media and blogs etc. So I have come to watch this movie after my wife had it on her watchlist and as were going through it it was time to watch this too. Now, imdb does not tell you much about the plot and i don't know how much i can tell without getting into the story of the film itself.

Will lives with his girlfriend and her child and sees himself as a part of the family. Yet their pretend 'marriage' is in a uncomfortable state which has them both re-thinking it. Will is an architect whose company in London has been robbed and that eventually leads him to a collision course with another story which he becomes a part of. On that other side Amira, a refuge of the Bosnian war has come to London and lives there, homesick and frightened, with her delinquent son who is the aforementioned burglar.

A few things kept me invested in this movie.

First of all, I am from Bosnia, still living here (sadly) and seeing a french actress playing a Bosnian woman really had me thinking how well she did it. There are some scenes, and details that might come across as minimal and unimportant to the plot, even insignificant to someone who does not know the Bosnian culture and values, but Amira, played by Juliette Binoche has these traits and i was commenting a few times with my wife how someone really did the research for this role. Because there is nothing more annoying than to watch a character that's suppose to be from your country played without those minute details in behavior and values and with a thick fake accent that is just like 'its eastern Europe, they're all the same'. In addition to that, Will and his wife Liv also hang in a pretty significant place that is not often seen. They do love each other despite falling apart and they do put effort into rekindling their affection (rather than passion). All this is done through acts and dialogues which do not push the story forward as much as it gives each of their characters dept. Just like Amira.

Lemme see if i can explain it in another way. There are two kind of movies: those who move in a linear story telling mode, where actions and storytelling play a major part. This is what most movies do, they need action (not in a sense of explosions but in a sense of moving forward) or they can move in a downward facing arrow, that through acts and dialogues makes the movie interesting by creating believable, interesting and well written characters rather than their acts. This path is a harder one to take, in my opinion, because writers easily lose themselves in too much incidental or cut-out dialogues that don't feel natural and most of all it relies on acting.

This movie based itself a lot on acting, and it was worth it. the relationships that are real and fluid sink well into the performances of each of the main and supporting cast. To underline all of this is the score that glides across the film giving it even more texture.

I liked it, I didn't love it, I don't think its an amazing piece of cinema but its something that movies rarely have- a sense of reality, a feeling of attachment to the real world where it plays (which is London). I understand why people find it boring and uninteresting. And i want to say that if you thing the same, its your fault for looking for a linear path of the movie rather than appreciating the depth it offers.

Its not a soul searching film, it’s a piece of a life through which you will discover the entire story.