Breaking and Entering

Anthony Minghella, the oft critiqued helmer of mostly stodgy sophisticate cinema, delivers as slick and calculated a thriller as you’d expect with his latest project, Breaking and Entering. Fortunately, this particular material needs the sleek sights of someone like Minghella to transform it from pulp to pomp. Under the watch of another director, Breaking and Entering’s tale of crime, obsession, and sexual liaisons might have devolved into yet another cheap trick erotic thriller. Minghella harnesses all that is unsavory and baths it is his traditionally decadent and formal film style, turning this into a smart, artful tale of love, loss, and cultural circumstance that embodies both visually and thematically a merging of two very different worlds.

Jude Law stars in one of his best roles to date as Will Francis, an architect trapped in a slowly dying marriage that has become burdened by woes of miscommunication and troubled by arguments over the rearing of a young autistic daughter. Will’s wife Liv (Robin Wright Penn) possesses obvious hesitations about raising her young daughter by a different father with Will whom she has shared a home with for many years but never married. It takes a brash and sudden string of burglaries at Will’s office to shake them out of their bickering and open them up to more dire issues. In order to further investigate the whereabouts of his missing possessions, Will befriends a woman named Amira (Juliette Binoche in yet another brilliant performance) whose son was involved in the robberies. Their connection brings him to spend more time in London’s less wealthy communities and enlivens a craving within him for the unidealized world he has stumbled upon. His relationship with Amira develops into an intriguing dual manipulation as both realize they need power over the other but as their connection grows more serious, manipulation becomes the last thing on their minds.

As Will continues to live a life beyond the white picket fences, he grows increasingly more addicted to the brutal, earthy sensations of a “less perfect” existence. It leads to intrigue, family drama, and many an intellectual monologue as he struggles to reconcile his darker desires with the life of the consummate family man that he has always had. Minghella’s soft touch smoothes over bumps in contrasting tone and adds gentle dramatics to the otherwise straightforward story. It’s a balancing act done by Minghella and all of his actors to wonderful effect. Classy thrillers are rare as of late. If you enjoy them, then try to track this one down.

Grade: A-