It's been 10 years since director Anthony Minghella worked with Juliette Binoche in The English Patient and 2 previous film (The Talented Mr Rpley and Cold Mountain) with Jude Law before the trio meet up again in Breaking and Entering.
Set in King's Cross, London, the drama surrounds Will (Law), an architect, Liv (Robin Wright Penn), Will's girlfriend and Amira (Binoche), a Bosnian Muslim immigrant who survived from the instability of Sarajevo, the hometown where she and her son Miro came from.
Miro and his friend broke into Will's workplace, and had everything stolen, including his personal notebook. Miro breaks into Will's workplace again and had everything stolen, but this time round, he left a DVD-ROM containing his personal data from his notebook.
While Will is facing an instability relationship with Liv and her autistic daughter Bea, he tracks down Miro, and discovered that Amira was the mother of Miro, and also the woman whom Will met earlier on. Using Amira's tailoring service as an excuse to investigate the break-in, soon he found love and sex on Amira, which eventually leaving everyone in a unfavorable, unfortunate and tragic situation.
Jude Law is once again reprising his similar role in Mike Nicholas's Closer, which was unfortunately a disappointment to the fan of Law who wish to see something new and different from him. Just like his previous role in Mr Ripley and Closer, Law is maintaining his image as a Casanova, which seems to have failed to appeal to his fans and reviewers.
Binoche, on the other hand, grabs the attention of the audience. While we have previously seen Audrey Tautou playing a Turkish chambermaid in Stephen Frear's Dirty Pretty Things, we now see another critically acclaimed French actress playing the role of Bosnian Muslim immigrant. She was a familiar face in French productions, with occasional appearance in Hollywood productions. Thus, it was fresh and new to see her playing a Bosnian immigrant, after she plays a French chocolate maker in Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat, a US/UK production.
Minghella explores the another side of King's Cross in Breaking and Entering, where it brings the audience to see the vice and criminal side of King's Cross. While King's Cross was depicted as a place for vice, crimes and lowly immigrant living in the slums, the title also means another thing: Breaking and Entering into the lives of the opposite.
In the story, it began with Miro breaking into Will's workplace and had the workplace wiped out. In the end, he break into Amira's life and entered her personal life, which leads to emotional and monetary blackmail. Miro breaks into Will's life and Amira enters his life, which gave her a route for communication and exploration of her inner world.
Bea's autistic ism breaks the relationship between Will and Liv, where it put them on a test, with a consequence no one could imagine. The test tells us directly we are seeing some of the very real and familiar tensions and emotional breakdown in our daily life. While things could have been better, there are other issues that makes it a challenge to bring them back to pieces, just like how Liv trying to patch up a plate broken by Bea while having a quarrel with Will.
The film wraps up beautifully in the credits with Sigur Ros's Se Lest, which was a small treat for the audience after the story comes to an end. It soothes the ears, and the heart after the tension.
Minghella did not fail his fans in Breaking and Entering, which makes me expecting his upcoming production soon.
Set in King's Cross, London, the drama surrounds Will (Law), an architect, Liv (Robin Wright Penn), Will's girlfriend and Amira (Binoche), a Bosnian Muslim immigrant who survived from the instability of Sarajevo, the hometown where she and her son Miro came from.
Miro and his friend broke into Will's workplace, and had everything stolen, including his personal notebook. Miro breaks into Will's workplace again and had everything stolen, but this time round, he left a DVD-ROM containing his personal data from his notebook.
While Will is facing an instability relationship with Liv and her autistic daughter Bea, he tracks down Miro, and discovered that Amira was the mother of Miro, and also the woman whom Will met earlier on. Using Amira's tailoring service as an excuse to investigate the break-in, soon he found love and sex on Amira, which eventually leaving everyone in a unfavorable, unfortunate and tragic situation.
Jude Law is once again reprising his similar role in Mike Nicholas's Closer, which was unfortunately a disappointment to the fan of Law who wish to see something new and different from him. Just like his previous role in Mr Ripley and Closer, Law is maintaining his image as a Casanova, which seems to have failed to appeal to his fans and reviewers.
Binoche, on the other hand, grabs the attention of the audience. While we have previously seen Audrey Tautou playing a Turkish chambermaid in Stephen Frear's Dirty Pretty Things, we now see another critically acclaimed French actress playing the role of Bosnian Muslim immigrant. She was a familiar face in French productions, with occasional appearance in Hollywood productions. Thus, it was fresh and new to see her playing a Bosnian immigrant, after she plays a French chocolate maker in Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat, a US/UK production.
Minghella explores the another side of King's Cross in Breaking and Entering, where it brings the audience to see the vice and criminal side of King's Cross. While King's Cross was depicted as a place for vice, crimes and lowly immigrant living in the slums, the title also means another thing: Breaking and Entering into the lives of the opposite.
In the story, it began with Miro breaking into Will's workplace and had the workplace wiped out. In the end, he break into Amira's life and entered her personal life, which leads to emotional and monetary blackmail. Miro breaks into Will's life and Amira enters his life, which gave her a route for communication and exploration of her inner world.
Bea's autistic ism breaks the relationship between Will and Liv, where it put them on a test, with a consequence no one could imagine. The test tells us directly we are seeing some of the very real and familiar tensions and emotional breakdown in our daily life. While things could have been better, there are other issues that makes it a challenge to bring them back to pieces, just like how Liv trying to patch up a plate broken by Bea while having a quarrel with Will.
The film wraps up beautifully in the credits with Sigur Ros's Se Lest, which was a small treat for the audience after the story comes to an end. It soothes the ears, and the heart after the tension.
Minghella did not fail his fans in Breaking and Entering, which makes me expecting his upcoming production soon.