Belfast

I've mentioned DVRing a fair amount of movies over the Thanksgiving weekend since DirecTV has a free preview of the premium movie channels. One movie that I recorded over a previous free preview weekend is Belfast. I notice that it has several showings over the next week or two, starting with today at 3:25 PM on HBO2, so I watched it over the weekend to do a review on it here.

The movie starts off with a brief aerial view of the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland as it is today, or at least sometime in late 2020 or early 2021 when the movie was filmed. The camera then pans over a wall, and the footage goes into black-and-white. We're also sent back into the past; specifically, August 15, 1969. This is just about the time that the "Troubles" began, depending on which event you want to count as beginning them. August 1969 was the start of the first larger-scale rioting between Protestants and Catholics.

Buddy (Jude Hill) is a Protestant boy of about nine years old who lives on an ethnically-mixed street with both Catholics and Protestants, which is too much for some of the more radical Protestant groups. They riot, breaking the windows of houses and businesses owned by Catholics, something Buddy doesn't really understand since he's a bit young and hadn't known anything about the political grievances of the various groups. But the rioting is a big deal for Buddy's mom (Caitriona Balfe) and dad (Jamie Dornan), who is away a lot as he works over in England. Indeed, Dad has a pretty good job, and his boss even offers him a raise and a housing allowance that would enable the family to live in England, which would get them away from the Troubles. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

Buddy tries to enjoy life as much as a young boy can despite major and stressful political events going on around him, much like the young boys in a movie like Hope and Glory. He's got loving grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds), and even becomes friends with a Catholic classmate, Catherine. But the real world is bound to intrude, and is in fact brought to him in part by his own cousin, who gets him to do the sort of petty mischief kids do -- except that she knows members of one of the local Protestant gangs.

This leads to an incident where the gang breaks into a supermarket and loots it, with young Buddy stealing a box of laundry detergent. Mom is aghast, and realizes that the family has to get away from Belfast, even though the idea horrifies Buddy, who can't quite comprehend how serious the situation is.

Kevin Branagh directed Belfast, which is semi-autobiographical as he was born in Belfast and his family left for England during the Troubles. It's a labor of love, and one that is mostly successful. As the movie focuses mostly on young Buddy, it's fairly episodic, not that this is a bad thing. Jude Hill does a good job as little Buddy, helped by a fine supporting cast around him.

If there was one problem for me, it's that as with some more recent movies, there are times when the camera seems intrusive, as directors move the camera around in different ways than they could with the cameras they used in the studio days. People who watch mostly modern films may not notice, but for me, as someone who watches a lot of old movies, I definitely pick up on it. This is, however, a mild flaw.

Belfast is a fine "little" movie that deservedly got a lot of attention when it was released. If you haven't had the chance to see it yet, definitely record it if you can.