Kenneth Branagh can be brilliant (Much Ado About Nothing) when not insufferable (Murder on the Orient Express, Love’s Labour's Lost), or sometimes both (All is True, Hamlet), so I was unsure of what to expect from his semi-autobiographical story about a young boy in Belfast in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. It turns out that Belfast, which Branagh wrote and directed, is one of his better films, maybe one of his best. Belfast is filled with charm, tenderness, comedy, and drama all set precariously on the tinderbox of the beginning of the violent conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland that would last for decades and become known as “The Troubles.”
The film begins in August 1969 as young Buddy (Jude Hill) enjoys a sunny, joyful day with other neighbor children and relatives on the streets of his little neighborhood that seemingly out of nowhere explodes into a riot. His mother (Caitriona Balfe), whisks him away to their house, using the trash can lid Buddy had been pretending was a shield as a real shield against the bricks and rocks being thrown by the angry mob. Buddy’s father (Jaime Dornan) is away for weeks at time working in England where he has been offered a permanent job. A small-time neighborhood gangster turned vigilante gang leader lurks around the family and pressures Buddy’s father to join or pay up. Pa and Ma want no part in the conflict, only a safe life for their family. Buddy’s primary confidant is his grandfather, Pop, (Ciarán Hinds in a wonderful and rightfully Oscar nominated performance), who gives Buddy advice about the girl he has a crush on. Judi Dench is a welcome addition to the cast as Granny, usually heard loud and clear even when she is in the background of a shot.
Belfast isn’t so much sentimental as it is nostalgic and wistful. It plays like a memory, not romanticizing the past but recalling how the small joys of life (talks with Pop, adventures with cousins, school projects with a crush) existed right alongside the stresses and dangers that Buddy only half understands but the film fully conveys (overheard conversations about money, living in an undeclared war zone). This is by no means a gritty or violent movie but the threat of violence is ever present. When the vigilante gang leader punches a neighbor it is a shocking moment for Buddy to witness. The riots Buddy and the rest of his family get caught in are chaotic and frightening. The stress these events, in addition to money problems, places on the family is fully felt thanks to the performances of Balfe and Dornan.
The opening and closing shots of modern day Belfast are in bold and striking color. The rest of the film, not exactly a flashback, is shot in stunning black and white, each scene carefully composed not just to catch the eye but to evoke the feeling of a living memory. Time and place are brought to life and the block where Buddy lives, the school, the movie theater are effectively conveyed as the entire world to Buddy and the rest of the characters. I’ll never understand how the brilliant cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos did not receive an Academy Award nomination.
Perhaps the most enchanting element of Belfast is Buddy’s love for the movies. Films like One Million Years B.C and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang are shown in full color, capturing the spell they cast on young Buddy and his family. In a magnificent shot we see the color images of a movie reflected in Judi Dench’s glasses; the rest of the shot is in black and white. The scenes of Buddy watching black and white films like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valanceand High Noon are no less magical. We see the characters get a brief reprieve from reality but also see reality reflected indirectly back at them–the theme from High Noon plays over the climax because that is how Buddy can comprehend the situation. The close ups of Buddy and his family looking up at the screen in wonder and delight reminded me of something François Truffaut said to Gene Siskel: the most beautiful sight in a movie theater is to walk down to the front, turn around, and look at the light from the screen reflected on the upturned faces of the members of the audience. Branagh surely agrees and captures the effect wonderfully.
Belfast is a brilliant film with thankfully only two brief touches of insufferableness (Branagh referencing his own films with a close up of an Agatha Christie novel and a shot of Buddy reading a Thor comic book). It does not go for easy sentiment or try to be a tear-jerker. Even in emotional moments it resists tugging hard at heartstrings. Instead it stirs great emotions and pathos through its characters and their feelings for each other. Branagh’s film reminded me at different times of To Kill a Mockingbird, Hope and Glory, the better parts of Cinema Paradiso, Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, Fellini’s Amarcord, and Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. That’s good company to be in.
It is worth noting that there is an alternate and thankfully unused ending that is maybe the worst thing Kenneth Branagh has ever directed. It has Branagh as adult Buddy returning to his childhood neighborhood and plays like a tourism advertisement for Belfast. It is full of cliched dialogue and the mawkish sentimentality and trappings of nostalgia the rest of the film so successfully avoided. To have included this ending would have been diabolical. Thankfully Branagh cut this ending, one of his wisest decisions as a director, and the version that exists earned 7 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Director, and is one of the best films of 2021.
Nominees: Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, Tamar Thomas, producers
Production Companies: Northern Ireland Screen, TKBC
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Total Nominations: 7, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-Kenneth Branagh; Original Screenplay-Kenneth Branagh; Supporting Actor-Ciarán Hinds; Supporting Actress-Judi Dench; Original Song-Van Morrison for "Down to Joy"; Sound-Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather, Niv Adiri
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