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Movies / On DVD / Breaking and Entering
Breaking and Entering

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Breaking and Entering (2007)

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Reviews Counted:121

Fresh:41

Rotten:80

Average Rating:5.2/10

Consensus: This class warfare drama feels contrived and superficial: characters don’t act logically as the movie manipulates them towards deconstructing various social issues.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for sexuality and language

Runtime: 2 hrs

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:10-11-2006

Synopsis: BREAKING AND ENTERING may lack the quality and scope of Anthony Minghella's previous work such as THE ENGLISH PATIENT and COLD MOUNTAIN, but it's an interesting, character-driven drama. Jude Law... BREAKING AND ENTERING may lack the quality and scope of Anthony Minghella's previous work such as THE ENGLISH PATIENT and COLD MOUNTAIN, but it's an interesting, character-driven drama. Jude Law (CLOSER) plays Will, a landscape architect who succeeds in business but finds his personal life is tougher to navigate. He has been with Liv (Robin Wright Penn, FORREST GUMP) for years, but it's difficult to connect with her due to her worry over her teenage daughter. When Will catches a teenage boy named Miro (Ravi Gafron) breaking into his office, he chases the thief home. He later meets the boy's mother, a Bosnian refugee played by Juliette Binoche (CHOCOLAT). His anger at Miro is quickly transformed into attraction to his mother, further complicating his relationship with Liv. This is Law's third teaming with Minghella (after THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY and COLD MOUNTAIN), and their partnership rewards the audience with a typically good performance from the actor. Wright Penn and Binoche also display the talent people have come to expect, but it's the supporting cast that shines here. As Will's business partner, Sandy, Martin Freeman plays second fiddle to Law, but he possesses a similar charm as his character on THE OFFICE. As a persistent prostitute, Vera Farmiga (THE DEPARTED) is one of the movie's highlights, providing laughter in what is largely a very bleak film. Gavron is a capable young actor as Miro, but his performance is most astonishing for his skills at the sport of parkour, a kind of urban acrobatics on display throughout the film. If only these characters were half as adept at life and relationships as Gavron is at leaping from building to building.... [More]

Starring: Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn, Martin Freeman

Starring: Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn, Martin Freeman, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Rafi Gavron, Poppy Rogers

Director: Anthony Minghella

Director: Anthony Minghella
Producer: Timothy Bricknell
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Studio: MGM

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Reviews for Breaking and Entering

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

A shapely, intelligent piece probing the placid surface of London’s trendy reputation to discover an array of 21st century maladies -- personal, social, political, criminal, even mental, but not, it transpires, dental.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's a smart film, but like much of Minghella's output, it is too polite to grip.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
11/11/06
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Full of interesting characters, intelligently conceived scenes and funny lines...

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
11/11/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Observer [UK]

Diffuse, disappointing, and strangely out of touch.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
10/30/06
Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film is saddled with a badly written, unconvincing ending that threatens to ruin the film completely - in fact, you're almost better off leaving the cinema ten minutes early and supplying your own ending.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/28/06
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Minghella returns to his roots for a moody and stylish London drama that's full of terrific scenes and strong performances. Although it's a little contrived and overwrought.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
09/16/06
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

One-hundred percent uncut bourgeois fantasy

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/27/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment Comment
02/27/09
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD

Though intricately plotted and well acted, Minghella's characters feel more like symbols than flesh-and-blood characters, and their travails seem designed to illustrate a lecture about privilege, injustice, cultural stereotypes and bourgeois complacency.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
03/18/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The complicated interactions involving class and culture that ensue between all these characters remain fascinating even when they seem overly schematic.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
03/18/08
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

Insightful, contemporary love story for adults.

Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | comment Comment
10/22/07
Renee Schonfeld
Renee Schonfeld
Common Sense Media

Though Binoche does very solid work, she can't sell the idea of her and Law as a couple; the chemistry isn't there. Not much else rings true in Minghella's screenplay, which is full of coincidences and speeches about race and class.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
08/22/07
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

Everything in Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering is torn and in need of mending....And like the flaw's set within the confines of the film, the movie itself is in need of a little tinkering itself.

Full Review Source: Movie Views | comment Comment
05/27/07
Ryan Cracknell
Ryan Cracknell
Movie Views

The pitch meeting must have been frightening: "Caché for fans of Chocolat."

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
05/04/07
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

A messy yet occasionally affecting drama.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
04/18/07
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Un drama urbano muy contemporáneo que explora superficialmente ciertas realidades sociales, pero que presta más atención a las crisis domésticas de sus personajes. Podría haber sido mucho más interesante.

Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | comment Comment
04/06/07
Enrique Buchichio
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total

Minghella signe une %u0153uvre enivrante énumérant avec tact et intelligence les valeurs d'honnêteté, de respect et de confiance découlant de chacune de ses résolutions de conflit.

Full Review Source: Panorama | comment Comment
03/24/07
Jean-François Vandeuren
Jean-François Vandeuren
Panorama

Class friction and the ensuing cinema of paranoia evidence of the growing class divide on screen

Full Review Source: WBAI Web Radio | comment Comment
03/21/07
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

...a handsome but regrettably underpowered and preachy movie about liberal white guilt.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
03/18/07
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Breaking and Entering

March 18, 2008: Anthony Minghella: A Tomatometer Retrospective
English filmmaker Anthony Minghella had a sparse but critically acclaimed career by the time of his passing today at the age of 54. We turn to the six films Minghella directed,... More...

March 18, 2008: Anthony Minghella: 1954-2008
Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning director of The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Cold Mountain, has passed away at the age of 54. More...

July 30, 2007: Frank Miller Faults Weinsteins for Sin City 2 Delay
While sitting on a Comic Con panel, Frank Miller was asked about the hold-up on Sin City 2. (Numerous times, probably.) And it looks like the celebrated author / artist /... More...

March 28, 2007: "Indy 4" Casts Winstone as New Sidekick
Increasingly busy character actor Ray Winstone has joined the cast of the fourth "Indiana Jones" installment, due in theaters May 2008. More...

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