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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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34 %
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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 source; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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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

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
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]

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

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

A story of thievery and a torrid love affair, it takes a capable filmmaker and a skilled cast and locks them up in a holding cell of pretense.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
03/14/07
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

With its overwritten, every-hair-in-place script, Breaking and Entering robs itself of reality.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
02/15/07
Bill Muller
Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

...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

In the end, the film wraps up awfully neatly considering how sloppy and unraveled the characters‘ lives had been at the height of their conflicts.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
12/11/06
David Germain
David Germain
Associated Press

Breaking and Entering just hangs there, positing its theme of how the personal becomes political and the political becomes personal over and over, without ever grabbing either your heart or your mind.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
02/08/07
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

[Breaking and Entering is a] sophisticated and wonderfully particular character study...

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
12/17/06
Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
AV Club

Since the movie is about mending class differences, Minghella manufactures a hopeful ending that wants to have it all--just as he wants his London to have it all--but which instead only rings false.

Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | comment Comment
03/05/07
Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Breaking and Entering is about a kind of white privileged guilt and the apologies that come with it. Minghella gingerly backs away from provocation, from realism.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
02/09/07
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
N/R

Click to read the article

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

Like last year's Academy Award-winning Crash, Breaking and Entering is about random collisions between classes and cultures. It's also just as contrived.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
09/14/06
Kevin Courrier
Kevin Courrier
Boxoffice Magazine

This story's ultimate resolution is saccharine. (Even the hooker turns out to have a heart of gold.) But it's still heartening.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
12/13/06
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

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

A smart, well-mannered film that could use a little more juice and fire.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
02/08/07
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment Comment
02/27/09
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
all

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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