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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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61 - 80 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Minghella successfully returns to smaller more intimate fare.

Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX) | comment Comment
02/09/07
Boo Allen
Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

What are the meaningful connections between these people's lives? Are they real and significant, or are they just plot contrivances, the manipulation of pawns in an onscreen board game?

Full Review Source: RogerEbert.com | comment Comment
02/09/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
RogerEbert.com

Writer-director Anthony Minghella tries to base his story on the messy, unpredictable nature of human emotional response. What he gets is mostly a mess.

Full Review Source: Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) | comment Comment
02/08/07
Jeffrey Westhoff
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

Plays by its own rules and hopes prospective audiences are patient enough to follow characters whose lives are more rewarding to watch than the ho-hum plot surrounding them.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
02/08/07
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

The first third of the movie is intelligent and sets up an intriguing premise. Then the plot takes unconvincing and unlikely turns that result in an ending that feels false and forced.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
02/08/07
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today

It doesn't have the kind of flair, impact or resonance we've come to expect from the director.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
02/08/07
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

For all its contrivances (including Vera Farmiga's improbably erudite whore), Breaking and Entering has its finger on the pulse of contemporary London life and possesses its share of fleeting delights.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
02/08/07
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

The film gives us hope about our ability to become better people when we're faced with difficult situations, but it's not sentimental.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
02/08/07
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

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

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

Seeing the film is like attending a refined cocktail party where social problems are clucked over and personal tensions are politely disregarded. When it's over, you wish you'd gone to a bar where people know how to have an argument and throw a punch.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
02/08/07
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

A case of grade-A professionalism totally oblivious to the inanity of the work being put forth.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
02/08/07
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

The fact that three major characters are named 'Will,' 'Liv' and 'Bea' should indicate Minghella's commitment to subtlety.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
02/06/07
Sean Burns
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

Minghella has drawn intimate love stories from supernatural fantasies and widescreen epics, but not even he can turn sappy corn into social commentary.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
02/03/07
Mark Holcomb
Mark Holcomb
Time Out New York

Minghella seems intent on making Merchant-Ivory films now, and I don't mean that in a good way.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
01/30/07
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
01/27/07
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A shrewd and decent movie.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
01/27/07
David Denby
David Denby
New Yorker

Go see Anthony Minghella's jagged new drama, Breaking and Entering, and you'll feel as if you're getting two movies for the price of a single ticket. The bad news? Only one of these stories is actually worth your money.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/27/07
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

Breaking and Entering is so bloodless that even Minghella's best ideas come off as wan and pale. We're aware of the angst and confusion these characters suffer, and yet the movie shows us nothing so messy as real pain.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/27/07
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com

Weak as both a forbiden afair drama due to the non existant chemistry of the illicit couple, and as a sociological exploration of the relationships between the rich white man and the ghetto boy, or even as a political approach of the Bosnian drama, B&E on

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
01/27/07
Joseph Proimakis
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
 
 
61 - 80 (sorted by date; 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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