A sharp study in contrasts built on sturdy performances, Breaking and Entering manages to tackle immigration, youthful rebellion, family dynamics and, yes, love. The title doesn't merely refer to buildings, it also refers to hearts.
Breaking and Entering (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
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.
Theatrical Release:Dec 15, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $880,510
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
Get This Movie
Reviews for Breaking and Entering
Breaking and Entering, not unlike a pair of other English dramas of recent vintage (Notes on a Scandal and The Queen), provides further proof that so-called serious filmmaking can be equally entertaining and provocative.
A close-up of two disparate families in current-day London, Breaking and Entering lacks the heart and emotional warmth needed to tell the story of betrayal and its effects on loved ones.
[Minghella has] simply traded the turgid solemnity of the period epic for the turgid solemnity of the indie drama.
With its overwritten, every-hair-in-place script, Breaking and Entering robs itself of reality.
Breaking and Entering piqued my curiosity but failed to deliver the emotional wallop I expected.
Starts busily, and soon becomes a bafflement -- such an interesting cast, such technical excellence, so many intricate details and parallel plot threads, yet so little clarity or urgency.
Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering shimmers with good intentions and competency: Its blue/gray palette is elegant and unobtrusive; its cast is uniformly fine with occasional startling moments of brilliance.
Everything flows from the film's fundamental lethargy -- a hero without a spine, a romance without joy and a crime with neither moral rebuke nor consequences. No surprise that the story, like the protagonist, floats along in a noodly sort of way.
An A-list soaper on moral pins and needles, the film is urbanely textured, full of Brit glibness and plush layering. Minghella makes broodingly adult coffee-table movies, and sometimes we wish he'd just serve up the coffee.
It's balanced, tasteful and carefully rendered, but it feels too carefully measured to be real. I prefer the pulp and the grittiness of Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things, a much earthier and more enjoyable picture about London immigrants.
No one is allowed to explode with emotion in this picture because if they did, it might interrupt our admiration of Minghella's carefully constructed story, with all its 'profound' connections.
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.
Its waywardness may not make for the tightest of narratives, but it certainly gives the movie the pulse of real, random life
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?
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.
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.
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.
It doesn't have the kind of flair, impact or resonance we've come to expect from the director.
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...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- Breaking and Entering at Rotten Tomatoes
- Breaking and Entering at IGN
- Breaking and Entering at AskMen
Fresh Links
Featured

Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.

Last week, Moviefone offered us their worst films of the 2000s. Now see their 40 best!

Hollywood.com explores why QT's characters resonate so well with audiences.

TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.

Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic


