What is worse: the theft of material possessions or the theft of someone's heart? That's the intellectually engaging premise.
Breaking and Entering (2007)
Tomatometer
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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.
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
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Reviews for Breaking and Entering
[Minghella] is once again working from his own original screenplay, and it seems to bring out the best in him.... extra credit points for making the first non-action film to incorporate the sport of Parkour...
This story's ultimate resolution is saccharine. (Even the hooker turns out to have a heart of gold.) But it's still heartening.
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.
The inner city doesn't work for either Minghella or Law in this tedious pot-boiler that even Juliette Binoche can't pull out of the fire
Perhaps the kindest way to describe Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering is to say it's evident as being broken fairly early during the proceedings.
A thought-provoking and ethically-charged film that greatly expands our moral understanding of the act of stealing.
From its class warfare premise to the presence of Juliette Binoche, Breaking and Entering plays out like a softer, more cuddly version of Michael Haneke's Caché.
A betrayal of a dedicated cast and a middlebrow demographic that deserves better than this handsome, pedagogical tongue bath whether it asks for it or not.
Minghella raises social issues his film may not be providing answers for... or, less than acceptable ones.
It's a smart film, but like much of Minghella's output, it is too polite to grip.
Full of interesting characters, intelligently conceived scenes and funny lines...
Minghella is a master at texture and depth, which makes up for some frustration with the characters
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.
This timely anatomy of one problematic neighborhood, where race, class, and sex interface and crash (as in the film Crash) begins well but then escalates into heavyhanded melodrama marred by implausible subplots, allegorical meanings, and pat ending.
Breaking and Entering is an intelligent movie with a great supporting cast -- virtues that prove to be its undoing.
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 |
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| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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