Belfast ★★★★
THIS year’s Best Film Oscar is likely to be a fight between Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog and Kevin Branagh’s Belfast.
Campion’s film is excellent but Belfast ticks more of the Academy’s boxes.
It’s British, which is kind of exotic in the US, it’s filmed in black and white, it celebrates the power of film, its much-admired director hasn’t won before, it’s very accessible and inoffensive to all audiences.
Finally, and most importantly, it’s also very good.
Belfast is Branagh’s love letter to his home town, his extended family and the community village that loved and raised him before it was torn apart by sectarian violence that scattered many of its population to the corners of the world over many decades.
Dedicated to “those who left and those who stayed”, it starts with a colour, contemporary montage that also nods to those who have returned over the years to build a modern, cosmopolitan city.
From a shot across today’s suburban rooftops Branagh takes us back a half century to the typical setting of his childhood on a neighbourhood street in 1969. It’s at this point the film goes to black and white.
Young Buddy’s life is almost idyllic. His father has to work away, but their bond is strong.
Every day Buddy has his loving, resourceful and strong mother to guide and nurture him and his elder brother while their grandparents are nearby to provide love and sage advice.
The street is full of friends and life and neighbours who look out for each other.
We learn all this very quickly in Branagh’s economic portrait that opens with a sequence establishing the close-knit family and community ties.
Just as quickly this scene is torn apart by violence as sectarian forces start a campaign to divide communities and force Catholics from their homes.
Buddy’s family is Protestant but his parents are prepared to set aside the dangerous rhetoric from the pulpit and treat everyone fairly and decently.
As the street is forced to barricade its entrances and British troops patrol the streets, Buddy’s father resists demands that he join the movement aimed at driving Catholics away by all means possible, including violence and intimidation.
The conflict and tension is told and shown from Buddy’s perspective, building to a dangerous confrontation in the midst of another riot.
While it’s set in this dramatic era, Branagh’s film is also very humorous in the moments when it shows the character that contributed to the stoicism and resilience of the Irish people.
In order to successfully achieve this balance the acting performances have to be first-rate and there isn’t a weak link.
Newcomer Jude Hill as Buddy is one of those child actors you can’t even believe exist while Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe are thoroughly believable as his parents.
Dame Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds are also marvellous in their supporting roles as the grandparents…although aren’t they always.
Belfast has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and is likely to take out a few.