Breaking and Entering

Stars: Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn, Rafi Gavron, Martin Freeman, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga

Director: Anthony Minghella

His relationship with his partner (Wright Penn) creaking under the burden of her autistic daughter, architect Will (Law) is further distracted by a series of burglaries at the London firm he runs with his partner Sandy (Freeman), where they have grandiose plans for the re-development of Kings Cross, described as an area of 'poverty, crime, vice and urban decay'.

Keeping a watch on the premises, he spots a youth (Gavron) attempting to break in, and pursues, finding that the boy's mother (Binoche) is a woman he has encountered earlier in a playground.

The path of the plot is pretty predictable from here on, but the film is well made, even if Law's dialogue sounds like the author - Minghella, who also directed - writing, rather than anything someone would actually say.

Binoche is predictably fine, but Wright Penn too cool for the sympathy we should be offering her. Meanwhile, Freeman and Winstone both make the most of what are virtually non-parts.

David Quinlan

UK 2006. UK Distributor: Buena Vista. Colour by De Luxe.
119 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 05 Nov 2006