Breaking and Entering (film)

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Breaking and Entering

Theatrical poster
Directed by Anthony Minghella
Produced by Timothy Bricknell
Anthony Minghella
Sydney Pollack
Written by Anthony Minghella
Starring Jude Law
Juliette Binoche
Robin Wright Penn
Music by Gabriel Yared
Underworld
Cinematography Benoît Delhomme
Editing by Lisa Gunning
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The Weinstein Company
Miramax Films
Alliance Films
Release date(s) December 15, 2006 (2006-12-15)
Running time 116 minutes
Country United Kingdom
United States
Language English
Box office $8,974,829[1]

Breaking and Entering is a 2006 romantic drama film, by Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella's first original screenplay since his 1991 feature debut, Truly, Madly, Deeply.

The film stars Jude Law (whom Minghella directed in Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley) and Juliette Binoche (from The English Patient, also directed by Minghella).

In a major supporting role, Robin Wright Penn plays Liv, the long-standing girlfriend of Will (Jude Law's character).

Set in a blighted, inner-city neighbourhood of London, Breaking and Entering examines an affair which unfolds between a successful British landscape architect and Amira, a Bosnian woman – the mother of a troubled teen son – who was widowed by the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Rafi Gavron, in his first major film role, portrays Miro. The role, that of a young traceur, and the burglar to which the film's title partly alludes, requires Gavron to perform several difficult physical feats.

It is a presentation of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company and was distributed in the U.S. by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Breaking and Entering premièred on September 13, 2006 at the Toronto International Film Festival.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Will Francis (Jude Law), a young Englishman, is a landscape architect living a detached, routine-based life in London with his Swedish-American girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and her behaviourally challenged daughter Bea. The 13-year-old girl's irregular sleeping and eating habits as well as her unsocial behaviour (she has trouble relating to people and seems only interested in doing somersaults and gymnastics) reach worrying proportions and start to put a lot of strain on Will and Liv's relationship. Complicating the situation further is his feeling of being shut out of their inner circle since Bea is not his biological daughter. He and Liv start relationship counseling, but their drifting apart continues.

Simultaneously on the business front, Will's and his partner Sandy's state-of-the-art offices in the Kings Cross area are repeatedly burgled by a group of Slavic-language speaking thieves. The thieves employ a 15-year-old traceur named Miro (Rafi Gavron) whose acrobatic skills allow them to enter the building. Miro is actually a refugee from Bosnia living with his Muslim mother Amira (Juliette Binoche) who works as a seamstress while his Serbian father got murdered during the war.

Though they're puzzled about the burglars' ability to disable the alarm, the two architects are not particularly worried after the first break-in, mostly writing it off to the neighbourhood's dodgy reputation. However, after the second one they decide to stake out the building after hours hoping to find the culprit and alert the police. Being out of the house on nightly stakeouts actually suits Will just fine, allowing him to get away from the cold atmosphere of his household. He even strikes up a strange acquaintance with an Eastern European prostitute named Oana (Vera Farmiga) who hangs around the area every night. Spotting Miro attempting to break in one night, Will attempts to follow him. This pursuit leads Will to the flat where Miro lives with his mother Amira. Realizing their modest living means, he decides not to report his findings to the police, but goes back to Amira's apartment under the guise of having a suit that needs mending.

He soon becomes emotionally entangled with her, causing him to re-evaluate his life. Conflict arises when the police close in on the burglars, and Will must make a crucial choice which will affect the lives of everyone around him.

[edit] Cast

Jude Law and Juliette Binoche experience an avalanche of conflicting emotion in Breaking and Entering.

[edit] Primary cast

[edit] Supporting cast

[edit] Filming locations

The film centres on the area of King's Cross, London. The filming location for Amira's flat is Rowley Way, South Hampstead, London. Since a suitable location near Kings Cross couldn't be found, Will's office was recreated in an old foundry located in Dace Road, by the Old Ford Lock, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.[3] Other locations include Primrose Hill, Camden Lock Market, Hackney Wick, Alexandra Palace, and Muswell Hill.

[edit] Reception

The film largely received negative reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes giving the film 34%.[4]

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Breaking and Entering (soundtrack)
Breaking and Entering
Soundtrack album by Gabriel Yared and Underworld
Released November 6, 2006 (UK)
December 5, 2006 (USA)
Recorded 2006, Abbey Road Studios, London, UK
Genre Film soundtrack
Length 57:13
Label V2 Records

Gabriel Yared and Underworld collaborated on the film's original music score.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Breaking and Entering (2006)". Box Office Mojo. 2007-04-26. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=breakingandentering.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 
  2. ^ "2006 Toronto International Film Festival". http://archives.torontointernationalfilmfestival.ca/home/default.asp. 
  3. ^ Behind the Scenes Metropolismag.com, September 2006 issue
  4. ^ "Breaking and Entering - Rotten Tomatoes". Uk.rottentomatoes.com. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/breaking_and_entering/. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 

[edit] External links

Films directed by Anthony Minghella
1970s
1990s
2000s
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