Belfast 2021
This movie has been getting good reviews without much publicity, so I made sure to see it before it left theaters. It is basically writer and director Kenneth Branagh’s movie about growing up in Belfast around 1969 as The Troubles are boiling over. The 10 year old kid at the center is played well, as are most of the roles, but despite the background turmoil and some rocky patches, the movie is a little too sweet for its own good. Borrowing from 2018’s Roma, it is shot in black and white, but without quite the drama of that movie. The result is a nice family movie in that it is about a family and also could be enjoyed by families. There really isn’t a reason for the movie to be in black and white: They watch Star Trek and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which were made in color. There are brief bookends of present day Belfast in color maybe to differentiate the period. It is a nice movie with good performances and an interesting historical backdrop, but not a whole lot of meat to the story, just a story that could go a lot of different ways.
Written: 30 Nov 2021
Owned on: Digital