OSCARS 2022: Belfast (2021)

What’s your opinion on Kenneth Branagh? I first became aware of the guy through his supporting roles in big budget movies and his occasional forays into horror and thrillers. Of course, I soon learned that Branagh was much better known for adapting, directing, and starring in movies based on the works of William Shakespeare. Whether you can stomach Branagh always putting himself front and center, much less the pomp and circumstance of the Bard, is strictly a matter of taste. It’s not typically my thing but good for him. In recent years, Branagh has started directing big budget movies too, doing franchise gigs for Marvel, Disney, and whoever owns Jack Ryan. Yet his smaller films have earned him the most praise. This is definitely true of “Belfast,” his most personal work, which now has a good shot of being a Best Picture winner. 

Heavily inspired by Branagh’s own childhood, “Belfast” is the story of Buddy, a nine year old boy growing up in the titular Northern Ireland city in the late sixties. His father works in England, often leaving Buddy alone with his mom, older brother, and grandparents. This mostly idyllic childhood is complicated when the Troubles begins. Buddy’s family are Protestants themselves but do not align with the extremists persecuting Catholics, which make them a target as well. As Buddy attempts to navigate typical childhood challenges — school, crushes, law and order — his parents debate whether they can continue to live in a suddenly dangerous city. 

“Belfast” is a rather uncritically nostalgic motion picture. It’s aloft with the fuzzy feelings of childhood. Buddy is introduced playing with a toy sword and shield, pretending to be a brave knight. He has a crush on a little blonde girl in his class and she seems to reciprocate. His grandparents are sources of infinite wisdom, providing folksy and heavily accented nuggets of knowledge. Though his parents aren’t perfect, ultimately his dad is portrayed as a hero in his son’s eyes. Everybody in Belfast knows each other and the city, at least until the Troubles start, is depicted as quaint and lovable. The film is Branagh’s ode to his childhood home town and he’s not interested in deconstructing those warm memories. 

At times, “Belfast” feels a bit like a “Hope and Glory” style story, of a child’s naïve interpretation of the very serious things happening around him. A fire and brimstone sermon from the local Protestant preacher haunts Buddy, causing him to repeatedly return to the metaphor of a forked road. He overhears his parents argue and is occasionally privy to the family’s financial difficulties. The film is most compelling when Buddy is thrust right into things, when his mother’s morality comes into conflict with the violent state of the city. Yet “Belfast” never gives you any deeper understanding of what Buddy and his parents are feeling, much less a complicated sociopolitical conflict like The Troubles. It’s largely a movie about an adorable kid being adorable while a lot of crazy, bad shit that’s way over his head happens around him. 

So “Belfast” isn’t an especially nuanced or complex movie. Yet it’s not bad either. Branagh successfully transfer the cordial feelings he has towards his childhood and the city he grew up in to the viewer. This is largely thanks to the performances. Directing children can be tricky, so I’ll commend Branagh for getting a fine performance out of Jude Hill as Buddy. The kid has a natural charisma, seeming like a realistic little boy with all the naivety and messiness that implies. Jamie Dornan is charming as his father while Caitriona Balfe, as the mother, does probably the most complex, nuanced acting in the movie. Of course, esteemed actors like Dame Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds can be relied upon to play their parts with utmost professionalism. The occasional glint of sadness in Dench’s eyes, as the grandmother, and Hinds’ rowdy but affable anecdotes are some of the best things about the movie. It’s not like “perfect grandparents” are the deepest parts to play both these two are good at it. 

And the movie sure looks nice too. After some very digital drone shots of Belfast in the modern day in the first scene, we then transfer to lovely black-and-white scenes set in the past. Harris Zambarloukos’ cinematography provides the depth that is missing in the script, providing monochromatic images of streets and homes. The film has fun playing with its color palette too. Whenever Buddy is present for a performance — be that a movie, a play, or a sermon — what he sees is shown in blazing color. This is a good way to illustrate the impact these images have on the boy. 

In fact, “Belfast” is probably most interesting for the way pop cultures informs the boy’s view of reality. Westerns like “High Noon” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” influence his sense of right and wrong. Fantasies like “Star Trek,” “Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang,” and “One Million Years B.C.” provide escapes. On Christmas, he receives a lot of “Thunderbirds” toys and has a great time playing with them. If this is more-or-less Branagh’s own story, it’s easy to see how his love of cinema was implanted him at an early age. And the director, indeed, nods towards his own career, when he has Buddy read a “Thor” comic. The film could have put a lot more effort into exploring how Buddy uses pop culture to process the difficulties of growing up but “Belfast’s” surface level reading of this idea is all it’s interested in doing.

This approach, a director creating a loving tribute to how great his childhood mostly was, produces a film that is affable but frustratingly shallow. I wish Branagh would’ve acknowledge how nostalgia clouds our memories, creating an idealized version of the past that never existed. (The soundtrack is mostly made up of Van Morrison's biggest hits, furthering this nostalgic mood.) I wish he would’ve explored the story’s ambiguities — the father’s gambling, the troublemaking older girl Buddy befriends — more. You could even argue that setting such a romanticized story against Ireland’s bloodiest, most senseless conflict is irresponsible. Yet taken on its own merits, as a distinguished director looking back on his boyhood days with fondness,  “Belfast” is certainly successful. I guess I’m just too much of a sourpuss to really recommend a movie this totally, functionally fine that also squanders so much potential. [6/10]