[FILM]
BELFAST
Family values: Jamie Dornan as Pa with Jude HIll as Buddy.
★★★★
OUT 21 JANUARY
CERT 12A / 98 MINS
DIRECTOR Kenneth Branagh
CAST Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Jude Hill
PLOT Belfast, August 1969. As the Protestants mount a full-on assault on Catholic households, nine-year-old Buddy (Hill) is coming to terms with love, religion, growing up and the prospect of leaving his stomping ground for a life in England.
BELFAST, KENNETH BRANAGH’S semiautobiographical take on growing up in Northern Ireland’s capital during the tumultuous ’60s, ends with a dedication for the ones who stayed, left and were lost. It’s a sentiment redolent of the filmmaker’s big-hearted, emotionally direct approach. While it lacks the dramatic heft of the similar Roma, Branagh applies epic filmmaking style, driven by a bouncy Van Morrison score, to a small, intimate scenario. Winning the People’s Choice Award at Toronto, Belfast doesn’t tell a linear yarn; instead, it’s an assemblage of anecdotes and moments that will charm and spark with wherever and whenever you grew up.