This is the kind of cinema that we always hope to see - brilliantly fresh, tight script, beautifully shot, amazing performances, an autobiographical-based story of the directory himself, Sir Kenneth Branagh, and ... Van Morrison soundtrack. In essence, it's a coming-of-age movie of an adolescent, set against "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland. Buddy has a special love for movies and theater, encouraged by his cranky, old grandmother (Dame Judi Dench). The beautiful relationship between the grandfather and grandmother is mirrored perfectly in the mother and father, and then again in Buddy's budding romance with Catherine. There's so much going on in the film that it's very nearly a tone poem.
I wanted to like this more than I did. It's fine, but it just doesn't resonate terribly well with me. Not to mention it feels a bit like a stage-play, taking place all on one street. I understand it's supposed to be the world through a child's eyes, but there's not much there. Conversations and issues feel breezed through, and yet 'Belfast' sags in the middle around the third time they have the same set of conversations. It's good enough, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone.
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