Belfast

I have been looking forward to Belfast, Kenneth Branagh's lovely and wistful ode to community and family, for months and I finally had the opportunity to see it last night.  The movie takes place in the titular city in 1969 and opens with nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) fighting imaginary dragons with a wooden sword and the lid to a trash can as a shield.  His Ma (Caitriona Balfe) calls him home to dinner and everyone on his street knows him and calls out to him as he passes by but soon the street is the scene of a riot as a mob of Protestants target the houses of Catholics.  Buddy's shield is now used by his Ma to protect them from the falling debris from the bombs in an incredibly powerful scene.  His Pa (Jamie Dornan) refuses to get drawn into "the Troubles" but worries for his family because he is forced to leave them for weeks at a time to work in England while his Ma worries about paying their back taxes.  Amidst these worries, Buddy's days are taken up with visiting the local cinema, spending time with his Pop (Ciaran Hinds) and Granny (Judi Dench), and trying to get the girl (Olive Tennant) he likes at school to notice him.  As the violence escalates, Pa is offered a permanent job in England and the family must decide whether to leave the only home they have ever known and their family and friends to start a new life.  I loved this movie so much!  The hazy black and white cinematography, the camera angles that mimic the viewpoint of a child, and the use of vignettes to tell the story are brilliant because sometimes childhood memories can be fleeting and fractured.  I loved the references to the movie High Noon, particularly the scene where Buddy views his Pa as the lone hero fighting to keep him safe because children often idealize the adults in their lives.  I also really loved all of the music by Van Morrison (who, like Branagh, hails from Belfast) because it really evokes the mood of that time and place.  The entire cast is wonderful (it was so nice to see Dench in a good movie after a few recent duds and the scene where Granny reminisces about her favorite film is another one of my favorites) but Hill is especially endearing and he portrays the wide-eyed innocence of a child trying to understand what is going on around him so well.  Finally, the narrative really resonated with me because my immediate family moved away from our extended family and friends in Canada to come to the United States when I was close to the same age as Buddy.  I was trying to keep my emotions in check (I did not want a repeat of this embarrassing situation) as the inevitable conclusion drew near but I completely lost it when Buddy says goodbye to his friend from school.  I said goodbye to my best friend Scott in a very similar way (I wonder what he is doing now) and this scene brought the memory back to me.  In my opinion, this movie is a must-see for everyone who has nostalgia for the place they are from and I highly recommend it!