Breaking and Entering

Jude Law plays a role that cuts close to home as Will Francis, an architect who pursues an extra-marital relationship with the mother of a boy who’s been breaking into his office. The story is sparked by this repeat breaking and entering of acrobatic teen thief Miro (Rafi Gavron, performing his own stunts) and the impact it has on the two families, who are both broken by their own unique circumstances. The parallels between the two families are heavy, with both children being obsessed with movement — Will’s daughter has a condition, Miro’s acrobatic roof jumping — and Miro’s father is physically absent, while Will is also absent from his own family emotionally and increasingly, physically, as he spends more and more time staking out his office trying to catch the thief in action. Will’s departure from his sterile, challenging home life becomes pronounced as he begins keeping company with a prostitute named Oana (played with fearless grit and wit by Vera Farmiga). While their relationship stays plutonic, it acts as a precursor to the self-destructive escape hatch of lust Will is trying to pry open. He finds his opening in Miro’s mother, Amira (the ever luminous and engaging Juliette Binoche), a woman brimming with compassion and vitality, the polar opposite of his drained, cold ghost of a wife Liv (an effective Robin Wright Penn). The fragile moral ground his characters tiptoe around is Anthony Minghella’s platform to examine the inexplicable nature of love and compassion, and he does so with great affection and recklessness. A highly informative commentary track with director Minghella reveals a meticulously researched film by an insightful and purposeful filmmaker. It also speaks of the great influence of music on his work, in this case specifically that of PJ Harvey and Underworld, the latter who collaborated on the film’s score with composer Gabriel Yared. There is a standard "making of” feature and theatrical trailer, along with deleted scenes featuring more quality commentary by the director.