Belfast (2021)

(On Cable TV, August 2022) Given enough time, all long-running filmmakers with serious artistic intentions will end up making an autobiographical film, even for fanciful values of “autobiographical.” So it is that, with Belfast, it’s Kenneth Branagh’s turn to fictionalize his late-1960s upbringing—and given the time and place, this means dramatizing the start of “The Troubles,” which defined life in the city for the next few decades. Much of the action focuses on a nine-year-old boy (born the same year as Branagh) as he sees some grown-up issues flare up in violence and potential exile. The story concerns the boy’s working-class family and how they react to the fights and arson taking place on their front steps. Mostly filmed in black-and-white, the film has a better-than-expected narrative forward momentum. The script cleverly alternates between boyish pursuit and wider social concerns, but never quite forgetting the kind of audience-pleasing elements required to make this more than a home movie writ large. I’m actually being effusive in my praise when I conclude that I didn’t dislike it as much as I expected to—such coming-of-age films are usually fine but not compelling, so Belfast slightly exceeds expectations. I’m sure it will play far better to audiences who connect with the setting or the characters, because they’re executed about as vividly as they could be. Even the ending is both surprising and poignant, as the characters make a choice that may not be the one we expect—and then acknowledge in the end-titles that other people make the right opposite choice. Not bad—while Belfast is far from being a personal favourite of 2021, I can see why it earned so much praise.