Breaking and Entering 2006

Critics score:
34 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A smart, well-mannered film that could use a little more juice and fire. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: In the end, the film wraps up awfully neatly considering how sloppy and unraveled the characters' lives had been at the height of their conflicts. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Many talented directors have a Breaking and Entering in them, and some -- like Anthony Minghella -- have the misfortune of being successful enough to have it green-lit. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The complicated interactions involving class and culture that ensue between all these characters remain fascinating even when they seem overly schematic. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Starts busily, and soon becomes a bafflement -- such an interesting cast, such technical excellence, so many intricate details and parallel plot threads, yet so little clarity or urgency. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering shimmers with good intentions and competency: Its blue/gray palette is elegant and unobtrusive; its cast is uniformly fine with occasional startling moments of brilliance. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Breaking and Entering just hangs there, positing its theme of how the personal becomes political and the political becomes personal over and over, without ever grabbing either your heart or your mind. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: [Breaking and Entering is a] sophisticated and wonderfully particular character study... Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: With its overwritten, every-hair-in-place script, Breaking and Entering robs itself of reality. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Breaking and Entering is about a kind of white privileged guilt and the apologies that come with it. Minghella gingerly backs away from provocation, from realism. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Minghella raises some interesting questions on the subject of exile - whether from one's country, family, ethnic identity or self. But his conclusions feel pious and pat. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: For all its Bergmanesque agonizing, the film never digs too far under the surface. It fails to break and enter. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Despite its arty construction and clever dialogue, Breaking and Entering leaves us too chilly to care. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A sharp study in contrasts built on sturdy performances, Breaking and Entering manages to tackle immigration, youthful rebellion, family dynamics and, yes, love. The title doesn't merely refer to buildings, it also refers to hearts. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Breaking and Entering, not unlike a pair of other English dramas of recent vintage (Notes on a Scandal and The Queen), provides further proof that so-called serious filmmaking can be equally entertaining and provocative. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Breaking and Entering sighs and whimpers and waffles until, far from losing myself in this timid movie, I found myself wishing it would speak up. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A movie that is so tightly wrapped in highbrow airs and lofty significance, it forgets how to breathe. Only Vera Farmiga brings any trace of personality or spontaneity to the picture. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: If Breaking and Entering were a piece of music, it would be the kind to which you'd have to either listen closely the first time around or listen again to make sure you didn't miss anything. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Go see Anthony Minghella's jagged new drama, Breaking and Entering, and you'll feel as if you're getting two movies for the price of a single ticket. The bad news? Only one of these stories is actually worth your money. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Though Binoche does very solid work, she can't sell the idea of her and Law as a couple; the chemistry isn't there. Not much else rings true in Minghella's screenplay, which is full of coincidences and speeches about race and class. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: All in all, Breaking and Entering isn't a bad start for 2007. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: As with all of Minghella's films, there's intelligence and texture and depth and feeling, though here the emotions can seem frostbitten. Perhaps the first thing that wasn't working and needed to be fully broken to heal was the script. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Perhaps the kindest way to describe Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering is to say it's evident as being broken fairly early during the proceedings. Read more

Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: What are the meaningful connections between these people's lives? Are they real and significant, or are they just plot contrivances, the manipulation of pawns in an onscreen board game? Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Breaking and Entering is so bloodless that even Minghella's best ideas come off as wan and pale. We're aware of the angst and confusion these characters suffer, and yet the movie shows us nothing so messy as real pain. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Everything flows from the film's fundamental lethargy -- a hero without a spine, a romance without joy and a crime with neither moral rebuke nor consequences. No surprise that the story, like the protagonist, floats along in a noodly sort of way. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: An odd mix of the sophisticated and the sentimental. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Maybe Jude Law should take some time off from acting. Maybe Juliette Binoche should get a new dialect coach. Maybe Anthony Minghella should try writing a movie ending that doesn't make everybody groan. Read more

TIME Magazine: ...This is a movie that plods while we keep hoping it will soar. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: Diffuse, disappointing, and strangely out of touch. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Time Out: Minghella has drawn intimate love stories from supernatural fantasies and widescreen epics, but not even he can turn sappy corn into social commentary. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The first third of the movie is intelligent and sets up an intriguing premise. Then the plot takes unconvincing and unlikely turns that result in an ending that feels false and forced. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Anthony Minghella's film is conspicuously thoughtful and civilized as it provides a close-up snapshot of particular aspects of life in London at this moment. Read more

Nathan Lee, Village Voice: ... nothing but hot air. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: For all its contrivances (including Vera Farmiga's improbably erudite whore), Breaking and Entering has its finger on the pulse of contemporary London life and possesses its share of fleeting delights. Read more