Rent Belfast (2021)

Beautifully crafted evocation of 1970 Belfast real life - Belfast review by JG

It's impossible to know what life was like for a 9 year-old boy in 1970 Belfast, but I feel as though this film could be a very realistic depiction. It is blessed with wonderful performances from all of the cast who imbue their characters with genuineness, warmth and depth. Stand-out Jude Hill gives us a nuanced and very believable Buddy. The cinematography is breathtaking throughout, and is ably carried along by a gorgeous Van Morrison soundtrack. The storytelling always feels grounded, and manages to avoid unnecessary sensationalism.

The beginning of The Troubles in N Ireland - Belfast review by CC

Particularly if you were not alive at this time (I was, so it was a painful reminder) this film will give an idea of how 2 communities were unable to live in peace, particularly with the extreme and entrenched views that were held on both sides, Protestant and Catholic, how the British Army became involved, and how living in the same city made things worse and more violent between the communities.

A small boy has to make sense of all this while civil war breaks out and his parents have to consider leaving for England but leaving his much loved and loving grandparents behind.

A powerful film documenting the past, but also giving understanding to the very real struggles at that time. Certainly helped me to understand the little 6 year old Belfast girl in 1972 who having come to London with her family, was in my class (I was at teacher in those days) and why it took her a whole school term to stop diving under a table every time there was a loud sound outside or someone slammed a door, in case it was the UDF, IRA or British Army come to grab someone.

Beautifully acted by all the characters.

Belfast - Belfast review by MS

Brilliant acting and script.  The atmosphere of the "Troubles" was very accurate.  Well worth watching.

An odd confection - Belfast review by SG

I could only watch the first 30 minutes, so that's this isn't a reliable review. The opening scenes were great, but it was down hill after that. The streets looked like a stage set and the people were straight out of central casting: perhaps that was intentional. It didn't engage me at all. I note that The Guardian loved it, so I should known it was likely to be a turkey.

A beautifully made, highly personal & emotional film showing the Troubles from a child's perspective - Belfast review by TB

This film is an absolute delight. It is clear very early on that this is a passion project for Kenneth Branagh, who is represented on screen by the character Buddy. For me, the best thing about it in many ways is how emphatically non-political it is. Absolutely it shows the tensions overall between Catholics and Protestants, none more so than in the opening minutes & in extremely shocking ways. But very quickly it becomes about the horror of the conflict overall & the impact on Buddy and his family's life living in Belfast.

We see Buddy bearing witness to his street and community changing before his very eyes, from happy & laughing to locked down & fearful. There are also individual & personal threats towards his family, particularly his hardworking father who, due to extreme unemployment levels, has to catch a ferry to the mainland & can only return certain weekends.

But amongst all of the horror & difficulty, there is also much brightness & humour. We see Buddy fall in love, succeed at school & get involved with a gang/commit relatively innocent but petty theft from the local sweetshop. There is also wonderful warmth & wisdom from his grandparents, who treasure their grandchildren but also know in their heart of hearts that where they are living is no place to raise children & provide everything they need.

I do genuinely love this film for all the reasons above. It is wonderfully acted, with both brilliant child actors as well as the seasoned professionals. For me, the stand-out performance was without question Caitríona Balfe as Buddy's mother. She has the almost insurmountable challenge of raising her children in the middle of a warzone which literally has meant their street is blocked off; trying to hold together her marriage despite her husband being away & bills piling up and worrying about everything else that a mother has to juggle, which would be massive without the aforementioned problems. Jamie Dornan & Ciarán Hinds are also great and of course Judi Dench is perfect as she always is.

This is a very inspiring & heartwarming film, full of laughs as well as shocks. It is also profoundly moving & I am so grateful that Branagh shared this with us all.

Self-indulgent bore - Belfast review by Alphaville

Maybe I was watching a different film to most reviewers. Kenneth Branagh has made some good films, but this vanity project about his own 9yo self amidst the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ of 1969 is a self-indulgent bore. The politics and shouty religiosity are a pain. The back streets of Belfast are as dreary a backdrop as you might expect. The child actors unfortunately lack subtlety. As for the score, if you don’t like a warbling Van Morrison you’ll have to turn the sound off. Good points? Nice monochrome lighting.

There’s a human story here if you can be bothered, but you can predict its substance even without seeing the film. All told, it’s the kind of earnest social-realist drama they used to show on TV in the 60s. This is not to minimise the plight of families at that time and place but (unlike most reviewers) to treat it as a FILM. Maybe something interesting happens near the end, but this reviewer had given up by then.

Visually stunning - Belfast review by NP

There is much to commend this film on several levels. The acting is superb from the entire cast. Technically, the cinematography is brilliant with much praise deserved for the attention to lighting, which I understand to be natural throughout. It does give the impression that it could work as a stage play but this is not a criticism. If you have a 7.1 system as I have, you will experience a good example of how to use surround sound effectively; it's never intrusive and its use comes over naturally without ever drawing undue attention to itself. One slight criticism is that much of the attention to period detail is 'signaled' - "look at the work that's gone into recreating this soap powder pack!" - and could have been more incidental. For me, and this was a completely bizarre surprise, I found it difficult to follow the story because my attention was constantly drawn to the absolutely stunning visual appearance of the image. In Blu-ray on a UHD screen, the detail just leaps out in an almost 3d impression. It really is so eye-catching that I found myself marveling at it constantly. I think I may need to watch it again.