Belfast
Year: 2021
Rating: PG-13
Length: 98 minutes / 1.63 hours
It seems a little odd to me that there are so many films that focus on historic events, but this is the first one I’ve seen about “The Troubles” in Ireland. I was loosely aware of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in late-1960s Ireland, but Belfast (2021) felt like the first time anyone brought this topic to the big screen. It’s clearly a personal story for director Kenneth Branagh, which is likely how it gained its notoriety in the lead-up to awards season. The problem with Belfast, though, lies in some of its inconsistencies.
I understand that Schindler’s List (1993) can get away with incorporating moments of color in an otherwise black-and-white film. However, when it happened in Belfast, it completely pulled me out of the story. It would have been much better to just keep the monochromatic aesthetic throughout instead of trying to be artistically edgy. I don’t consider 1969 as a “black and white” era, which brings its own issues for this stylistic choice, but at least I could roll with it for most of this film. It certainly aided some of the excellent cinematography present in this “small” setting.
For such a significant part of Ireland’s history, this plot felt a little light. Clocking in at a scant 98 minutes, Belfast only focuses on the struggles of an individual family affected by The Troubles. This makes a few set pieces have more emotional heft to them but isn’t quite enough to flesh out both sides of the conflict. And maybe that’s the point? Many conflicts in this world boil down to differences between two groups of people, but the only difference between the Catholics and Protestants was which sect of Christianity they followed. Then again, people usually fight civil wars on ideological issues, so it makes sense. Belfast could have brought more depth to it, though.
A somewhat shallow and simple representation of The Troubles, I give Belfast 4.5 stars out of 5.
