Will Francis (Jude Law) opens a new architecture office in the transitioning London neighborhood Kings Cross. He and his girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright Penn) are growing distant and her autistic daughter Bea is one of the reasons. Meanwhile Amira (Juliette Binoche) is worried about her son Miro (Rafi Gavron) slipping into criminal activity. They're from Bosnia and his father was killed during the war. Miro is teamed up with his cousin Zoran (Ed Westwick) in the family crime business. They break into Will's office to steal computers. Miro steals the valuable miniatures for his own artistic work and is given Will's personal computer as a reward. They rob the place a second time and Will's partner Sandy (Martin Freeman) almost runs into them. Detective Bruno Fella (Ray Winstone) investigates. Will and Sandy decide to stake out their own offices and encounter prostitute Oana (Vera Farmiga) working in the area. One night, Will catches Miro and follows him all the way home. Instead of directing the cops to the thieve, he starts a relationship with his mother.This is written and directed by Anthony Minghella. I have no specific problems with the directions. It is all about the writing. It is overloaded with class warfare melodrama. Everybody has their own dramas. There is just too much. That's not to say there is nothing worthwhile. Binoche is amazing in this. If this is a simple movie about her and her son, this could be an award worthy performance. Again there are so many characters who each have their own drama. Minghella could easily cut out Sandy and Oana. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Will and his family drama either. The complicated melodrama is simply too complicated.

This was almost a really good movie, following criminals, immigrants and well-to-do professional types in London's King's Cross neighborhood.Jude Law looks good and does a fine job as an architect staking out and tracking the thief who twice broke into his office. Along the way he hops into a bathtub and begins an affair with the 15 year old thief's mother (Juliette Binoche) -she's a Serbian refugee, trying to blackmail him into not pressing charges against her son. Robin Wright plays Law's live in girlfriend -she's meant to be Swedish but her accent is terrible and her character all over the place. I expected better from her as I'm usually a fan.The story itself never really comes together, even at the end when all the characters intersect, it wasn't fulfilling. I did enjoy seeing Sherlock's (Martin Freeman) here and also liked the Serbian boys 'jumping' all over Kings Cross while they burgled people. Good acting from "the thief" and Binoche. 02.23.14

Though I would rate it six out of ten, still it is one of the movies I got fully engrossed in, while watching it alone in a theater and couldn't stop myself writing a good review. It had few moments of emotional intimacy, likely to be impossible between complete strangers in real world, because we too often end up hurting people and a strange defense mechanism of formality exist among us, preventing such moments from happening. I am not a big fan of Jude Law, but he manages to seem believable and this one is not an exception. In the whole bunch of actors Juliette Binoche stands out, she has this hint of compassion in her expressions, making her look so beautiful, but it is her acting that makes this movie special and recommendable.

Breaking and Entering focuses on Will,(Jude Law) a landscape architect who succeeds in business but finds his personal life is tougher to navigate. He has been with Liv (Robin Wright Penn), for years, but it's difficult to connect with her due to her worry over her autistic teenage daughter. When Will catches a teenage boy named Miro (Ravi Gafron) breaking into his office, he chases the thief home. He later meets the boy's mother, a Bosnian refugee played by Juliette Binoche. His anger at Miro is quickly transformed into attraction to his mother, further complicating his relationship with Liv... I remember watching Breaking and Entering more then a year ago but, at the time, I thought it was a bit dull and slow paced and I ended up seeing only the first half. After all this time, I decided to give the film a second try mainly because it stars Jude Law, a great actor that usually does the kind of films I like, emotional dramas, often very character-driven, about relationships and the human nature. And that is exactly what Breaking and Entering is, and this time around I truly enjoyed the film even though it's far from being great. I guess you could say Breaking and Entering is an acquired taste. Those looking for instant gratification will be disappointed, on the other hand,those looking for a cleverly-written adult drama will be pleased, I think. See, the story is quite simple but the human nature is very complex, the reason why we do the things we do, our emotions, why we respond to certain situations in a certain manner, that's what's interesting about the story and it's the kind of thing the film tries to tap into. Visually, Breaking and Entering is quite stunning with beautiful cinematography and some great locations. The film was well acted with Jude Law delivering the best performance. In the end maybe the film should have been a little shorter, it would probably please a wider audience, but, it's like I mentioned before, Breaking and Entering is an acquired taste, it won't please the masses, that's for sure but, for those like me, who enjoy raw and realistic emotional dramas, I think it's a film worth watching. 7/10