Breaking and Entering

Jude Law stars as a London landscape architect whose life is turned inside out due to his changing relationships with his longtime partner (Robin Wright Penn) and co-parent of an autistic daughter, his Bosnian lover (Juliette Binoche), her thieving son, and the general difficulties and complications of finally taking responsibility for himself and those close to him. In his third collaboration with Law, writer/director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley) is clearly making a very personal work here dealing with physical and emotional theft. The basic story starts when Law must confront a young Muslim kid who is suspected of stealing from his office. This leads to an affair with the kid's mother, a fiercely protective woman who will put her son's welfare above anything else in life. With his other relationship falling apart, Law must deal with realities he never wanted to consider before. Welcome comic relief is provided by a Russian hooker, amusingly played by Vera Farmiga (The Departed), who is trying to elicit "business" from Jude and a friend. An intimate, but intriguing drama, Breaking and Entering refuses to be categorized, which is why it seems so intelligent, and sadly why it probably will struggle to find an audience willing to invest in these broken characters.