Weekend Watch: Belfast And Home Sweet Home Alone
Kenneth Branagh channels his younger years and a remake tries to switch up a past treasure
Image Credit: Focus Features
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Kenneth Branagh looks back and Home Alone resets. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
Kenneth Branagh has shown a keen ability to leap between different genres in his directorial career. He has, of course, had success bringing Shakespeare to the screen, but has also handled one of the key launch films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an Agatha Christie adaptation (with a sequel on the way), a Disney live-action fairy tale, and many more. His work doesn’t always hit its target, but with Belfast, he’s dug even deeper than usual, drawing from his own past to tell a story of a family set against one of the most turbulent times in Northern Ireland’s history.
Belfast isn’t a biopic, but it’s very much based on Branagh’s upbringing. It follows Buddy, played (winningly) by newcomer Jude Hill. He’s growing up in a 1960s Belfast that is increasingly divided along political and religious lines – violence is flaring in the streets and homes are ransacked. His father, Pa (Jamie Dornan), believes there should be no sides, but he faces his own pressures from the factions. And then there’s the work situation; he’s often away in England, leaving his wife (Catriona Balfe) to run the family and despair over their finances. Both Dornan and Balfe bring nuance and charm to their respective roles, but the highlights (even though they’re supporting characters) are Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds, who play Buddy’s grandparents. Dench never met a scene she couldn’t steal, while it’s fun to see Hinds break out of villainous roles to play a character with absolute warmth.
Branagh brings a light touch to his film, shooting in monochrome and evoking plenty of period detail – I might not have been alive in the 1960s, but even I was thrilled by Buddy’s Christmas gift of a Thunderbirds outfit and vehicles. The writer/director also doesn’t let the division drama get in the way of a gentle story about Buddy’s life. While even he must confront what is happening around him, and the events will end up influencing his family’s decision to move to England, his tale is mostly about a girl he fancies in school or dealing with his grandparents’ ailing health.
Hill brings all that to the front in an unfussy, charming lead performance, which bounces well off Balfe in particular. Though Branagh’s script sometimes feels a tad episodic, there’s plenty of entertainment value to be found in its weaving a tapestry of family squabbles, political pressure, and childlike wonder in the world.
After stumbling with Artemis Fowl, this certainly represents Branagh back at the height of his powers and sure to be in the awards discussion.
Belfast is in US cinemas now. It’ll be out in the UK on 22 January.
Image Credit: Disney+
The word “remake” is a loaded one. And usually, when spoken aloud or written in film circles, it is met with disgusted or dramatically bored, Hollywood-out-of-ideas reactions. That’s a natural response given how many remakes (and their higher-end sibling re-imaginings) tend to be awful, a waste of a recognizable name in the service of providing a studio or a streaming outlet with some easy IP fodder.
Remakes, then, really must work hard to justify their existence. Why should we bother to give them our attention when the originals exist? When you can dig out that beloved disc or flip over to another online system and just watch whichever movie or show you loved way back when?
Home Sweet Home Alone arrives with more baggage than an irate passenger whose flight has just been cancelled. It at least has a solid go of arguing why it should even be a thing. Taking the 1990 Chris Columbus-directed and John Hughes-written comedy and turning it into something fresh was never going to be the easiest challenge, but the team behind this new Disney+ release manage to find a few fresh angles.
The basic setup remains the same: a kid is left home alone by his family when they go on a Christmas holiday, and two people break into the house, forcing him to fight back against them. But in Home Sweet Home Alone, there are different motivations all over the place – the home invaders here are Pam (Elli Kemper) and Jeff McKenzie (Rob Delaney), a usually law-abiding couple who have hit hard times and are facing having to sell their house. When they suspect that Max (Archie Yates) has stolen a potentially priceless doll from them, they decide to get it back. Max, whose parents, uncles and cousins have all headed to Tokyo, must defend his house.
This new film doesn’t have the layers that Columbus and Hughes brought to their film(s), and when it does look to replicate the emotion, it layers on the schmaltz a little too thickly. But the comedy is amiable enough, has all the pratfalls that you’d expect, and features Yates playing a character that is different enough from Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McAllister to stand out. Kemper and Delaney, meanwhile, are game enough when it comes to the wackiness and have agreeable chemistry. There are also a few nods to the original that manage to raise a knowing smile instead of feeling like cheap nostalgia. It certainly doesn’t seem destined to become an annual holiday classic like either of the first two Home Alone films, but it doesn’t totally embarrass itself either.
If you’re ready to hate this one on its existence alone, perhaps give it a shot (or find some kids to plunk in front of it). After all, the second film in the original franchise features Donald Trump. Which, in hindsight at least, is a worse crime against cinema.
Home Sweet Home Alone is on Disney+ now.