From the very first beginning I felt I was watching ROMA, but just in a different city.
Belfast has a deep story about what was happening at this time, yet I felt that Branagh has barely touched the surface of the story. The struggles that were happening at the time were not shown, as a viewer I didn't feel it. As a viewer coming from a different nationality, watching the movie, i would expect to know and understand from the movie, the problems and struggles the characters were going through; but i didn't, it was shallow. The characters themselves I didn't feel what they're going through and what they're feeling, nothing. The movie is a shortcut of a story, but we want the full story, we want to get deeper, we want to know what was happening, we want to end the movie attached to the characters and to the story. The movie didn't have anything unique to say about the characters or that era.
The movie is close to director's heart, but I didn't feel this. This story and its meaning to the director deserves to be felt, it deserves to be shown deeply but this didn't happen.
Also, the influence from ROMA bothered me. ROMA was out in 2018, BELFAST was in 2021, I wish I could've seen something new and creative, even if you're going to be influnced by another movie, where is your signature?
In addition to that, I ended ROMA, totally immersed in the story and attached to the characters, that I didn't want the movie to end, I want to keep living with them. In BELFAST, I ended it feeling nothing, I don't know what are those characters feeling, even their names didn't stick to my memory. Even the movie posters are alike.
At the end, it was a nice movie to watch, but I expected to see more out of it, there are so many things that could be added to it to make it a strong movie.
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