ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Anthony Minghella's first movie as writer/director since 1991's Truly Madly Deeply is set in the same hermetically sealed world of jolly nice poshies as its precedessor. However, that world is soon fractured by crime. Jude Law is a landscape architect whose chilly existence with his Scandinavian wife (Robin Wright Penn) is shaken up by Juliette Binoche, playing a poor immigrant seamstress. It's a smart film, but like much of Minghella's output, it is too polite to grip.

Once you get past the implausible prettiness of its toothsome stars, Breaking and Entering is essentially a class-war Romeo and Juliet. Law's character, frustrated by a series of burglaries at his swanky office, trails the young burglar to a council estate, where he encounters Binoche, a Bosnian refugee who represents a humanity absent from his brittle home life. Naturally, his attempts to woo her land everyone in deep trouble.

"IT'S HARD TO FEEL SORRY FOR A MAN WHO'S BOINKING JULIETTE BINOCHE"

Minghella has some interesting things to say about the jagged edges of a multicultural society, but the coldness of his characters eventually seeps into the brain like poison. Law, never the most likeable of actors, can do little with a figure whose wealth is matched only by his selfishness. This may be the point, but after a couple of hours in his company (to say nothing of the perpetually moaning Penn), you feel like throwing heavy objects at the lot of them. After all, it's hard to feel that sorry for a man who's good looking, loaded and boinking Juliette Binoche. The only sparks of humour and, yes, warmth are provided by Ray Winstone as a Lahndan copper, and Martin Freeman as Law's business partner. Cleverly scripted and socially relevant it may be, but Breaking and Entering is unlikely to steal your heart.