The most important standout of the new movie “Belfast”, both written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, is seeing how outstanding the black and white cinematography is – about as good as any black and white film I have ever seen.

This story is about Belfast Ireland in 1969, during a 4 day period of riots from August 12-16 that marked the beginning of an almost 30 year conflict known as “The Trouble” , with conflicts and violence between Catholics and Irish Nationalists. This story was created from Kenneth Branagh’s own experiences with his family during this period in Ireland. The problem I had with this film is that there was too much concentration with the main characters in the family, that played too much like a soap opera and not enough attention given to the important history of this 30 year conflict.

This film stars Jude Hill, as the 10 year old boy, Caitriona Balfe as his mother and Jamie Dornan as the boys father and Judi Dench as his grandmother. The acting is very good, and due to the history this film represents and the great cinematography, this film might just get a best picture nomination.

For me, I thought that the extremely high 88% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for this movie are too high, with my rating around 78% and a solid recommendation.