'Belfast' review: Kenneth Branagh's poignant coming-of-age story

A blissful boyhood is disrupted by brutal politics in Kenneth Branagh’s "Belfast," a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale set in 1969. Even today, Belfast is synonymous with what the Irish called The Troubles, a bloody sectarian conflict with historical roots deeper than most outsiders could fathom. Given its title, then, you’d expect "Belfast" to be marked by burning cars, storefront looting and the violence of neighbor against neighbor.

You’d be right — and yet Branagh’s movie is largely sweet, poignant and upbeat. Shot in glossy, photo-album black-and-white, the movie is more interested in the little pleasures of childhood than the dead-serious problems of adults. There’s something refreshing about that — but there’s something frustrating about it, too.

A charming Jude Hill plays nine-year-old Buddy, a clear stand-in for writer-director Branagh; their faces even have the same square-ish shape. Buddy’s hardscrabble but close-knit family includes Ma (a winning Caitríona Balfe), Pa (Jamie Dornan) and an older brother, Will (Lewis McAskie). The parents are young and attractive, almost television-perfect, though there are cracks in the facade: Pa works in far-off London, leaving Ma to dodge the bill collectors. Buddy, meanwhile, occupies himself with school, movies ("High Noon" is a favorite) and a pretty "wee girl" in his class.

Colorful neighborhood chatter soon turns to the boiling antipathy between Protestants, such as Buddy’s family, and Catholics. Ma tows a liberal line: "Same as us," she says, "they just kick with the left foot." Pa is less sanguine: He’s being pressured to pick a side by a local ruffian, Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan). Billy is a familiar figure — the angry loser who has finally found a cause — and he injects a chill of fear into this mostly cozy film.

What tension there is comes from Pa, who faces a difficult choice: Stay in his quickly-spiraling hometown, or pull up roots and leave, perhaps for faraway Australia. Generally, though, Branagh’s film either shies away from conflict or treats it lightly. Billy’s beating of an uncooperative neighbor borders on slapstick, and a climactic showdown during a riot takes on a winkingly Western tone.

With its present-day shots of a thriving Belfast (in color) and songs by Ireland’s poet-mystic laureate, Van Morrison, "Belfast" is a fond if slightly glancing salute to Branagh’s native land. The most moving moments come from Buddy’s live-in grandparents, played by Judi Dench and Belfast-born Ciarán Hinds, who shower the boy with love and rascally wisdom. If "Belfast" dominates the upcoming Oscars, as some pundits predict, it may be largely due to a message that many of us want to hear right now: That love can survive conflict, and that peace is always at hand.