When it comes to the Oscar race, there will often be a film that is anointed at the front runner just to falter once it’s actually released.   It may be hard to believe now but, way back in 2013, almost every Oscar pundit spent the early part of the year predicting that George Clooney’s The Monuments Men would be a major contender.  Martin Scorsese’s Silence suffered a similar fate in 2016.  Sometimes, it’s because the films in question are truly flawed.  The Monuments Men pretty much confirmed that Clooney’s directorial instincts were aggressively middlebrow.  Sometimes, it’s because the film itself turns out to appeal to a very narrow audience.  That was the case with Silence, one of the most Catholic films ever released by a major studio.  Unfortunately, when these front runners falter, they tend to get hit by a backlash, with some critics and audience members seeming to take it personally that the film was not as much of a triumph as they were expecting.

That was certainly the case with Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast.  Released in 2021, Belfast spent much of the year being touted as the obvious front runner for Best Picture.  Seriously, how could the Academy resist it?  Not only was the film in black-and-white but it was said to be Branagh’s most personal film.  One of the best actors in the Western World, the man who had revived cinematic interest in Shakespeare, had now written and directed a film about his youth in Belfast.  The film would deal with growing up as a protestant during the early days of the  Troubles.  Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe where playing Branagh’s parents.  The great Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds were playing his grandparents.  For all the acclaim that he had received over the years, Kenneth Branagh had yet to actually win an Oscar.  Indeed, some felt that, pre-Belfast, it was a bit embarrassing that he had only been nominated for twice for his acting and once for his direction.

However, when Belfast came out, critics were complimentary but, at the same time, there was a slight undercurrent of disappointment in most of the reviews.  Belfast was good, they seemed to be saying, but it wasn’t as good as they were expecting.  Some members of Film Twitter was practically savage towards the film, as if Branagh had personally insulted them by making a nostalgic film about his childhood.  Belfast received seven Oscar nominations but it was no longer the Oscar front runner.  That role had been assumed by the technically impressive but emotionally remote The Power of the Dog.

Belfast has its flaws.  Some scene works better than others, the ending is a bit overdone, and, for a film that was sold as being a memoir, some of the scenes do feel a bit familiar as if Branagh spent his childhood imitating moments from other coming-of-age films.  That said, I liked Belfast and I don’t think it deserved all of the criticism that it received.  Young Jude Hill did a wonderful job as Buddy, the Kenneth Branagh stand-in.  Jamie Dornan proved that he was capable of more than one might have suspected based on his work in the Fifty Shades of Grey films.  He and Caitriona Balfe were a compelling couple and the actors had such a strong chemistry that I found myself wishing that the film had been even more about their marriage.  At this point, we take actresses like Judi Dench and actors like Ciaran Hinds for granted but both of them are truly wonderful in this film.  At its best, Belfast captures the feeling of being young and not realizing that the world is basically collapsing around you.  Buddy may be growing up in the shadow of The Troubles but, until the unrest literally comes into his home, he just wants to enjoy movies and have fun with his friends. Belfast is nostalgic and sometimes a bit predictable in its storytelling but it’s gorgeous to look at and the acting won me over.

In then end, the Academy honored neither Belfast nor The Power of the Dog for Best Picture but instead another film about family, the far more straight-forward CODA.  Branagh, however, did win his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.