There's no reason to criticize Belfast, writer-director Kenneth Branagh's autobiographical film set at the outset of the sectarian civil war that wracked Northern Ireland for decades. It's a loving depiction of a loving childhood about a loving child with loving parents and grandparents, and that's nice to see. There are wonderful performances here and the evocation of 1969 is enchanting.
But there's always a "but," so here's the "but": There's really not much to Belfast. It is in no way deepened, made more haunting, or made more powerful by its evocation of the Troubles as they were experienced on three square blocks of Belfast. Branagh wants to show us the growing violence through the eyes of Buddy (Jude Hill), the nine-year-old child he was, so sorting through why it was happening or...