Amazon Prime: “Belfast” directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh

“Belfast” (on Amazon Prime and in theaters), Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film, portrays a city at war. Protestants and Catholics had been at each other’s throats for centuries in Northern Island, and in the late 1960s, things got especially violent. Many long-term Belfastians, both Protestant and Catholic, debated moving on to safer pastures and did.

The main drama in “Belfast,” set in 1969, is whether or not young Buddy (Jude Hill) and his family will make such a move themselves. Buddy’s working man dad, called simply “Pa”(played by a leaden Jamie Dorman from “50 Shades of Gray”) has a construction job and paid-for housing waiting near London. All he needs is the consent of his family, including his reluctant wife “Ma” (Caitriona Balfe) and their two sons. The movie presents the typical emigrant dilemma: it’s hard to leave but just as hard to stay behind.

Filmed in black-and-white, “Belfast” is 1 hour, 38 minutes long but the glacial pace

makes it feel much longer. Having said that, I would add that the film is worth watching if only for the performances of the child actors and those of the tried-and-true old timers, Judi Dentsch and the great Ciarin Hinds, as the grandparents who are left behind.

Fortunately, the film does show a pulse at certain moments, especially during the scenes of the radical Protestant mobs sacking Catholic-owned stores. Pa is suspected of being a softie in this sectarian violence as he will not join forces with the thuggish anti-Catholic ringleader (Colin Morgan). The standoff between the men is intercut with the scene from the movie “Shane.” Somewhere, Alan Ladd is shaking his head asking “why? why?”

I’ve always loved Sir Kenneth’s work. However, he’s done better than this. You can too.