Brian Easley (John Boyega) is a retired marine with his back against the wall.  His disability checks are being held up by the VA and he is unable to secure the money he needs to survive, let alone provide for his daughter, Kiah (London Covington) and ex-wife, Cassandra (Olivia Washington).  Seemingly out of options, he enters into a Wells Fargo building with intent to get the media coverage and attention needed to receive the money he is owed, or he will blow himself and the building up if his demands are not met.  With him in the bank for the harrowing afternoon are two employees, Rosa (Selenis Leyva) and Estel (Nicole Beharie), who try to keep Brian calm while he embarks on this crusade against the system that has wronged him. 

From Bleecker Street comes Breaking, written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin with assistance on the page by Kwame Kwei-Armah and based on true events.  The film garnered immediate comparison to Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and while on a surface level it holds true, the two films do not share much in the way of construction.  Editor, Chris Witt, is able to inject a good bit of suspense into the individual sequences, but the trajectory of the story is a little too wide to get the same sweaty, claustrophobic feeling of Lumet’s outing.  Breaking cuts away from the bank for long sequences that follow Lisa Larson (Connie Britton), a local news reporter, and Eli Bernard (Michael Kenneth Williams), the negotiator and an ex-marine himself.  The addition of these characters help drive the narrative forward, and while it was the right move to relocate and let audiences see them at work, it offers a little too much relief. 

Boyega, breaking away from the rabid and self-entitled gatekeepers of the Star Wars franchise, is given a chance to shine in the troubled and dramatic role of Brian and delivers his best performance to date.  His introduction in the film is a little rocky and is told in a brief and context-less sequence before the films finds the man walking aimlessly through the streets to his motel room while talking to his daughter on the last remaining credit of his cell phone.  Audiences are left unsure if this is a flash back or an omnipotent glimpse of what is to come and this is all the act one development that the film affords Brian. It does set up the idea of struggle which Brian faces, but it is a weak start to the film.  What the script does do as the story unfolds is that it reveals shades of Brian’s character throughout the narrative and while some aspects come to light seemingly just to fuel the drama of the moment, much of his character is carefully constructed and allows Boyega to layer his performance accordingly.   

The script, however, is always trying to build up a mystery around the financial hardships Brian is facing, and by sensationalizing it, the power that the story could have had in bringing these issues to light is diminished.  Breaking does seek to engage with the unfortunate disservice the current systems the plague our veterans when they return home in a more robust manner than Michael Bay’s Ambulance (2022) does, but like Laura Wandel’s Playground (2022), it mostly highlights the issue without offering much in the way of solutions.  In this way it becomes very expository without much to say on the matter. Thankfully the film does not take a condescending tone with the audience as can often be the case in films that seek to highlight injustice and inequity. 

What Breaking does do that is interesting is it also focuses on modern media coverage and how it can affect the younger audiences that, while probably are not paying direct attention to the evening news, are picking up on some of the details because it is on as part of the nightly family ritual. Estel, with a son at home, is acutely aware of the potential news cycle that she will have to protect her son from, this time with the added complication of her own involvement in the story. This angle is incredibly insightful, especially in our current social climate, and while Breaking, like with its main theme of VA shortcomings, does not fully interrogate the issue, it is a unique angle to a story that has been seen time and time again. It also allows Beharie to shade her performance so that this is not just a fight for her own survival, it is a plea to protect her son, and opens Estel up so that there is genuine concern for Brian. 

The last major aspect of the film is the dynamic between Brian and Eli, the negotiator. Williams’ role is severly underwritten, and the actor does well with what he has available to him, but he mostly serves as an exposition machine. The few interactions he has with Brian helps to humanize him and it gives Estel and Rosa ammunition for their own attempts at bartering for their safety, but overall, his character is underutilized and there is little added excitement or tension that Eli brings to the situation. It is the major problem with Breaking and not just an aspect of Eli, the entire film is underwritten and seemingly a little disinterested to really engage the story. It feels very filtered and diluted down from what could have been a very timely and emotionally charged piece. 

Breaking, despite its narrative troubles, is not poorly made, but it is safely made. It takes very little risk is trying to break out and find its own identity in the heist genre, though to categorize it as such is almost a disservice to the film as presented as Brian makes it clear early on he is not here to rob the bank, but for the platform that it provides him. It is seeking to tell a singular story about a man with no where else to turn, but it just is not enough to support a 103 minute runtime. With a miniscule core cast who all deliver strong performances, there just is not enough dynamics to explore when Brian has the bank on lockdown. The film smartly brings in the ancillary characters, but it is still too thin to hold interest through the duration as the cutaways fall quickly into repetitive territory and the action in the bank stays largely stagnant.