10 Bad Movies Oscar-Winning Directors Went On To Make

In a way, Breaking And Entering suffered due to the incredibly high expectations everybody had for it before its release.

Minghella, who won his first and only Oscar for directing The English Patient in 1997, was writing a completely original screenplay for the first time in almost two decades, and the prospect of such a talented artist creating a story from scratch was a tantalizing one.

But that was the film's downfall. The direction is purposeful and the performances solid, but you can't help but feel like the film lacks a beating heart, like there's a gaping hole right where a tight, clean script should be.

The story's main issue is its density - how overstuffed it is. Minghella appears to bite off more than he can chew, and the film ends up collapsing under its own immense weight.

First and foremost, Breaking and Entering is about Will (Jude Law), an architect dealing with a series of break-ins at a new London office he recently opened. It's also about Will tracking down the robber. Then it's about Will falling in love with the robber's mother. It's also about Will's autistic daughter, and his Swedish-American girlfriend. There are subplots upon subplots, too many characters, and none of it is particularly stellar.

And we haven't even mentioned Vera Farmiga's Eastern European prostitute. Breaking and Entering tries to be a political commentary, and it tries to be a social commentary. It tries to explore various family dynamics, including single-parenting and mixed-race relationships. It does many things poorly instead of one thing really well, lacking the focus it needed to succeed.