{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_(film)"}
2022 American film
Breaking is a 2022 American thriller drama film starring John Boyega as a Marine Corps veteran, Brian Brown-Easley, who is in financial trouble and robs a bank. It is written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin and co-written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, based on the actions of Brian Brown-Easley. The film also stars Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Jeffrey Donovan, and Michael Kenneth Williams.

The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival under its original title 892 on January 21, 2022, and was released in the United States by Bleecker Street on August 26, 2022. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Based on the 2017 real-life story of the late Brian Brown-Easley, a decorated Marine Corps veteran in dire financial straits resulting from systemic failure. Easley is concerned over the effects of this on his daughter alongside the prospects of homelessness to the point of threatening to blow up a Wells Fargo bank unless he receives payment he is owed from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Cast

Production

On March 2, 2021, it was announced that Jonathan Majors would star in the film, then titled 892, as a Marine war veteran who suffers from mental scars, and his hard transition back to civilian life. On July 8, 2021, it was reported that John Boyega replaced Majors due to a scheduling conflict with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. On August 30, 2021, it was confirmed that Connie Britton joined the cast.

Principal photography began on July 6, 2021, and was scheduled to conclude on August 16, 2021, in Los Angeles.

Release

The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2022, where the cast won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. On February 1, 2022, Bleecker Street acquired the film's US distribution rights. The film's title was later changed from 892 to Breaking, and it was set to be released on August 26, 2022.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Breaking was released alongside The Invitation and Three Thousand Years of Longing. The film debuted to $985,921 from 902 theaters in its opening weekend.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 148 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "Breaking struggles to effectively convey its messages, but its noble intentions are well served by John Boyega's electrifying performance." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood said, "Corbin is firmly in control behind the camera and with particular expert help with her editor Chris Witt. The British actor Boyega is superb in every aspect of the role, as is the commanding presence of the late Williams in what sadly is his final film role."

Writing for Variety, Peter Debruge said, "This is not an act of documentary reenactment so much as a tense, speculative drama, imagining what this man must have gone through during those hours, and how his actions rippled out to affect others' lives."

Accolades