John Boyega and Michael K. Williams elevate hostage drama 'Breaking'

Features editor

John Boyega plays a troubled veteran who takes a bank hostage in the true-life drama "Breaking."

If you’re planning to see the hostage drama "Breaking" (and it's a good movie), I recommend not Googling anything about the true-life case that inspired the film beforehand. Even the headline of the magazine article that Abi Damaris Corbin's film is based on has a big spoiler that would dissipate that tightly wound emotional tension that "Breaking" creates.

"Breaking," originally titled "892" when it premiered at last January's Sundance Film Festival, premieres Friday in Madison theaters at AMC Fitchburg 18, AMC Madison 6, Marcus Point and Marcus Palace.

John Boyega sheds the enthusiastic charm he showed as Finn in the recent ""Star Wars" trilogy to play Brian Brown-Easley, a U.S. Marine veteran who has fallen on hard times since he was honorably discharged. His head shaved, his demeanor vacillating between disarming politeness and sudden rage, Boyega is almost unrecognizable at Brown-Easley, and his excellent, jumpy performance anchors the film.

When the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs withholds his $892 monthly disability check, almost certainly dooming him to lose his apartment and live on the streets, a desperate Brown-Easley enters a Wells Fargo branch in the Atlanta suburbs. He slips the teller (Selenis Leyva) a note that he has a bomb in his backpack, and brandishes a realistic-looking detonator.

He allows everyone in the bank but the teller and the bank manager (Nicole Beharie) to escape, then proclaims he will blow himself up unless the VA deposits the missing money in his account. For Brown-Easley, getting the faceless government bureaucracy to admit its error is more important than the money — he even refuses when the manager offers to give him $892 herself.

Brown-Easley seems like a well-meaning soul at heart, and he insists to his hostages that if his demands aren't met, he’ll release them before he blows himself up. (He's so polite he even takes a phone message for another bank employee.) But he's clearly also mentally ill, flying into angry tirades and muttering conspiracy theories about a secret society that tried to assassinate him. He quickly seems to have gotten in way over his head.

The first half of "Breaking" is almost like a three-character play, as the screenplay by Cohen and British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah focuses on the pressure-cooker dynamics between hostage-taker and his hostages. The second half expands outside the bank, as the cops amass high-powered weapons, and Brown-Easley gets in touch with a television news producer (Connie Britton) to tell his story. The subplot involving Britton's character is extraneous, although it was nice to see a broadcast journalist depicted as a caring, responsible person and not a ratings-hungry monster.

What works in the second half is the introduction of a hostage negotiator, Eli Bernard, played by Michael K. Williams ("The Wire") in his final screen performance before he died in 2021. Williams exudes both toughness and empathy as Bernard (also a vet) tries to defuse what seems like a no-win situation. Although Boyega and Williams never share the screen, the chemistry between two terrific actors — one sadly missed — is what elevates "Breaking."

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Three stars

John Boyega, Michael K. Williams, Connie Britton

R for violence, language

1 hour 42 minutes

Opens Friday at AMC Madison 6, AMC Fitchburg 18, Marcus Point and Marcus Palace

Features editor

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