A big-time filmmaker revisits his Northern Ireland boyhood

ENNETH BRANAGH—WHO GAVE US both a gorgeous full-length (1996) and a bloated (2017)—is an all-caps filmmaker, generally preferring the grand dramatic gesture even when a subtler flourish would do. Accordingly,—which takes place in that Northern Irish city in 1969, at the onset of the Troubles—is both intimate and almost comically egotistical. Yet Branagh has poured so much love into it that you can’t be too hard on him. The movie’s affectionate energy ultimately proves irresistible.