- A landscape architect's dealings with a young thief cause him to re-evaluate his life.
- A mother and her daughter, a mother and her son, and a man living with one and attracted to the other. Miro, a teen from Sarajevo, lives near King's Cross with his mother; he's nimble, able to run across roofs, so his uncle hires him to break into office skylights, so the uncle can boost computers. Twice they steal from Will's architectural firm, so Will stakes it out at night. He follows Miro home and returns the next day and meets Miro's mother, Amira. At home, Will's relationship with Liv is strained - he feels outside Liv and her daughter Bea's circle. The stakeout and Amira's vulnerability are attractive alternatives to being at home. The police, too, watch Miro.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
- In London, the British architect Will lives with his Swedish mate Liv a worn-out relationship, without the former passion, consumed by the dedication of Liv to her autistic daughter Bea. The needy of love Will and his partner Sandy have an ambitious architectural project to improve the dangerous neighborhood of King's Cross where their firm Green Effect is located. The practitioner of parkour and refugee from Serbia Mirsade a.k.a. Miro breaks in Green Effect in the night to deactivate the alarm system to burgle computers and others electronic devices with a gang of compatriots leaded by his uncle. Will decides to stake-out during the nights to find the culprit, and he witnesses Miro trying to break-in the firm again. Will pursues Miro and finds his address, where Miro lives with his seamstress mother Amira. Will does not call the police, and on the next day, he visits Amira with the pretext of sewing a coat. Will gets closer to Amira, visiting her everyday, and more distant from Liv, When Miro finds that Will had been in his room, he tells the truth to his mother and she decides to give Will's laptop back to him. Will sexually desires Amira and she has an encounter with him to get pictures to compromise and blackmail him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Will and Liv, a Brit and a Swedish-American respectively, are in a ten year common law relationship. They live in London with Liv's thirteen year old daughter Bea, who, although never officially diagnosed, probably suffers from autism. The only thing that seems to keep Bea happy is doing gymnastics. As Bea's autism seemed to be getting worse, Liv decided both to take her into a therapist for treatment, and to quit working to be a full time stay at home mom. To Will, their household is divided into Liv and Bea in a cocoon on one side and him on the other. Liv, on the other hand, sees Will as not being true in his heart as a father to Bea. This difference has broken Will and Liv's relationship. Bea is probably only one reason why Will and Liv have never married. Will and his partner Sandy own and operate their own environmental architectural firm. They are working on a major development project which they believe will transform King's Cross into a place where people truly would want to be, as opposed to the largely poverty stricken neighborhood it currently is. To prove their commitment to the neighborhood, they have located their offices in King's Cross. A spate of robberies occur at their offices, the thieves able to gain entry through the roof and have seeming access to the security code, even after it is changed. One of the thieves is fifteen year old Miro. He and his mother Amira are Bosnian refugees, who had to leave behind her husband/his father in Bosnia out of circumstance. Miro is a chronic truant, he hanging out with his paternal cousin and uncle, the latter the mastermind of the heists, instead of going to school. Amira wants to protect her son from all that is bad in the world, which she knows includes her brother-in-law and his family. Will at one time states that it takes something to be broken before it can be fixed. Will on one side and Amira and Miro on the other enter each other's lives initially in ways the others don't even know, but may have profound effects in hopefully mending the breaks in their respective lives.—Huggo
- Will Francis (Jude Law), a young Englishman, is a landscape architect living a detached, routine-based life in London with his Swedish American girlfriend of 10 years Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and her behaviorally challenged daughter Bea. The 13-year-old girl's irregular sleeping and eating habits as well as her unsocial behavior (she has trouble relating to people and seems only interested in doing somersaults and gymnastics) reach worrying proportions and start to put a lot of strain on Will and Liv's relationship. Complicating the situation further is his feeling of being shut out of their inner circle since Bea is not his biological daughter. He and Liv start relationship counseling, but their drifting apart continues.
Simultaneously on the business front, Will's and his partner Sandy's state-of-the-art offices in the Kings Cross area are repeatedly burgled by a group of Slavic-language speaking thieves. The thieves employ a 15-year-old tracer named Miro (Rafi Gavron) whose acrobatic skills allow them to enter the building. Miro is actually a refugee from Bosnia living with his Muslim mother Amira (Juliette Binoche) who works as a seamstress while his Serbian father got murdered during the war.
Though they're puzzled about the burglars' ability to disable the alarm, the two architects are not particularly worried after the first break-in, mostly writing it off to the neighborhood's dodgy reputation. However, after the second one they decide to stake out the building after hours hoping to find the culprit and alert the police. Miro has the ability to jump buildings & he staked the building out & spied on the cleaning lady when she punched her security code to arm the alarm. Miro breaks through the roof & then jumps to the ground floor in seconds & uses the cleaning lady's code to disarm the alarm.
Being out of the house on nightly stakeouts actually suits Will just fine, allowing him to get away from the cold atmosphere of his household. He even strikes up a strange acquaintance with an Eastern European prostitute named Oana (Vera Farmiga) who hangs around the area every night. Spotting Miro attempting to break in one night, Will attempts to follow him. This pursuit leads Will to the flat where Miro lives with his mother Amira. Realizing their modest living means, he decides not to report his findings to the police but goes back to Amira's apartment under the guise of having a suit that needs mending. He soon becomes emotionally entangled with her, causing him to re-evaluate his life. Will doesn't tell Amira about Miro's deeds at his office. As Will gets more and more engaged with Amira, he starts to ignore Liv & Bea even more.
While Will is careful not to be seen with Amira by Miro, Miro figures out that Will has been coming to his house & meeting Amira. Miro tells Amira about how he burgled Will's office. Amira goes to Will to return the stolen stuff that Miro still had. She is angry with Will but doesn't tell him that she knows about Miro & him. Will wants to prove his love, & Amira takes him to a friend's place & they have sex. Then, when Will is asleep, Amira takes photos of him & her naked. Meanwhile, Miro tells his gang about Will knowing about Miro & they threaten Miro with dire consequences. The police detective traces Miro to the burglary & confronts him 1:1 & gives him a chance to come clean & turn state witness against his gang. Miro refuses.
Amira finally confronts Will & tells him that she has a photo of them naked & if he calls the police, she will leak the photo to his wife. Will had real feelings for Amira & is hurt. Miro is finally arrested by the police. Meanwhile Will has taken Bea to his construction site & Bea is badly hurt in an accident. The police want Will & Sandy to attend a trial court hearing for Miro as he is not the real criminal, with the possibility that Miro walks away free. Amira returns the pictures to Will & begs for his support to release Miro. Will refuses to help Amira. Will tells the truth about him & Amira to Liv.
Liv is hurt but convinces Will to help Amira. Will attends the hearing & confesses to his relationship with Amira. He also says that Miro is not the burglar & Miro & Amira had come to his office (Thats how Miro's fingerprints were all over Will's office). Miro is released. Liv & Will get married. Miro & Amira return to Bosnia to start a new life.
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