Broker

Broker is a good, sometimes over-insistent drama about people whose affection for one another makes their behaviour difficult to judge. Hirokazu Kore-eda writes and directs a road story built around an abandoned baby and the people trying to sell the child, then asks us to spend enough time with them to understand their choices. There is an obvious risk of making the whole business seem harmless. The film does not quite avoid it, though the performances make its generosity worth taking seriously.

Song Kang-ho’s Sang-hyun makes that request for patience easier to accept. Song is funny without treating the man’s activities as a joke, and his warmth makes the awkward company of this journey feel plausible even when the plot does not. We laughed, then felt uneasy about laughing, because he makes a baby broker someone we are pleased to spend time with. Gang Dong-won’s Dong-soo supplies a less expansive presence, giving Song a quieter partner to play against.

IU gives So-young the necessary resistance to all this friendliness. Her performance is affecting because the wish to be understood never entirely removes the difficulty of trusting the people around her. Kore-eda the writer is less steady: he sometimes makes the group’s loneliness explain away too much, as though a need for affection were sufficient reassurance about what they are doing. So-young is particularly valuable whenever her unease complicates the pleasure of being together, and IU keeps that discomfort present without making the character merely obstructive.

Hong Kyung-pyo’s cinematography makes the companionship attractive enough for us to understand its pull. His handling of the ensemble keeps our attention on the relationships, even when the writing is too eager to explain them. Production designer Lee Mok-won keeps the surroundings unshowy, giving this peculiar journey a useful everyday feel. That restraint helps, because the screenplay has already supplied enough reasons to doubt that these people would end up together.

Kore-eda also edits, and at 129 minutes he gives the company more time than the story always needs. The police subplot, with Bae Doona as Su-jin and Lee Joo-young as Detective Lee, adds complications without a matching increase in tension. Returning to it interrupts the more interesting business of watching the travellers adjust to one another. Jung Jae-il’s music adds tenderness, though we could occasionally do with less encouragement to feel sorry for everyone.

As a makeshift-family drama, Broker is less searching than Kore-eda’s Shoplifters. The affection arrives more readily here, and the extra plotting does not make the relationships more complicated in a useful way. Yet its humour saves it from becoming an exercise in instructing us to be kinder, and the actors keep finding uncertainty inside the sweetness. Even when the writing presses too hard, we can understand why these people might want the journey to continue.

If the premise makes this sound like a punishing evening, it isn’t one. Allow for the leisurely pace and a few nudges towards tears, and there is pleasure in spending time with this awkward little group. Just don’t expect the police investigation to be the reason to stay