Deborah Francois, Fabrizio Rongione, Jeremie Renier
A dispossessed twenty-year old Bruno lives with his eighteen-year-old girlfriend Sonia in Seraing, an eastern Belgian steel town. They live off Sonia's unemployment benefits along with the panhandling...( read more
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DVD Release Date: August 15, 2006
Stats: 970 reviews
I recall a time where my mother and I were discussing a film (I cannot remember which one), and she explained that she didn't care for it because the protagonist was so unlikable. How can you root for such a scumbag - a character whose every movement has you shaking your head in ...( read more)
Wonderfully subdued tale of a father's (eventual) love. In many ways a latter day Oliver Twist, focusing more on the pickpocketing aspect. It shows how far people will go for money and how it can also blind their common sense. Bruno may be a bit naive in his actions but unfortuna...( read more)
Touching, but it really makes no sense that a guy so crappy as to sell his baby would be such a good person in the end. I guess it says something about becoming an adult, but still...it's about as abrupt a change as Anakin Skywalker turning to the dark side.
Great acting, a compelling and believable story with an interesting finish makes this a winner. Highly recommended.
Whereas Rosetta was the Dardennes' tribute to Bresson's Mouchette, L'Enfant is their homage to Bresson's Pickpocket, with which it carries the same theme of redemption. The handheld camerawork here is much more subdued than in Rosetta. But whereas Rosetta was like a loaded punc...( read more)
Like Robert Bresson, or Roberto Rossellini, the Dardenne brothers have some serious theological undertones to their cinema and they don't try to hide the influence of their faith on their work. Don't let the christian stuff turn you off though, being very aware of the negative co...( read more)
For a movie directed by the Dardenne brothers, this is somewhat disappointing. With only a couple memorable and mind-blowing scenes, the story eventually becomes predictable and uncompelling.
Handycam realism, great acting, the climax chase scene is quite good and the suspense is as well. The final scene doesn't do anything for me and it begs the audience to take it seriously emotionally and moralistically. I'm very biased against this movie since it won against Cache...( read more)
Here is a film where God does not intervene and the directors do not mistake themselves for God. It makes the solutions at the ends of other pictures seem like child's play. full review
Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are masters of naturalistic drama in which characters reveal themselves through a grimace or a gesture, rather than artfully scripted speeches. full review
Everything about L'Enfant feels devastatingly real. full review
Even for a useless criminal, Bruno is just not a compelling personality. Unreadable lumps generally aren't. full review
L'Enfant is a forceful, impassioned and unsparing triumph from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. full review
Viewers in Europe have swooned, it is said, at this movie's painful inching toward redemption. Against that, I have to report a slow drip of disappointment. full review
A rigorously austere masterpiece infused with intense humanism. full review
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