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  read more... ) and petty thefts committed by Bruno and his gang. Their lives change forever when Sonia gives birth to their child, Jimmy. She returns home after Jimmy's birth to find that Bruno has sublet their apartment to total strangers. After an initial and promising change of heart about becoming a father and changing his ways, Jimmy becomes little more to Bruno than a potential source of wealth. Desperate for money and unable to face his parental responsibilities, Bruno sells Jimmy to a black market connection, who promises to find the child an adoptive home. Realizing the error in his actions Bruno sets out to try and undo his callous deed, leading him to a powerful personal transformation.

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51% liked it

28,916 ratings

Critics

86% liked it

104 critics

R, 1 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Release Date: March 24, 2006

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DVD Release Date: August 15, 2006

Stats: 970 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (970)


  • December 20, 2008
    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)disapproval? A director like Todd Solondz constantly refers back to these traditional "awful" people and humanizes them to the best of his ability, without necessarily forgiving them. I think his films are absolutely fascinating, and I have no problem accepting the characters for how he has created them. His characters are child's play compared to "The Child", however, which may very well have the least likable protagonist i've ever seen. He's incapable of emotion, and it's not long before we understand the title refers to him, not the baby in the film.

    Bruno (Jeremie Renier) lives day-to-day by begging, stealing, and selling. His philosophy is simply that "work is for losers", and he treats money about as maturely as he does his girlfriend. The second Bruno gets his hand on a dollar, he spends it. He's in a heartless world where there's never limitations on what he can have, and therefore there's no reason to ever save. Sonia (Deborah Francois) is his lover, and also the mother of his child. While it's clear that her level of maturity is nowhere near standard, she's far more reasoning than Bruno. However, like him, she'll accepting working meal to meal.

    Bruno's been under pressure from loan sharks, and one day in a cafe a woman mentions that "people pay to adopt". Bruno doesn't even seem to consider this for long, as it's minutes later that he's arranging to sell the child. When Sonia sends him out for a walk with the kid, he meets up with a shady middleman at an adoption agency and sells the child. Upon arriving back to Sonia, he simply shows her the money expecting praise. Sonia, of course, faints and winds up in this hospital. Bruno certainly didn't see that coming. "We could have another one", he says.

    His relationship is in shambles and he can't get Sonia to talk to him. Finally, he decides to go back and get his kid. This doesn't seem to be as much of a change of heart as it is a "fine, I will take out the garbage, mom". It's an inconvenience. You'd be mistaken to think that this character has any semblance of a heart in his body. The rest of the film takes us through Bruno's journey, which includes him and a teenager accomplice being chased down by a man after he's stolen a purse. The two submerge themselves in water to hide, and as a result Bruno leaves his "friend" in critical condition due to the extreme cold.

    The end of the film seems to ask us to forgive Bruno. He's shot wearing all white clothing, and he weeps desperately to Sonia. This is shot like a traditional "rebirth"... but i'm not quite sure that I was ready to forgive him. That was part of what made this film so impactful, however. We're not forced to feel what the director wants us to feel, nor do we ever feel the director's hands manipulating a single scene. Roger Ebert's analysis of the film tells it as a film from God's perspective and a study of free will, and that's certainly the best way you can possibly describe it. It's about a man, Bruno, who has been given free will, and now we watch what he does with it.

    The film is shot mostly handheld and there are long stretches of film where it's set in real time. In a way, it's pacing reminded me of Romanian efforts like "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" and "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu". We watch people walking down streets and through hallways, and at times there seems to be 10 minutes without a single line spoken. It's a very slow paced film and one that demands the deepest of concentration. It's certainly not going to please many audiences, however if you have the taste for it I think you'll find it very satisfying. It's extraordinarily challenging to watch, but it's fascinating and unlike anything i've ever seen before.
  • September 18, 2008
    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)tely we never see the real Bruno until the last few frames. He only does the right thing when pushed into it due to very harsh circumstances. It's excellently shot, capturing the realistic harsh nature the film sets out to achieve. Slow in some places and not so well developed in others it is for the most part a truly affecting tale that doesn't sentimental.
  • July 29, 2008
    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.
  • March 3, 2008
    Great acting, a compelling and believable story with an interesting finish makes this a winner. Highly recommended.
  • February 8, 2008
    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)h in the gut, L'Enfant is more of a hard shove, and I think the reason is that Rosetta is a more realized character than the character Bruno in L'Enfant. I don't think that the directors were able to sell Bruno's spiritual transformation convincingly enough, and it leaves the ending somewhat flat.
  • October 29, 2009
    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)nnotations that can come along with it. You won't find any traces of disgusting fundamentalism or obnoxious evangelical showmanship. No, the Dardenne's films exhibit a spirituality born of genuine compassion and redemption. Their objective hand-held camera work gives L'ENFANT the gritty realism of a documentary, to me, a documentary about what true humanism is at its very core.



    The main character is a sinner and thief who has made up his mind to sell his newborn son on the black market, and then I don't want to give away too much, but the film then takes a path through a series of emotionally painful events that eventually beat the concept of real salvation into the viewer's mind.



    Like Hirokazu Kore-Eda's NOBODY KNOWS in 2004, I found this picture to be so emotionally devastating at times that it was almost physically painful to watch. However, for me, the agonizing sadness a very empathetic viewer endures during the film is just rewarded by the overwhelming catharsis at the end. So transcendentally spiritual it has put an everlasting effect on me after viewing, and it just makes the sappiness of Hollywood endings even more obvious, if they weren't already. It's a miracle how profoundly deep art can move a person, and this film is very much a miracle of modern cinema to me.
  • October 13, 2009

  • September 8, 2009
    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.
  • July 23, 2009
    This is VERY good! Both simple and outrageuous, at the same time.
  • July 18, 2009
    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) which pisses me off seeing as how that movie is at least three times better.

Critic Reviews


May 12, 2006
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Every act in the film has a mythic resonance. full review

April 14, 2006
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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

April 13, 2006
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

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

April 7, 2006
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

Everything about L'Enfant feels devastatingly real. full review

April 7, 2006
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

Even for a useless criminal, Bruno is just not a compelling personality. Unreadable lumps generally aren't. full review

March 21, 2006
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

L'Enfant is a forceful, impassioned and unsparing triumph from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. full review

March 20, 2006
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

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

September 26, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

A rigorously austere masterpiece infused with intense humanism. full review

View more L'Enfant (The Child) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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