Brothers
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne came up shooting a variety of
documentaries about World War II and the Nazi resistance, so it’s no
surprise that their work has always had a grimy, unsparing immediacy
born of the real world. They first really burst onto the narrative
feature scene in 1996 with La Promesse, a searing social drama
about a super and his disaffected son who rent apartments to illegal
immigrants and take advantage of them in more than tacit fashion. Three
years later brought more acclaim in the form of Rosetta, a
movie that centered on a Belgian girl’s struggles with both her job and
her alcoholic mother; it picked up the top prize, the Palme D’Or, at
that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

L’Enfant continues the
brothers’ dual preoccupation with adolescence and the effects of
poverty and social-welfare rejects, pitching us deep and downward into
the life of Bruno (La Promesse’s Jérémie Renier), a down-and-out
petty thief in a small town Belgium who commands a gang of younger
hooligan pickpockets and panhandlers much like an authoritative pimp
casually directs his harem. Bruno hits rock bottom when he sells his
newborn son to a black market adoption broker, telling his devastated
girlfriend Sonia (Déborah François) that he thought they’d just have
another. Finally realizing the error of his ways, Bruno has a
humanistic awakening of sorts, setting out to try to undo his callous
deed in a manner that leads to a powerful personal transformation.

While not quite on par with either La Promesse or what might be their best work, 2002’s The Son, L’Enfant
nonetheless remains a convincing work in no small part because of its
makers impassioned compassion and ability to locate virtuousness in the
midst of despicable behavior. Their affinity for the grubby and
downtrodden could have the ability to come across as cloying and false
were it not for the Dardennes’ unsentimental, matter-of-fact style, and
an actor with whom they are so wholly on the same page as Renier, who
delivers a memorable performance.

Housed in a regular Amray case, L’Enfant is presented in
1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, preserving the aspect ratio of its
original theatrical exhibition. A slight graininess mars the transfer,
but feeds the threadbare narrative rather than detract from the
proceedings. The audio arrives courtesy of a French language Dolby
digital 5.1 track, with optional English and French subtitles. In the
disc’s only supplemental extra, the Dardennes sit for a moderate
on-camera interview for a radio program, and discuss the genesis of the
idea for the movie and the consistency of their production techniques.
For foreign-language film fans, L’Enfant is a worthwhile rental. B (Movie) C+ (Disc)