L'Enfant
2005
**½
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Jérémie Segard, Fabrizio Rongione, Olivier Gourmet
Bruno is a 20-year-old petty thief who thinks working is for suckers, but when he fathers a baby with his girlfriend Sonia, his hand-to-mouth lifestyle becomes harder to sustain. The child in the title is actually Bruno, and the infant himself is a faceless and voiceless plot device who sets his father's redemptive downfall in motion. This critically lauded slice of Belgian social realism feels truthful but unengaging because the protagonist is an annoying and contemptible human being who would sell his own mother, or, as is the case here, his own son. I feel only intellectual sympathy for Bruno and his ordeal.
