Synopsis
Bruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.
Bruno, 20, and Sonia, 18, live off the young girl's allowance and the petty thefts committed by him and his gang. Sonia has just given birth to Jimmy, their child. The carefree Bruno, who until then had only cared about the here and now, must now learn to become a father.
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Cast
- Jérémie RenierBruno
- Déborah FrançoisSonia
- Olivier GourmetPolicier
- Jérémie SegardSteve
- Stéphane BissotLa receleuse
- François OlivierRemy
- Mireille BaillyMère de Bruno
- Bernard Marbaixun commerçant
- Fabrizio RongioneJeune Bandit
Recommendations
- 100
The A.V. Club
L'Enfant is intended as a pointed critique of pop culture's celebration of arrested adolescence. The title could refer to Renier's baby, Renier himself, or even the gang of schoolboy robbers that he's gathered around himself. - 88
Rolling Stone
Renier and Francois give deeply affecting performances that help soften the film's harsh blows. But only in the compassionate eye of the Dardennes do these three children achieve a state of grace. - 83
Christian Science Monitor
Sonia may seem happy-go-lucky at the start, but grief steels her. It makes her grow up very fast. She becomes a kind of heroine in the course of the film, which ultimately owes its stature to her presence. - 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The Dardennes' most accessible film. Their handheld camera catches tiny flickers of emotion that few filmmakers come near; you feel as if you're watching the movements of a soul. - 80
Variety
Those masters of small-scale realism, Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, have created yet another beautifully acted, exquisitely observed morality tale in The Child. - 80
Village Voice
Above all, this is an action film--or, better, a transaction film. It's not just that the Dardennes orchestrate an exciting motor scooter purse-snatching and a prolonged hot pursuit. L'Enfant is an action film because every act that happens is shown to have a consequence. - 80
L.A. Weekly
As Dardenne films go, with their slow, minutely observed journeys from despair to faint hope, L'Enfant is a horror movie of sorts, and for a few minutes at least, a kind of thriller. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
It makes sense that L'Enfant has been hailed as a masterpiece, since a masterpiece is what it's trying, in every unvarnished frame, to be. If you wandered unknowingly into the film, however, you would see this: a stark, fascinating, and naggingly detached character study.
