A Belgian city. The young, rebellious and immature love couple Bruno and Sonia have suddenly became parents of a baby, Jeremy. The child brings change into their irresponsible lives. They don't live with their parents anymore and are seeking their won apartment, but lack money. One day, Bruno decides to give Jeremy away to an adoption center. When Sonia finds out, she falls unconscious and ends up in a hospital. Bruno panics and brings back Jeremy from the center. Sonia takes the baby and does not want to talk to Bruno anymore. Bruno, now alone, teams up with a boy from the neighborhood to steal purses on a moped. When the police catch the boy, Bruno decides to give himself in. He later decides to reconcile with Sonia.
Winner of the Golden Palm in Cannes, "The Child" by the brothers Dardenne is a supremely simple film: short, economic, fluid, with such a realistic, almost documentary-like story that it seems as if it came from your neighborhood. All the actors are excellent, whereas the story is full of unobtrusive details (for instance, when it is depicted that Bruno rather spends his money on video games than on his own baby). The Dardenne brothers craft "The Child" in the tradition of Bresson's distanced, 'raw', ascetic, neutral film approach, without any kind of moralizing or glamour, allowing for the public to "assemble" their own emotional experience, yet that is also the film's main problem: as a whole, it does not manage to intrigue or completely reach and engage the viewers into its flow. Frankly, it does not have anything new to tell that was not said before about clumsy, irresponsible young parents. It is too conventional and standard to truly stay in the viewers' memory, yet it is an interesting social drama about little people from the "margins", with a perfectly symbolic title: it can apply to either the baby or Bruno, who has to grow up and take responsibilities.
Grade:++
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