John Flynn "L'enfant" is a clever, well-made, nontrivial dramatic masterpiece that solely relies on ordinariness and aesthetic of the real life, which makes this captivating film look wonderful and horrifying at the same time. The dialogues are minimal, but the actions of the characters speak for themselves. The characters don't feel like characters at all. They feel like humans, which is the best compliment that you can give to a character. The real life feel is what makes this film work so great. Everything feels natural and believable, which is the strongest part of all Dardanne duo films. The ending is tragic and hopeful at the same time. The film couldn't ended on a better note. 10 out of 10.

bandw Before seeing this movie I had seen three other Dardenne movies ("The kid with a Bike," "The Son," "La Promesse") and liked them all. So, I was looking forward to another of their movies. This story of twenty-something Bruno (a petty thief operating in a rundown section of a nondescript industrial city that had seen better days) and his teenage girlfriend Sonia fell flat for me. It was a tedious chore for me to get through this; frequently I had to resist the temptation to hit the fast forward button. Many, if not most, of the scenes lasted far beyond what I thought was sufficient. For example, when Bruno goes to the police station to talk to a member of his gang of child accomplices we are shown his entering the station, asking the policeman on duty to see the kid, waiting while the guy calls for permission to come up, entering the elevator, following the elevator while it slowly goes up several floors. Could this not have been played by cutting to Bruno asking for permission, having it granted, and going to the room? There are interminable scenes that follow Bruno aimlessly walking the streets, standing around, talking on his cell phone, walking up and down stairs, and so forth. Perhaps this was to give us a taste of how dull Bruno's life was, but the dullness was transferred to me.The first third of the movie details how amoral Bruno is, the key event having him sell the newborn child that he has had with Sofie, without even consulting her. When Sofie surprises him by being deeply wounded by this, he simply says, "But we can have another." Bruno does try to reverse the sale, but I was left with deciding whether he was sincere in this, or rather just did not want to lose the support that Sofie was giving him. In an interview with the Dardennes in one of the DVD extras they commented that they did not want to judge Bruno. Well, I had no trouble judging him. He was an amoral, small time crook. Maybe I was supposed to understand that Bruno's society had ground him up and spit him out, leaving his only option trying to survive in any way he could. But I did not feel that there was enough background to make that deduction. Maybe I would have had some sympathy for Bruno if he was at least trying to adhere to some worthwhile goal, but his comment that working for a living was only for losers did not endear him to me.The final couple of scenes held out the possibility that Bruno was moving beyond his anti-social ways, but I did not buy it. What were he and Sofie crying about in their insufferably long crying jag? Were they crying about their misspent youth, about their hopeless position in society, about realizing that there actually was a connection between them, or simply because they were such bummers?

Polaris_DiB There should be a genre that describes slow building, horrific but humanistic dramas such as this and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. Technically, none of the plot points that happen in the movie are all that surprisingly, mostly because the synopsis gives you the basic gist: in this case, a young man sells his and his girlfriend's newborn for money and, when she understandably freaks out, he has to get the kid back and is further in the hole than when he started. However, what keeps you watching the movie for an hour and a half is not wondering how he gets the kid back, but the results of that initial poor decision coming out into their inevitable outcome. Meanwhile, you basically watch Bruno as he operates against time to rebuild the steady life that he never had in the first place.The whole thing is shot in somewhat long takes, with simple stripped down perspectives that usually involve just staying within the space of the characters themselves. Most of this movie, after the opening scene of Sonia returning from the hospital, is Bruno's story, so for the most part from their on what you can see is either what he's doing or what he can see. Digital photography helps keep this movie looking cold and miserable (seriously you wonder about Sonia walking around in that skirt all the time) with the over-cast exteriors, and everything is muted and undertoned. The acting is stupendous, from childlike joviality to brooding barely concealed by stoicism. The best part is how this movie leads up to probably the most understated prolonged chase sequence in contemporary cinema, one that's tense and suspenseful but completely devoid of the flash of usual excitement-inducing action cinema.The Dardenne brothers seem to be making quite a name for themselves in the international market, and from what I understand this movie doesn't deviate too far from their usual style. They are certainly a brother-director troupe to check out.--PolarisDiB

rowmorg I can't understand why Cannes gave this film a Palme d'Or. It seemed to me false and imaginary, not realistic. I don't believe the directors ever lived in the environment they portray. Even a provincial city in Belgium will not be devoid of the scourge of drugs and illegal immigrants, I am certain. And yet The Infant depicts neither. It's not clear exactly how the female lead, Sonia (Déborah François), survives. She has no friends or relatives. Her thief boyfriend has let her flat (presumably without permission) while she was giving birth in hospital. Somehow she gets it back (not shown), and manages to eat without working. This, presumably, on welfare. She is blonde and buxom, but there is never a hint that the BF, Bruno (Jérémie Renier) might pimp her out. Bruno is amoral, but apparently knows nothing about drugs, either. Nor does he have anything to do with illegals. I'm sorry but for me this is entirely non-credible. L'Infant is a silly fairy story posing as gritty realism. BTW how many of the comments here contain undisclosed spoilers? Fifty per cent of them?