oneloveall Review of The Child

The Child (2005)

Bleak tour de force, slightly overrated but still extremely effective

[7/10 · 12 August 2006]

This slice of life from the bottom of the barrel of French youth, focuses on two desperate new parents and the struggles each goes through to adjust to the new reality. Immediately we realize that something is not right with the husband of this child, as he remains unemotional and detached when he is shown his newborn son. When his dire situation causes him to selfishly commandeer the child for his own greed, it causes the primary rift between the two main characters and begins to usher the viewer into this emotionally complex, but simply and dogmatically told film. The Dardenne brothers manage to keep the drama as subtly realistic as possible, but do fall through some lulls in their objective tone. The much despised male lead, while hard pressed for an empathetic response, does elicit the cathartic pain that his low-lifestyle helps define and hopefully transcend, in the film's understated, emotional conclusion. I suppose the level of interest one has for this character's plight will help define how this movie affects one individually, and while perhaps not the revelation that some see in it, L' Infant should nonetheless take viewers deep inside this pocket of reality where hope is something that comes and goes in tiny little handouts and can only be sustained through the acknowledgment of our loved ones and the establishment of a family foundation.