L'Enfant
L’ENFANT: HAS SOME GROWING UP TO DO
Winner of the 2005 Palme D’or, L’Enfant, doesn’t live up to its expectations. A film by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, wants to be a movie that makes a statement on children having children. But it is slow and manipulative with a predictable ending.
Bruno (Jeremie Renier) and Sonia (Deborah Francois) have just had a baby. His name is Jimmy and he is eight days old. Bruno has sublet Sonia’s apartment while she was away having the baby so they go to a shelter to sleep until they have the apartment back. Bruno is a thief who sells stolen goods to the highest bidder. When Bruno decides that it is too hard to take care of Jimmy, he sells his son for the right price. Once this is relayed to Sonia, their relationship predictably unravels and Bruno attempts to get the baby back and redeem himself to Sonia.
Bruno and Sonia are both in their teens and have just had this child while they are still children themselves. We see Sonia riding on the back of a scooter with no helmet and clutching little Jimmy to her body. When Sonia asks Bruno where Jimmy is, he simply states “I sold him.” A large portion of the film focuses on Sonia and Jimmy roughhousing with each other be it in front of the “shack” where they go for shelter or in the car driving. Unfortunately, the tone of the film doesn’t stay consistent while some of the scenes run too long. The Dardennes want to express to their audience why these kids shouldn’t have babies. But they focus too much on their childish actions and not enough into their psyches. When Bruno goes to sell the baby, he is shown waiting at an elevator so he can take the stroller up. That scene felt like it dragged on. This also occurred when Bruno is pushing the stroller down the street after he has sold the baby. They may have been trying to show him on the long walk after what he has done, but all it showed me is that they were still focusing on the wrong things. When the film switches gears the last 20 minutes of the film, it disrupts the feeling of the film while it was trying to end on a positive note.
The film needed to be more realistic in its story telling for it to accomplish its goal. When we first see Sonia, she had just given birth eight days before. But she looks healthy and thin. It would have made the film better if we knew more about Sonia and how she had gotten involved with Bruno and what she did for money. The film felt shallow in terms of their relationship so it was hard to believe that they truly loved each other. And for consistency purposes, I would have liked to see the film continue on its tone before the last 20 minutes of the film when it tries to wrap things up neatly.
L’Enfant attempts to show a realistic view of two teenagers having a baby when they don’t know how to look after themselves. They try to show how having a baby can make you grow up fast. But the seriousness of parenting responsibilities aren’t conveyed due to its slow pacing, predictable ending, and change in tone towards the end of the film.
Report Card:
Story-C
Acting-B
Visuals-C
Originality/Innovation-C
Enjoyability Grade–C-
Overall Grade-C
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