If you’ve seen even a modest number of European art-house films in your lifetime, you’re familiar with the following formula: Act I, child with problems (emotional problems, family problems, what have you) is introduced. Act II, said confused, troubled child gets into big trouble by seeking out the wrong kind of father figure, committing a misdeed in a fit of frustration, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time; luckily, a kind someone comes to the rescue, offering the troubled child some respite and a dim ray of hope. Will it last forever? Do you even need to ask?
Finally, in Act III, troubled child either commits another misdeed or, again, is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this time, things are worse. Ending may be completely dismal or marginally optimistic, depending on the filmmaker and other specifics of the material.
The Dardenne brothers’ Le Gamin au Vélo, or The Kid with a Bike, follows that blueprint rather closely through Act II — so closely, in fact, that it’s a relief they recoil from the desolation you expect in Act III. That’s causing some critics here to dismiss the film as being somewhat fluffy, particularly for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, whose names are generally uttered here in criticville in hushed, respectful tones. (The Dardennes have won the Palme d’Or twice, once in 1999 for Rosetta and again in 2005 for L’Enfant. Their last picture was the 2008 Lorna’s Silence).
I’ve never been sold on the Dardennes — I generally find them too mannered, too persistent and deliberate in their efforts to make us feel something — and Le Gamin au Vélo hasn’t changed my mind. The picture is a bit wispy, somewhat…
Estella Warren Esther Cañadas Eva Green Eva Longoria Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly Eve
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