Review of Hop (2002) by Walter M — 16 Sep 2012

In "Hop," Justin(Kalomba Mboyi) desperately wants to watch the upcoming soccer match but his father Dieudonne(Ansou Diedhiou) is afraid that stealing cable could bring unwanted attention to their undocumented status. However, upon seeing his son's straight A's, he relents. And then almost immediately regrets it when the downstairs neighbors are so upset at their poor television reception that they toss Dieudonne's television out the window which does get the attention of the authorities. He is arrested while Justin gets away, stowing away in the back of Frans'(Jan Decleir) van. At first, Frans wants nothing more to do with him but soon warms to him with Frans' friend Gerda's(Antje de Boeck) intervention at the police station possibly staving off Dieudonne's deportation for a day.

Proving that any movie that gets both pygmy and anarchist into the same sentence cannot be all bad, "Hop" initially cultivates the eyes with its crisp black and white cinematography with a couple of well-timed splashes of color. To its credit, the movie smartly explores such serious issues as immigration and identity in Belgium where there is a more than healthy mistrust of the authorities and that is divided by language which is supposed to be united by soccer. However, while the idea of The Hop makes sense in theory, the movie is seemingly unwilling to seriously explore its consequences, falling on the sentimental and cliched side of the equation in the process.