Review of The Kid with a Bike (2011) by Edgar C — 22 Jan 2014

France, Sweden, Ireland, the UK and sometimes Italy have been notorious countries that apply an absorbing, minimalistic style to the events depicted to make them more serious in tone and more invasive psychologically. The Dardenne brothers put that trend to good use in what may be their most simplistic film, but like it has been said before: "In simplicity lies complexity".

Some parallels may be drawn between Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959), as we witness a boy with a strong lack of parental figures and in a world of adulthood irresponsibility wandering aimlessly through the streets, he seems to follow the same steps that any Antoine Doinel would make: feeling misunderstood and alone, escaping his home, engaging in thievery, but screaming for comprehension.

The minimalism already mentioned helps to emphasize something. Given the simplicity of the plot, you need an engaging style, or an unexpected conclusion, or empathetic characters, or anything else that may convince audiences that your film is still worth watching instead of letting them judge the book by its cover and call it predictable before even watching it. The Dardenne brothers are aware of this. Indeed, the events and the conclusion are unexpected because every sequence is portrayed as realistically as possible. And what do we know about life? It's unpredictable, alright. The most interesting twist is that every character is portrayed like a standard personage when it is introduced, but then changes our initial perception by literally inviting us to their homes. We see Samantha (the hairdresser) as a regular character and hairdresser, who may just be the "heartfelt" female character who will replace the motherly figure in Cyril's life, but then we see her being concerned about Cyril, extremely patient, crying over her powerlessness because of a situation that does not belong to her blood-wise, and we see her choose Cyril over his disinterested fiancé. We meet the leader of a gang of young crooks, and before we can condemn him as the "bad guy", we visit his home and see four depressing walls covered by a roof with an overweight mother and a clear lack of a male family head, with nobody to look after both. That's what we are lead to assume.

So, the film causes emotional responses, but simultaneously reminding us of not engaging into any judgment, because the truth is, we have no idea. It's a tough world out there.

84/100.