The French answer to why you grow up and get married before having kids and why committed relationships are important for society.

A grimey story of one man's emotionless descent into immorality. Well captured and feels real. A modern French classic.

It's evident early on that L'Enfant is a film from the Dardenne brothers, from both a style and theme perspective. Sonia (Deborah Francois), a young woman with a newborn, is in love with Bruno (Jeremie Renier), an incompetent petty thief and man-child with no moral compass. When he takes things a step or two too far and sells the baby behind Sonia's back, things take an understandably bad turn in their relationship. It's a story about survival and, ultimately, some form of redemption as the young couple try to come to terms with the course of events. The film loses some steam over the second half as the focus is primarily on the repugnant Bruno as opposed to the more intriguing Sonia, but it remains fairly compelling viewing from the always interesting Dardennes.

Another stroke of ultra-realism from the Dardenne brothers, another powerful tale, another very good film. "Take responsibility of your actions": this seem to be the invisible line connecting all of their works, and all the one I saw deserve to be watched.

Honestly this movie is just really boring and sucks. I just don't care for it I felt that it was a waste of time I rather watch "The Kid" on top on that the characters aren't interesting at all

Are kidnapping, stealing, and lying somehow more meaningful or artistic in French? L'Enfant tries to dress those actions up as a moral fable or redemptive tale, but really just shows us a very unattractive person being very unattractive to pretty much everyone he encounters. The consequences are predictable and not that interesting. Nearly any viewer's time will be better spent watching something else.

L'enfant [Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2005, France] It offers the kind of suspense that attacks your soul than just your senses. 10/10

L'enfant focuses on a brief period in the lives of two young, impulsive homeless people with a child who have to deal with the physical and emotional trauma that comes with that socio-economic status. They beg for money, desperate to the point that the father actually attempts to sell the baby, going to great lengths to attempt to rationalize this insane decision and severing his relationship with his girlfriend in the process. The Dardenne's choose this bleak point of focus to portray the inner-turmoil that comes with this kind of uncertainty, keeping this tension below the surface until it pries its way out into the open in its conclusion.

Gives a glimpse of young love and light to the hopeful idea that love conquers all. It's interesting to see how he went so morally low as to sell his own child (flesh and blood and lie about it to the final scene where it seems as though he's repented for his wrongdoing. The ending left me wondering if he will change for good and hoping he does.

The screenplay still feels occasionally like it's desperate to move from point A to point B as quickly as possible, but at least, in this case, it doesn't feel as outright manufactured as The Son (which was based on a hilariously contrived situation and resolved obviously). L'Enfant shares some annoying similarity to The Son (seriously, do they need to make another woman FAINT again?), but it hinges on a fascinating character that is both repulsive and pitiful at once. When the pity unbashedly dominates the film (the last portion), it's when I have to cluck my tongue. But otherwise, the film feels "naturalistic" enough to elicit a favorable response from me, unlike The Son.

Spiritually delightful!

I was a little disappointed about this film, because I was so anxious about watching and I really was hopping for something emotionally riveting and a lot of drama. But instead, it was more of a bland movie that centered more on the male character than in the whole premise. It was about him and the consequences and how it all affected him. Indeed it was very exciting, and it even made me feel pity and sorry for him in the end, but it never quite reach this level of drama and emotion. Still, it was a very engaging movie and it felt very natural and real.

It's a lean, efficient movie that shows how a man can change in the name of justice.

"A genuine tale of redemption." :)

He is twenty, a petty thief, living under a bridge and in homeless shelters. He is handsome and blond. She is eighteen, his girlfriend, and mother of his newborn child. She is beautiful and blonde. Both live in Liege, a grim industrial city in the French part of Belgium. They are really children, irresponsible and happiest when they are chasing each other as if they were playing tag. He does the unforgivable, then tries to be forgiven. The price he pays for forgiveness is both harsh and just.

L'Enfant (or The Child) is the second film that the Dardenne Brothers won the Palme d'Or for (the first being their 1999 film Rosetta), and in the typical Dardenne form, L'Enfant is a dramatic piece grounded by reality and filmed with simplicity. Following the new parents Bruno (Jérémie Renier) and Sonia (Déborah François) in their low income pocket of France, L'Enfant depicts the couple as young and the husband, Bruno, as childish and immature. Bruno and Sonia name their child Jimmy, and even though they don't have a place to stay, they are still trying to make it work. What Sonia is unaware of is how far into the world of crime Bruno actually is, and when Bruno discovers that he could get 5,000 if he puts their baby on the black market for adoption, he hops on the opportunity instantly without telling Sonia. Upon returning to Sonia with an empty stroller and a wad of cash, Sonia passes out and has to be hospitalized... it is then that Bruno realizes he has to get their baby back. Filmed almost entirely handheld, completely utilizing natural light, and lacking a musical score, L'Enfant feels like a documentary capturing the mundane moments of life in the poverty stricken corner of France that the protagonists dwell in. This can also be said of all of the Dardenne's films, but it feels best utilized in their previous film Le Fils (2002) which followed a carpenter as he taught his trade to young French boys who had dropped out of school. The sound of buzz saws and hammers created an almost musical vibe in Le Fils that can't be recreated in the context of L'Enfant. L'Enfant is a film much more about silence, patience, and wandering as Bruno chooses to live a simple life as a jobless father (who is also almost never around his girlfriend Sonia). Actor driven, Jérémie Renier and Déborah François deliver solid performances as young lovers who suddenly have a child, but they also convey a greater sense of pain and sorrow as the events of the film progress. Where the film nearly falls apart is in several of the essentially self-resolving conflicts. Just when we, as an audience, think things are going to get tough for the main characters, the film suddenly makes it realistically easy (or just as it would be in real life). This aspect of the film only enhances the documentary qualities of the narrative as the film chooses to be un-cinematic in every way (which can be quite unappealing for many audiences). Though the film is not perfect, it is an acquired taste (as are many of the Dardenne's films), and L'Enfant is filled with wonderful realistic drama. The directors do an amazing job of creating a character (like Bruno) who is easy to feel sympathy for while disagreeing with everything that he does on screen. Yes, the film is at times overly simple, but there are many gut-wrenching scenes and some wildly realistic on-screen events that make the film both exciting and memorable.

Although I can see to some extent why this movie was highly rated, I can't completely agree. Bruno is so without a moral compass until the very end, that his one selfless act does't really make up for what he's done. His own mother won't let him in her house--what does that say about him? Sonia is a fool to take back a guy who thinks that reporting him to the police makes him even for selling their son. Although told in a very bare bones style, I can't say that that approach makes up for a "redemption" I just can't buy.

A captivating 'peephole' into welfare-life in Belgium's dark under belly, L'enfant is a unique movie in its stark realism, intentional lack of a musical backdrop, and limited, authentic and sometimes painfully awkward dialogue. It centres around a young, poor couple - Bruno (Jeremie Renier) and his girlfriend Sonya (Deborah francois), and their meandering descent from 'carefree' love. They are seen play fighting and horsing around many times at the beginning of the movie and their lack of meaningful (or any) dialogue lends itself to the sense of childishness, youthfulness and naiveté that characterizes them both. Bruno thinks 'working is for fools' and sporadically brings in money from petty criminal activities carried out with the help of his underage 'gang' of disaffected school boys. It is clear from the start that Bruno is immature, thoughtless, impulsive and self-obsessed, and one cannot help but be contemptuous of his unawareness of others' needs or feelings. When Sonia shows him their baby son for the first time, Bruno shows next to no interest in the baby. Although one sees his fondness for Sonia, his juvenility does not allow him to see beyond the moment, or beyond the next opportunity to make 'easy' money. Neither Sonia or Bruno grasp the 'reality' of having a baby nor how it will impact their lives; Sonia, however, bearing the brunt of the responsibility and having, it appears, some maternal instinct cannot escape that reality as readily as her lover. Even so, she is painfully unaware of the extent of Bruno's recklessness when she gives him the baby to 'take for a walk'; Bruno seizes upon this as the ultimate money-making opportunity, and seeks out an illegal, underground 'adoption agency' where he can sell their baby and make more money. His naivety is apparent in his total astonishment at Sonia's reaction to this shocking misdemeanour and his desperate pleas - 'but the money's for us! We can have another one (baby)'. These puerile words seal his fate in Sonia's eyes. L'enfant, despite its minimalism, harsh realism and dismal portrayal of life, is nonetheless entrancing and engrossing; from extended 'road-crossing' scenes, to Bruno's realisation that he really has over-stepped the line and must return to the criminal 'baby adopters' to get his child back. It is here we see that beneath his brash, indifferent, superficially carefree exterior is a child-like, fearful young man, very much in love with Sonia, and totally unhinged by her contempt for him. Even after a nail bitingly suspenseful scene where Bruno retrieves the child, he is still backed into a corner by his foolish actions and helplessly sucked into a vortex of blackmail, violence and censure. He is now very much a tiny fish, swimming against the current, in a large and vicious pond. One realises that maybe Bruno, all along, is 'L'enfant'; so foolish and infantile his actions, and so desperate his desire for forgiveness and acceptance. L'enfant's cinematic naturalism, sparse dialogue, suspenseful scenes, and bleak realism make it a great film for the discerning movie goer.

An extraordinary drama film on social perspectives by Dardenne Brothers.The director duo once again execute the tension and internal bonding of human relations and successfully tell the story of a young parents struggling to stay together.Though the title refers the infant, but the story revolves slowly around the boy's character gone to sell his own son being a small time crook for quick money. And then we can see the picturesque explanation how people from lower circle of the society doing crime for an instant,then involves around it and drown into a bigger racket.Little bit dry but surely a breathtakingly serious observation.

You gotta be F'in kidding, a baby on a motorcycle. Then a baby in an unrestrained bassinet in a car. The mother's partner is a scum douche bag, that didn't visit his partner in the hospital, won't name his baby, not interested in his baby, robs homes, then sells his baby. This story got me off side form the start.