Teenager and serious piece of scum Bruno, always in desperate need of cash, has conceived a child with his girlfriend Sonia. After the kid is born he decides to take it for a walk and sell it to a bunch of scoundrel child traders. After she hears the trick her boyfriend pulled, Sonia freaks out and Bruno tries to get his baby back. Unfortunately, the criminals now demand more money than he was originally paid to give his child back.

L’Enfant refrains from delving deeply into the subject of child trade, teenage pregnancy and social problems. After their previous successes, the Dardenne brothers bring this drama an almost improvised and really clean sense of directing. Same goes for the acting. Lead Jérémie Reinier’s acting seems to solely consist of his going to, running through, getting kicked out of and being let back into his girlfriend’s apartment. In fact, it makes you wonder how the casting director came upon the two leads. Probably taken right off the streets, if it wasn’t for the fact Renier has built up quite a résumé.

Of course, the real drama here is a father selling and trading his own child. After Bruno succeeds in getting his child back, the story shifts focus onto the rather uninteresting and fragmented criminal acts which Bruno performs to pay the debts the child traders left him with. This sterile production fails to impress on more than one level, giving me a hard time suppressing the strong urge to think and shout out ‘whatever’ and question why the directors received a Golden Palm for it earlier this year.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Jérémie Reinier, Fabrizio Rongione, Déborah François
Runtime: 95’/100’ (French version)
Release Dates: US: 24 March 2006 , UK: 31 March 2006 , The Netherlands: 3 November 2005
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