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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Everything about L'Enfant feels devastatingly real. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film belongs to Jeremie Renier and Deborah Francois. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Preachy, overly symbolic and worst of all, dull. Read more
Noel Murray, AV Club: L'Enfant becomes like one of those nightmares where someone does something terrible, then tries to make it right, then gets into a bigger and bigger mess. Read more
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: What is astonishing, and most admirable, is the way the filmmakers manage to create sympathy for this pathetic loser. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Without a lot of overheated action, the consequences of Bruno's behavior cloud the next few hours of his life. The character is a surprise as both a dramatic creation and a human being. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The exceptional thing about L'Enfant is how intensely dramatic the film makes the consequences of Bruno's choice. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Even for a useless criminal, Bruno is just not a compelling personality. Unreadable lumps generally aren't. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Francois gives a marvelously expressive performance as Sonia. Read more
Michael Booth, Denver Post: A gritty slice of real life, relentlessly in focus, though always humane. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Unlike the great foreign films of old, L'Enfant makes catharsis look easy. Read more
Detroit Free Press: No one is likely to leave L'Enfant unaffected by the Dardennes incisive exploration of the consequences of a world where some of its citizens have found a way to rationalize, and even ignore, what was if not unimaginable, at least unforgivable. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Deceptively simple, stripped to the bare necessities, it quietly dramatizes the consequences of lying, cheating and stealing in a way that takes your intelligence for granted. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: The slyly generic title of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's L'Enfant (The Child) suggests ample room for doubt about who's the real kid in their new film. Read more
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A gritty fairy tale about repentance that starts out small and gradually grows in power and intensity, as if by magic, until you're feeling as panicked and desperate as its protagonist. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: The intimacy the directors achieve with their actors is nothing short of uncanny: Renier and Francois go about their business with such naturalness and determination, you forget there are performances going on. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Every act in the film has a mythic resonance. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The Dardennes' documentary style -- real locations, hand-held camerawork and no music -- help increase not only the realism, but the claustrophobia. Read more
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: This is a movie about the kind of everyday miracle we all need to believe can happen -- how the tiniest glimmer of human connection can lead the most miserable specimen out of darkness. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: A sad social commentary in the style of Robert Bresson. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A simple moral fable told with compassion and nerve. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Here is a film where God does not intervene and the directors do not mistake themselves for God. It makes the solutions at the ends of other pictures seem like child's play. Read more
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: For all the squalor and extremely upsetting subject matter, you can't take your eyes off the screen. The Dardennes have a gift of finding a sort of beauty in ugliness. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are masters of naturalistic drama in which characters reveal themselves through a grimace or a gesture, rather than artfully scripted speeches. Read more
Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The miracle of the filmmakers' work would seem to be the perfectly struck performances of the leads. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Bruno is a classic character from the pen of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Belgian filmmakers who find beauty and redemption in the direst of circumstances. Read more
Scott Foundas, Variety: Those masters of small-scale realism, Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, have created yet another beautifully acted, exquisitely observed morality tale. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The remarkable thing about the Dardennes is their complex single-mindedness. Each film is an odyssey (toward grace?) in a world that could hardly seem more material. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Like all the Dardennes' films, L'Enfant is a vivid, Dickensian report from the most dispossessed precincts of society. Read more