Lorna's Silence

Ah, the ambiguities of iconic status. The Dardenne brothers swept to prizes at Cannes and international critical acclaim with a severe style and difficult outlook on the world, a Marxist view of underclass moral quandaries. So when they make their work just a little more accessible, the critics don’t like it as much. Here the camera is not so jerky, the setting not quite so circumscribed, the action more scripted, the parable of poverty more neatly laid out. Well, I liked this as much as my previous favorite of theirs, Rosetta, and for much the same reason, a captivating female lead. Here Arta Dobroshi (looking to me uncannily like an older Ellen Page) is an Albanian immigrant in Liege, who has acquired Belgian identity by marrying Jeremie Renier (familiar from other Dardennes’ films), a heroin addict expected to die soon. Or so you figure out, if you are watching closely. Turns out Lorna is being used to turn around as a widow and marry a Russian mobster, to earn him citizenship. With her share of the take from the scam, she hopes to open a snack shop with her Albanian boyfriend. What happens then is subject to debate, but as Lorna’s choices become more circumscribed, it’s safe to say that she awakens to a moral light within. If you are unfamiliar with the Bressonian films of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (La Promesse, Le Fils, L’Enfant), this is not a bad place to start. (2009, dvd.) *7* (MC-80)