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L'Enfant Review

Movies.com Critics

5.0

Dave White Profile

… heavy, serious … Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 5.0
    87

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Universal acclaim
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 100

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

    The Belgian directing brothers deal with themes they have made their own: the difficulty of being moral in an amoral world and the grinding, unforgiving nature of reality for those forced by poverty to live on the margins of society. These are not easy films to experience, but they are uncompromising and unforgettable.

    Read Full Review

  • 100

    out of 100

    Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

    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.

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  • 100

    out of 100

    Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

    Astonishingly vivid. The illusion of reality is so nearly complete in this magnificent French-language film by the Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne that the screen becomes a perfectly transparent window on lives hanging in the balance.

  • 50

    out of 100

    The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

    The film clearly wishes to explore the topic of children having children, but it only inspires a great desire to smack them both.

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  • 75

    out of 100

    Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

    It makes sense that L'Enfant has been hailed as a masterpiece, since a masterpiece is what it's trying, in every unvarnished frame, to be.If you wandered unknowingly into the film, however, you would see this: a stark, fascinating, and naggingly detached character study.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    Variety Scott Foundas

    Those masters of small-scale realism, Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, have created yet another beautifully acted, exquisitely observed morality tale in The Child.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    The New York Times Manohla Dargis

    The Dardennes know how to build a scene for maximum tension: you yearn to find out who bought Jimmy, and whether his fate lies with a childless couple or an organ mill. But because they make moral thrillers, what matters isn't only actions and events but their emotional, spiritual and psychological costs.

    Read Full Review

  • See all L'Enfant reviews at Metacritic.com

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