Metacritic Movie Ratings
L'Enfant Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 100

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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.

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• 100

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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 JournalJoe 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.

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• 80

  out of 100

  VarietyScott 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.

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• 80

  out of 100

  The New York TimesManohla 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.

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• 75

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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.

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• 50

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterRay 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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