Film Review – The Kid with a Bike

Newsroom 19/03/2012 | 10:02

Twelve-year-old Cyril doesn’t have much. His mother is long gone. He has a father, who can’t be bothered with him. He has a place at a children’s home. Most importantly, he has a bike.

At times, this movie, from Belgian filmmakers the Dardenne brothers, is almost painful to watch, as we wait for the next piece of cruelty or mistreatment to come Cyril’s way. Like much of the directors’ work, The Kid with a Bike has a naturalistic feel that positions the atmosphere close to documentary. Cyril’s plight feels real, which is why the film is so affecting.

Yet at the same time, it alludes to the unreal, in the form of the fairy tale. A battle is being fought for the soul of motherless Cyril (Thomas Doret), between the dark forces in the woods (a gang of toughs trying to recruit the naïve youngster to do their dirty work) and salvation, in the form of kindly local hairdresser Samantha (Cécile de France).

In other hands, such a plot could get mawkish. Not here: the Dardennes are sparing with the sentiment. Cyril is not depicted as an angel – he’s difficult, unruly and aggressive, frequently defying the benign staff at the children’s home and Samantha.

Apart from a few of the characters who can be seen as either entirely good or bad, the viewer is not prodded into making comfortable moral judgments. No back story is given for anyone. We don’t know if Cyril’s mother is alive or dead, why his dad is such a deadbeat or why a childless hairdresser would suddenly take in a wayward boy. We’re just presented with the events and left to form our own conclusions.

Set in the bland Belgian suburbs, the locations appear innocuous but there are many dangers. Cyril’s treasured bike is frequently stolen. The bike is important, not just because it is the boy’s main means of getting around and therefore represents his self-determination, but also as a symbol of the attitudes of others. The local toughs try to steal his bike. His father previously sold it. Samantha buys it back. As in the 1948 Italian neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves, the bike is the one thing keeping Cyril’s head above water and its loss threatens to plunge him irredeemably into the underworld of petty crime.

This is measured, confident filmmaking, a far remove from Hollywood sentiment and spoon feeding. Every scene has earned its place, and there is nothing frivolous here. The effect is a lean, serious work, whose lack of embellishment and ordinary settings and people can often make you forget you’re watching a movie.

Credit for its believability and effectiveness must also go to the main actors. Cécile de France’s Samantha is a beacon of warmth and goodness and yet still human and plausible, while Thomas Doret – in his first role – infuses Cyril with a convincing mixture of anger, defiance, vulnerability and shyness.

Cyril barely cracks a smile throughout the film. And we share his fear, pain and glimmer of hope all the while.

Debbie Stowe

Director: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Starring: Thomas Doret, Cécile de France

On: Cinema City & Sun Plaza, Grand Cinema Digiplex Baneasa, Hollywood Multiplex, Noul cinematograf al regizorului roman, Sala Elvira Popescu

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