Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent but underrated film

A different way of telling a story

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Belgian film "Le silence de Lorna" was shown with the title "Lorna's Silence" (2008) in the U.S. The movie is co-written and co-directed by the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.The protagonist, Lorna, who is from Albania, has made a pact with the devil. It involves her marriage of convenience to a Belgian citizen, so that she can become a Belgian citizen. Once she becomes a citizen, the plan is to remove her husband. Then, in another marriage of convenience, Lorna, as a widow, can marry a Russian who in turn will become a Belgian citizen. Lorna wants to become a citizen so that she can obtain a loan to open a snack shop in Belgium. She wants the cash for startup money.The plot is crafted by a Belgian cabdriver, who has no compunction about doing whatever it takes to move up in the gangster world. If Lorna's husband, a drug addict, has to be eliminated, that's not a problem. So, everyone has dreams--of cash, of a snack shop, of citizenship, of underworld advancement.The problem is that the drug addict, Claudy, is obviously in love with Lorna, and he's desperately trying to stay clean. Lorna has sympathy for this needy, suffering young man, and she'd like to adjust the pact with the devil to somehow spare him. However, what she learns is that the devil doesn't like people who want to change the pact. Arta Dobroshi, as Lorna is, indeed, from the Balkans. (So, it's not a stretch for French speakers to accept her authentic accent.) Ms. Dobroshi is a superb actor, and gives a brilliant performance as a woman who is basically decent, but finds herself in a less-than-decent situation.Jérémie Renier is excellent as her husband, Claudy. My wife and I admired his work before in another Dardenne brothers film--"La Promesse." It's really easy for Claudy to slip back into addiction, and it's really hard to stay clean, but he can do it if Lorna helps him.The Dardenne brothers specialize in films where bad things happen, often to good people. The curator who introduced the film said that the Dardenes specialize in films that offer no hope, but I don't fully agree. They specialize in hard films where tragedy is never far away, but the films do hold out hope for redemption. This is not always enough, but it's better than nothing.We saw the film on the large screen at the excellent Dryden Theatre in George Eastman House in Rochester. However, it should work well on DVD.

Co-directors and co-screenwriters Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne are perennial favorites from Cannes and other prestigious film festivals, and even though their most recent film Lorna's Silence disappointed to various fans of European art-house cinema, I liked it very much, mainly because of its hypnotic narrative and brilliant performances; both aspects seem simple and minimalistic on their shape, but they deeply express unexpected levels of complexity and emotion.The Dardenne bros. are obvious heirs of the thematic and stylistic legacy of the cinema from the French "new wave"; so, Lorna's Silence fits into the archetype of the deep and serious European cinema, whose intentions are very different to the ones we are accustomed to see in North American cinema.That may make the film a bit inaccessible to some people, but personally, I appreciated that very much, because it offers something different to the Hollywood drama and its predictable formulas.The only thing I could say against this movie is that I would have preferred the ending to be less ambiguous; nevertheless, that is a minor complaint.So, I very enthusiastically recommend Lorna's Silence to those people who are not afraid of watching a film which is very distant to what we are accustomed to see in Hollywood dramas.I admit that my expectations before watching Lorna's Silence were very low, because I usually do not like those sordid dramas about suffering and sadness which do not lead anywhere (such as, for example, The Burning Plain or 21 Grams).Now, I see that that perception can change when there are genuine filmmakers with the intention of enlarging our understanding of cinematographic art behind the cameras, instead of pretentious directors and screenwriters who desperately try to win the Oscar.In summary, Lorna's Silence is a powerful and memorable film experience which has a lot to offer to the spectator.

Cannes follower will probably remember Belgium directors Dardenne Brother's Golden Palm winner "The Child" (2005). "Lorna's silence", latest Cannes winner (best screenplay) from them features again male lead Jeremie Renier who plays yet another "fringe" character, but of a different variety (irresponsible juvenile the last time; junkie this time). The female lead Arta Dobroshi however is a new face, chosen after a meticulous selection process.The realistic world that underlies the plot is the illegal immigration business in Belgium, through sham marriages. In some cases, the customer, after securing the Belgium identity card, becomes a "service provider", in both cases through the arrangement of an underground organization. Lorna (Dobroshi) is such a case. In the context of this film, the life of Lorna evolves around three men: Claudy (Renier) the hired husband who got her into Belgium from Albania, Sokol her lover who is away most of the time seeking work and Spirou the goon who arranged her sham marriage with Claudy and is now employing her service for a new customer: a wealthy Russian.Unlike Hollywood melodramas, the story here unfolds with relentless, grim reality as Spirol plans to kill Claudy (using drug overdose) to make way for the Russian while Lorna tries to achieve the same result by a lengthy and frustrating process of divorce application. In her race against time, she also develops, quite reluctantly, affection for Claudy who successfully quits the drug addiction.The film has much to offer: sharp depiction of a deficient society, keen observation and thoughtful development of characters, skillful, lean cinematic narration (comparable to Hemmingway's prose). It touches by an unflinching stare at life rather than contriving manipulation of the audiences' emotion

The Dardenne brothers, those impressive Belgian filmmakers, are at it again. This is a sort of a departure for them, although their keen insight about people of a certain status has been shown before, perhaps with better results. As it's their style, the film is devoid of music. Their camera has a way to offer the viewer an insight on the character he is seeing on the screen. Make no mistake, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are at the top of their profession by presenting films that no one else would dare to show, and above all, they make the viewer get another take of life, the way they see it.That said, "Le silence de Lorna" takes us to meet people that are so completely different, yet, not because of that, they don't feel real, on the contrary. The situation at hand involves a young Albanian woman, Lorna, who has married Claudy, a Belgian drug addict in order to get the citizenship papers. It is obvious their arrangement was purely a monetary one. Lorna, who has an Albanian boyfriend, Sokol, hangs out with the wrong crowd in Liege. Her association with them will not end happily.Lorna's connection, the reptile Fabio and his underling Spirou pressure Lorna into marrying a Russian mafia bigwig so that he can get the Belgian passport. Lorna, like so many other immigrants, wants to save her money to open a small snack bar with Sokol. She is sidetracked by what Fabio wants her to do. In fact, Lorna is torn between trying to save Claudy, who faces a possible death, and get her dreams come true.The film owes a lot to Arta Dobroshi, a dark haired beauty who is at the center of the story. Jeremie Renier, who has done wonderful turns for the director-brothers is seen as drug addict, Claudy. Fabio Rongione appears as Fabio.We look forward to the brothers' next venture because their films always leaves the viewer richer knowing first hand about real people.