Butler's Cinema Scene

Cecile de France and Thomas Doret

“THE KID WITH A BIKE” My rating: B

87 minutes | No MPAA rating

Nobody ever seems like they’re acting in the films of siblings

Jean-Pierre and Luc  Dardenne. Everything is so natural and unforced

that any actorish method would stand out like a pimple on the face of

the Mona Lisa.

Maybe that’s because the Belgian duo invariably center their films on

children, usually portrayed by untrained first-timers who are so good at

just being that acting would be superfluous.

The troubled title character of “The Kid With A Bike” is Cyril (Thomas

Doret),  who as the movie begins is living in a group home for

youngsters.

Cyril believes with every fiber of his being that he doesn’t belong

here. He has a father, he protests, and they live in an apartment.  Some

terrible miscarriage of justice has brought him to this prison. He’s

driving his counselors/keepers crazy with his stubborn, sullen attitude

and his regular escape attempts.

On one such foray he makes it to his old apartment, only to find it

empty. Cyril’s  father – and his beloved bicycle – are nowhere to be

found. Slowly it sinks in that he’s now on his own.

Understandably, this makes for a very angry kid.

Salvation comes in the form of a neighborhood hair stylist, Samantha

(Cecile de France), who buys the bicycle back from the neighborhood kid

who purchased it from Cyril’s father. She returns the little fugitive

and his bike to the group home and then agrees to let the kid visit her

on weekends.

This is the sort of setup that an American filmmaker would milk for

every last drop of bathos. The Dardennes aren’t having any of that.

“The Kid With A Bike” is terse and austere. It eschews the big dramatic

gesture, opting instead for a matter-of-fact realism. Young Doret sets

the tone here and the adult players simply follow his lead.

Though she’s a big star in France (she was the lead in Clint Eastwood’s

“Hereafter”),  de France is so low-keyed and unforced as Samantha that

at first I wasn’t sure who this actress was…or even if she was a

professional.

The other major character here is Cyril’s missing dad, whom he tracks

down in the kitchen of a restaurant. It’s says volumes about the

generosity of the Dardannes that this lowlife (Jeremie Renier) is

presented both as criminally selfish and as painfully childlike… as if

you could get rid of a son as easily as you sell a used bicycle.

Late in “Kid” a bit of melodrama creeps in when Cyrill falls under the

influence of an older boy who cons him into committing a crime. But the

Dardannes finesse even this looming speed bump. Their charitable but

clear-eyed view of humanity has no need of overstatement.

| Robert W. Butler