Film Reviews

The Silence of Lorna

• Rating:
• Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne
• Starring: Arta Dobroshi
• Details: Belgium/France/Italy/Germany / 105mins (16).

In a typical low-key plot from the brothers Dardenne (The Child, The Son), The Silence Of Lorna sees Albanian Lorna (Dobroshi) living in Belgium with junkie husband Claudy (Renier). It's a sham marriage, though: she's only married Claudy to gain Belgian citizenship and hopes that he'll overdose so she can marry her real love, Sokol (Ukaj). However, Claudy is determined to make a real go of it this time and what Lorna wasn't counting on was caring for her 'husband' and can't bring herself to drive him back on heroin. The Silence Of Lorna has all the ingredients of a Dardenne film: money (lack of), happiness (lack of), evil, mean-spirited men (plenty of) and asking big questions in small ways. What the Dardennes haven't done right is let one major plot point happen off screen. Without going into detail (and giving away the plot), it's baffling why the brothers opted to ignore this important incident in favour of showing us the aftermath, which robs the audience of any emotional input they might have; the Russian's part in the film, whom we hear a lot about but doesn't make an appearance until later on, is unclear; while Lorna's descent into madness doesn't ring true either. But The Dardennes do a lot right too: the script (which won top prize at this year's Cannes) drops us in the middle of the story, where a lot of filmmakers would be tempted to have a long lead-in; and the characters, fleshed out by believable performances, feel like real people in real situations. It's a different take on the love story, a sick and disturbing love story but a love story nonetheless.

Review by Gavin Burke