In
their recent films, the Dardenne brothers have upgraded their
signature moves. So now it is not all about the Liege proletarian
neighbourhood Seraing and social realism.
Now, for the third time in a row, we have an international star in
the leading role. After Cecile De France in The Kid on the
Bike and Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night,
up and coming French actress Adele Haenel (of Love at First
Fight fame) took her turn as a young doctor in the neighbourhood
trying to figure out what happened to the titular unknown girl.
Also,
The Unknown Girl is the Dardennes’ second feature in
a row to be marketed as a bit of a genre piece. On the festival tour
in 2014, they were “selling” Two Days One Night as a
modern western, which sounded outlandish at first, since there were
no horses, guns or cowboys, but some nice parallels can be drawn to
some of the leftist westerns like High Noon or Shane,
maybe even to the “original” The Magnificent Seven, since
it was more or less battle movie, with the battle being both interior
and exterior. The Unknown Girl is being sold as a piece of
good old noirish detective story and it is pretty much right in a
genre sense, since we have an inquiry at the centre
of the story.
Dr
Jenny Davin has her mind set on the professional goals. With a more
lucrative position waiting for her at the hospital, she is covering
for the retiring old doctor and training a young intern Julien
(newcomer Olivier Bonnaud) at the same time. One evening their
conversation was interrupted by a doorbell ring long after the
official working hours. Since she thinks that a tired, over-worked
doctor wouldn’t be much help to a patient inconsiderate enough to
come that late, she doesn’t let him to open the door. If it were an
emergency, the patient would ring again, she says as an excuse.
Julien leaves in anger ready to quit the medical school, while she
goes to her house calls and a reception in the hospital honouring
her.
The
next day, the police comes to her office informing her that the girl
who came last night was found dead and asking for the surveillance
video tapes. Feeling guilty for not helping her, Jenny changes her
mind about the hospital job, takes the old doctor’s practice
instead and dedicates all of her free time to discovering the dead
girl’s, probably an illegal immigrant, identity so she could have
some dignity in her death. And since she doesn’t know how to
conduct an investigation, she turns to the only clue she has: her
patients in a presumably close-knit community.
Shifting
the focus between the scenes of the investigation and the other ones
of Jenny’s daily work, The Unknown Girl seems like a regular
Dardenne brothers work. It is strong as a social realist
portrait of the underbelly of Europe and as a statement. The camera
work by their regular DoP Alain Marcoen is spot on, and their
regular actors Jeremie Renier, Olivier Gourmet and
Fabrizio Rongione are all fine in their parts from small bits
to crucial supporting ones. Adele Haenel is a fine actress and
the brothers are utilizing her to perfection in the role of a young
professional trying to clear her guilt for a bad judgement
she made.
But
as crime flick, The Unknown Girl simply doesn’t work. Sure,
there are some clues, atmosphere and style-wise taken from
euro-noirs, Belgian and Dutch as well as Nordic ones. Also, the
video-tape of the girl at the door is a nice touch and an equivalent
of a photo in the old school detective flicks. But the premise that a
career woman would decline an offer for her dream job just too far
off as is the idea that the circle of people involved is so narrow.
The neighbourhood of Seraing is small, but
not that small, so the whole plot about the murder and Jenny’s
investigation is just too neat to the point of being Agatha
Christie-like.
Having
that in mind, The Unknown Girl is not a bad film just because
the intended crime aspect is not developed enough. The Dardenne
brothers are at home when they are dealing with the social aspect and
their fans will certainly appreciate it. Still, it is a step in a
wrong direction and far from their finest work.
No comments:
Post a Comment