Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Turfseer Some of you may have seen the Dardennes brothers 2011 film "The Kid with a Bike," which starred Jérémie Renier as the father of a disturbed 12 year old whom he abandons. In the Dardennes brothers first significant (1996) feature, La Promesse, you can see Renier as the troubled 15 year old protagonist, Igor, who shines in his initial foray into the feature film landscape. Shot in a gritty cinema verité style significantly without music, La Promesse chronicles the unhealthy relationship between Igor and an amoral father, Roger (Oliver Gourmet). Roger proves to be cannily drawn, a bad man who is still fleshed out with some sympathetic characteristics. Despite beating Igor at times, the point is made that he still cares for the boy (in his own half-assed way). Roger houses immigrants but also exploits them by overcharging for rent and undercharging their pay. When Amidou, an immigrant from Burkina Faso and one of Roger's construction workers, falls off a scaffold, Igor tries to save the man by applying a tourniquet to his bleeding leg. Roger, fearing that he'll be discovered by government inspectors, throws the tourniquet away, allowing the man to bleed to death. To add insult to injury, he dumps the body right at the construction site and covers the corpse with cement. Before Roger arrives on the scene, Igor promises the dying man that he'll take care of his wife, Assita (Assita Ouedraogo) and her infant child. At the beginning of the film, Igor is introduced as a juvenile delinquent of sorts, who steals money from a woman while working part-time at a service station. The promise turns the boy into a responsible citizen as he ends up trying to help Assita after the husband's disappearance. The uncaring Roger even goes so far as paying a man to scare Assita into leaving by attempting to rape her (the subterfuge involves Roger pretending to scare the man off before he actually commits the crime). It gets worse when Roger creates a fake telegram which is delivered to Assita, falsely claiming Amidou is in Germany and wants her to meet him there. Only Igor's last minute intervention prevents Roger from delivering the beleaguered widow into the hands of sex traffickers. Assita is effectively drawn as she's not a complete goody two-shoes. There is a disturbing scene of animal sacrifice (a rooster is sliced up as part of her rituals) and later she has a breakdown, accusing Igor of infecting her child with some sort of disease. Fortunately Assita comes to her senses and they bring the child to a hospital for treatment. There, a sympathetic nurse allows Assita to use her identity papers so she can leave the country to live with a family member. There is a harrowing scene at the climax where Roger catches up to Igor at the service station where he used to work, with the boy preventing the father from chasing after them by clamping a chain to his leg. All of this is pretty gripping but a bit predictable in the end as Igor is committed to helping the woman. Igor's confession is indeed satisfying but the Dardennes brothers abruptly break things off and keep us guessing as to what the consequences are of Assita finding out her husband is dead. Does she go to the police? Does Roger prevent her from acting or pay her off? Does Assita finally turn around and indeed move in with a family members in another country? What does Roger do to Igor? The Dardennes brothers wish to leave things to our imagination-not sure that is the best tack to take here as the story sort of demands more of a conclusive denouement. La Promesse is indeed a gritty portrait of a disturbed father-son relationship as well as a damning chronicle of the exploitation of immigrants by unscrupulous men whose desire for monetary profit outweighs any humanitarian concerns.

SnoopyStyle Igor's father Roger rents his ramshackle flats to illegal immigrants as part of an organized smuggling operation. His exploitation includes offering some with reduced rent to work construction on his building. When inspectors come for a surprise visit, an illegal worker falls to his death. With his dying breath, the worker asks Igor to care for his baby and wife Assita. Igor helps his father hide the dead body. Roger intends to trick Assita but Igor intervenes.Jérémie Renier is a newcomer teenager here. The role is terribly juicy. He tries his best but he may not be prepared. Also Assita Ouedraogo may not be a professional actress but she does have a realism. This is a devastating story. The Dardenne brothers bring a documentary realism. At the same time, they don't necessarily have the skills to bring out superior acting from their actors.

jonathandoe_se7en Mild *SPOILERS*La Promesse, is the story of Igor, a young tear-away who spends his time robbing old ladies who stop by at the garage he works at, working on his go-cart, or helping his father in his work. His work however is helping immigrants across into Belgium and giving them lodging at a house that he is restoring. His father dominates Igor's entire life; that is until Amidou, one of the workers is accidentally killed... The rest of the film focuses on Igor making good on his promise to Amidou that he will look after his wife and baby. The film uses this set-up to look at the power of loyalty, Igor's loyalty to his father, or to the promise he made. This is the first film that I've seen from the Dardenne brothers, but I defiantly look forward to seeing the more recent film Rosetta (1999), their careful handling of the young actor Jérémie Rénier is superb, finding both the subtle innocents and the growing adult awareness that is growing within him (this is a coming of age story) not to mention the fantastic performance from Olivier Gourmet as the boy's father, a man who will beat his son one minute than joke with him the next. There may be some bad points with the film, for instance the central relationship between Igor and Amidou isn't developed enough for us to believe he would willingly stick by his promise, but these hardly deter from this brilliantly acted character piece.7/10

Jerome-5 At the turn of the 20th century, film pioneers in the United States were shooting movies about the fantastic, pushing the envelope of special effects and melodrama, while European film makers were trying to capture the the essence of "real life." It's amazing how little has changed in a hundred years."La Promesse," a Belgian film by the Dardenne brothers, offers so little of the American drama-enhancers that at first it seems boringly mundane. But an interesting morality-play soon puts the viewer's mind to work. What is the main character, Igor, a street-wise kid supposed to do when his father, who has taught him every trick in the book, hides the accidental death of an illegal immigrant worker? Igor promises the worker's wife that he will look after her and her baby while her husband has gone "missing" but is unable to tell her the horrible truth.Igor contemplates what to do, oftentimes while driving around a ghastly post-industrial landscape on his rickety moped. No music, just moped whining. In typical Dardenne style, there is a brief touching and funny scene in all of this misery. Igor is filmed actually having fun with his pals in a pitifully dilapidated, home-made go-cart -like all kids should- rather than contemplating such weighty issues. The effect is unforgettable.Igor finally decides to make a break with his father and in a common but effective convention -- he uses the survival tactics that his father taught him (such as driving their van) against him, leaving the fat-ish father to go after his kid while squeezing onto his kid's moped. Truly a pathetic sight.Igor, his hand played with his father, is now forced to confront the issue with the worker's widow and her baby which makes for a powerful conclusion. Sans music, of course.Without entirely giving up the movie, the title, "La Promesse" actually has two meanings it seems. The first is the promise to the woman and her baby but the directors evidently are also rooting for "the promise" of a younger (post-baby boomer) generation to act altruistically. I'm reminded of the line in a John Cougar Mellencamp (baby-boomer) song, "Check it Out," when he sings wistfully, "Future generations...maybe they'll have a better understanding, Hopefully have a better understanding..."In a sad coda, I saw "La Promesse" in Washington DC's last independent theater just days before it closed down, thus losing it's battle with the evil theater-chain empires. Movies like "La Promesse" are the kinds of films that allow one to restore the promise that there can still be thoughtful and unforgettable cinema out there in the land of formulaic Hollywood pap. These films need to be made and offered in our theaters and video stores...and taught in our film schools. They do more than entertain. They offer a window on life. If they can't survive in the "movie market," then (oh-no, the s-word) subsidize them and use them as teaching instruments to our students. Maybe future generations will revive the art -- and learn something in the process.