The Kid with a Bike

4 stars out of 5
My wife and I are suckers for a film with good reviews, especially one that won the Jury Prize at Cannes. So we went to see this film. The plot summary from IMDB is succinct and accurate: "Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hairdresser agrees to foster him on weekends." Unlike most French films, there is some character development. Lessons are learned, and some people change and mature. On the other hand, the ending is the least satisfying (in an American sense) film ending of the year so far. Still, art is art so go see it. It wasn't totally French.

Totally French? As Paul Rudnick put it in a recent humorous article in The New Yorker:
"French culture remains unmatched. Our films include rollicking farces, searing documentaries, and quietly explosive investigations of family life. In these films, to avoid vulgarity, nothing happens, and none of the actors’ faces ever move. French filmmaking has recently reached a peak with the almost entirely silent Oscar-winning movie The Artist. True cinéastes say that the ultimate Fench film will be a still photograph of a dead mime."