L'Enfant is a French film that has garnered a lot of praise during its recent circuit throughout various prestigious film festivals. In fact, at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, it received the Palme d'Or award for best film. However, despite all the accolades, L'Enfant is just a jacked-up version of Peter Pan.
The main character, Bruno (Jeremie Renier), is a 20-year-old miscreant who thinks working is for "losers" and would rather make a living by fencing items stolen by his posse of midgets, a.k.a. his 14-year-old friends. One would think that he would have been jolted out of his adolescent stage by the recent birth of his son but he decides to sink to a new low by selling his newborn son for some extra cash, because, after all, they "could always have another one," right?
His 18-year-old girlfriend, Sonia (Deborah Francois), stops the sale by setting the cops on his loser ass. That's just a small example of their truly dysfunctional relationship. There is a whole three-minute-scene devoted solely to her biting his hand like a Doberman.
For a full hour and a half, the audience has to follow Bruno as he desperately tries to dodge the responsibilities and maturity associated with growing up. He begs and steals to survive from day to day and despite this, it's hard not to become attached to him. He may have been a loser but one cannot help hoping that one day he'd grow up or at least that he would not to get caught by the police and gangsters that follow him throughout the film.
Despite the strange characters, the film redeems itself through its social commentary; L'Enfant gives far-reaching insight into some of the mental and environmental causes that keep people stuck in a state of poverty. Though, this is is not a must-see film, it's certainly interesting. Venture out to see this if you want to understand life in another country without having to buy the expensive plane ticket.
