omalley-brendan
The performance of Jérémie Renier is memorable. (He's also great in L'infant). The Dardennes are obviously influenced by Robert Bresson and have a similar interest in use of realistic sound, and observation of everyday tasks. They especially like workshops, and woodworking tools. Like Bresson, they eschew incidental music and produce a very naturalistic view of events. And they do it so well. This film will remain in your conscience for a long time after you have seen it, and should satisfy those who need a resolution and a conclusion in their movies, by offering at least an answer to one "will he - won't he?" dilemma.These guys are making some of the best cinema of the present era.
MartinHafer
I liked this film because it dared to be different. It was about as far from a "Hollywood-style" film as you can get! The story involves some pretty nasty characters. In particular, a teenage boy and his father. They make money by exploiting illegal immigrants in France--picking up the poor people and housing them in a tenement--all as exorbitant rates. This pair appear to be people without souls as they lie and cheat again and again. However, when one of these illegals accidentally dies, the paths of the two diverge. Dad just wants to dump the body and could care less about the man's widow and young child (wanting to sell her into a life of prostitution), while the boy who witnessed the final words of the dying man promised to look after the family. What, exactly, happened next I'll leave for the viewer. Provided you have a tolerance for movies about realistically seedy people, this is a film worth seeing.An interesting twist, not taken in the film, would have been if later the boy had found out that his father was not really his biological dad--but the "dad" raised him from infancy after his own real family died while being smuggled into France by him. This could be an interesting path.
writers_reign
This is available with Rosetta on one DVD and it's a welcome change to discover a double DVD where both films are equal in quality. I'm not usually a fan of the 'hand-held' camera school of film making but in the case of Rosetta and this film I am happy to make an exception. It may well be noted that the freres Dardennes tend to load the dice in their own favor but there are times when a case can be made for playing with a stacked deck and this is one of them. Not too much happens. We meet Igor (Jeremie Regnier) and his father Roger (Olivier Gourmet) almost from Frame #1. Teenage Igor, pumping gas is not above stealing a purse from an elderly lady and if we find this a tad amoral it is as nothing compared to his old man who has a nice line in illegal immigrants, demanding their passports - or rather delegating Igor to collect them - in return for a few square meters of squalor and a fifty-fifty chance of deportation if and when they prove unable and/or unwilling to pay the extortionate 'rent'. The first and literal promise is the one made by Igor to the African who has fallen from a ladder whilst renovating the clapped-out house owned by Roger and is subsequently finished off by Roger lest his injuries prove an embarrassment. The injured man charges Igor with being responsible for the welfare of his wife and child and Igor, being still impressionable, takes this seriously, so much so, that he severs relations with his father thus bringing into play the secondary meaning of the title, the promise shown by Igor of getting under the wire as a human being. Excellent acting all round, complete lack of background music and a plot that ultimate involves make for a highly satisfying movie. 8/10
George Parker
"La Promesse", from the makers of "Rosetta", is an award winning drama which gets down to business quickly. The film is shot with no frills and the hard edge of a documentary. It tells of a father and son, both of questionable character, who make their living on the backs of transient illegal aliens in Belgium and the schism which developes between them as they engage a serious matter of conscience. Viewers with an appetite for reality in film will extol this flick while fantasy lovers may hate its grit.
AD
