Lorna’s Silence is a good film to watch if you ever think you’re in the middle of a jam. You are not. But Lorna sure as hell is. Here, the Belgian Dardenne brothers (The Son, The Child), bring perhaps the ultimate being-in-a-pickle tale. Lorna, an Albanian, has become a Belgian by paying a junkie to marry her. The plan now is to get rid of the junkie and marry a Russian for money, who wants EU citizenship. She has a manager for all this. And a lover who knows all about it. The only thing is Lorna’s having second thoughts. But is she in too deep to do anything about it? Well-acted and with appropriately quiet directing, Lorna’s Silence is tense, riveting, frustrating, occasionally sweet and, above all, excellent.
This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2010.
