The Silence of Lorna

I have a memory of the Dardenne Brothers from the London Film Festival, we were in front of the Sofitel hotel waiting to make sure Rachel Weisz got in the right car (she was heading for the wrong one), the Dardenne Brothers were standing cooly to the side, smoking cigarettes, the coolness probably owes to them being comfortable in the knowledge of the quality of their own talent, they have won the top prize at Cannes twice after all, and their new film ‘The Silence of Lorna’ won best screenplay there this year, these are the type of guys that would get in the right car no problems, I thought about this as I waited for the film to begin, oddly there was not one commercial or trailer before the film, which gave me plenty of time to think and rise my expectations, it is certainly a very well crafted film, though its award of best screenplay perplexed me a little bit, some of the plotting is clunky and characters make seemingly out-of-character decisions, it is quite capturing as a thorough study of the film’s protagonist with lingering, quite (not surprising considering the title) shots, slowly building an intimate relationship between the audience and Lorna, the film isn’t in a hurry, more happy to see the audience emotionally invest in the protagonist who struggles to guarantee Belgian citizenship and help others from the east do the same, the stunning, Kosovo-born actress Arta Dobroshi certainly holds her own against the coolness of Dardenne Brothers, delivering a complex performance for her complex character, she surely wouldn’t have any problems getting in the right car either.