'Silence' is Deafening: Foreign Film is One of the Year's Best

'Lorna's Silence'

Review: 5/5

In a scene early in the Dardennes brothers' newest film, 'Lorna's Silence' Lorna, played with a quiet fervor and insipid self-deprecation by Arta Dobroshi, is caught in the middle of her decrepit apartment living room, while her arranged husband Claudy (played exceptionally by Jeremie Renier) pleads with her to help him stay off heroin. She hesitantly refuses, but words do not communicate this altercation. Watch Dobroshi's face as she considers Claudy's request: the spectator can completely interpret what she's thinking as she scans her mind for a sincere, but firm way to respond to Claudy's inquiry. Such is the success of the film, which is part drama, part psychological thriller (an unnervingly quiet thriller shot with documentary-style realism). The Dardennes brothers focus intensively on the character of Lorna, who's caught in a dual lifestyle that slowly begins to corrode while she struggles to live the life she's dreamed of.

The story centers around Lorna and her husband. They're Albanian emigrants in Belgium that maintain an unusual desire to open up a snack shop, but, in order to do so, they need money, and a permanent resident status. An Italian mobster, Andrei, helps Lorna and her husband with this issue, concocting a plan to have Claudy, a heroin junkie, marry Lorna in order to gain citizenship, then divorce and remarry her real husband. Yet, as is obvious, affairs are not carried out in the proper manner. Without giving away spoilers, suffice it to say Lorna finds herself guilt-ridden, spiraling downward into the fringes of insanity. Watching Dobroshi slowly implode, both mentally and physically, is to be witness to an incomparable exhibition of the malaise caused distinctly by various forms of exhaustion. The performance is worthy of an Oscar. She will be nominated.

Much credit needs to be attributed to the Dardennes brothers for creating a tone of harrowing disquiet by utilizing such a limited formal technique. The tension in this film is comparable to that displayed effectively in the Coens' 'No Country for Old Men,' constructed not by a lingering soundtrack or long stretches of dialogue, but by a naturalistic technical style, and, equally, Dobroshi's multilayered portrayal of Lorna, whose gradual decline occasionally results in self-mutilation. That no one involved in the affair bothers to notice the extent of Lorna's desolation, not because they are unconcerned with her, but because her level of hubris is abnormally high, subtly proves her resolute willingness to exert herself far beyond her boundaries to live the life she wants.