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The 'worst father of the year' award goes to 'L'Enfant'

There is immorality, and then there is amorality. Few films are about the latter, but L'Enfant (The Child) is a character study about a guy with no sense of right and wrong.

Sony Pictures Classics 'L'Enfant' C+ The verdict: A tough, amoral character study of a Belgian guy who looks out only for himself. Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Starring: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Olivier Gourmet, Fabrizio Rongione, Jeremie Segard Run time: 95 minutes Release date: March 24, 2006 Rating: Not rated. Language: In French with English subtitles. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'L'Enfant'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Rosetta, The Son) have spent their careers forcing us to stare into the face of desperate people eking out miserable lives. But sympathy is not the response to Bruno, a new father who rents out his girlfriend's apartment while she was in the hospital having their baby.

That is bad enough, but it pales next to his detached, emotionless selling of the baby on the black market. After all, he reasons, they can always make more. And so it goes for Bruno, who later takes to snatching purses with the aid of a young boy who nearly drowns in their hasty getaway attempt. After all of this, viewers are likely to have difficulty accepting Bruno's sudden remorse.

Still, there is a palpable urgency to the Dardennes documentary-like, hand-held camera work, and to the cavalier performance by Jeremie Renier as Bruno. He brings to mind a young Jean-Paul Belmondo, and the comparison may be intentional, for the filmmakers are interested in the gulf between movie conventions and the grit of the real world.

L'Enfant is a simple, emotionally raw story, which many will find hard to swallow. While we tend to look away from the Brunos of the world, they do exist, and this one is as much a child as the offspring he sells.