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Lorna's Silence
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
Directed by:
Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 31, 2009
Running Time: 105 minutes, Black and White | Color
Origin: Belgium | France | Italy | Germany
Language(s): French | Albanian
Summary
RATING: R for brief sexuality/nudity, and language
Starring Alban Ukaj, Fabrizio Rongione, and Jeremie Renier
The destiny of a woman caught between love and the law of the underworld. Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, has her sights set on opening a snack bar with her boyfriend, Sokol. In order to do so, she becomes an accomplice in a diabolical plan devised by mobster Fabio. Fabio has set up a false marriage between Lorna and Claudy allowing Lorna to get her Belgian citizenship. However, she is then asked to marry a Russian mafioso who's ready to pay hard cash to also get his hands on those vital Belgian identity papers. Fabio intends to kill Claudy in order to speed up the second marriage. But will Lorna remain silent? (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Post V.A. Musetto
The androgynous Dobroshi is in nearly every scene. She has an exceptional screen presence that brings authority to her portrayal of a woman seeking redemption. As for the Dardennes, they prove yet again that nobody does human frailty the way they do.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A gritty, deceptively low-key, no-fuss, no-frills movie of consistent originality and surprise in which suspense arises straight up from the heroine's evolving character.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A stunning study of one desperate woman's conscience.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Lorna's Silence is engrossing and powerful, which may be just another way of saying it's a film by the Dardenne brothers. If it falls a bit short of the standards of their best work, that is only because it is not quite a masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Renier’s performance is the best thing in the movie, although all the actors, cast partly for their faces, are part of creating this desperate world.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
The Dardennes resist the expected cliches: The climactic scenes gather force and purpose and the movie seems headed for a breakthrough of some sort, but then it glides softly and unexpectedly to a halt.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
On a deeper level, the Dardennes' film offers a portrait of a fragile yet determined woman set on making a home for herself in the world, even as that world unravels before her eyes.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
By Dardenne standards this plot is pretty pulpy and unconvincing, but I rather enjoyed watching them attempt to twist it into an existentialist pretzel.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Sam Adams
Lorna's Silence feels like a refinement, even a repetition, of earlier themes. But the brothers are repeating themselves at such a high level that the redundancies are more than welcome.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Like earlier Dardenne films, Lorna’s Silence is naturalistic, yet this one, beautifully shot in 35 mm film by Alain Marcoen, achieves a poetry of bereftness.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
The film doesn't pack the same cumulative wallop as the brothers' earlier work, but its low-key artistry, immaculate construction and fine performance by relative newcomer Arta Dobroshi should rouse the usual fest acclaim and arthouse interest.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Something between a love story and a religious morality tale. The hauntingly ambiguous last scene, in which Lorna finds a place of temporary respite from the economic forces that have determined so much of her life, may be the saddest happy ending I've ever seen.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Lorna's sudden change of heart is a pointed example of what the Dardenne brothers' movies are all about. Capitalism may seem at times like a raging river, but every day, all over the world, people try to make it flow in the opposite direction.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
While the Dardennes may be moralists, they are also makers of thrillers: The story within Lorna' Silence is built on tiny increments of tantalizing details, meted out in penurious droplets and with chest-tightening tension that suggests that what the brothers wanted to be when they grew up were boa constrictors -- Belgian boas, with degrees in Marxist theory.
Read Full Review >St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson
This isn't just another crime story, and it would be misleading to suggest that it has anything to do with stylish gunplay, exhilarating car chases or brutal fistfights.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Among the Dardennes' more accessible films, despite a drawn-out finale that still doesn't quite satisfy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
If you’re new to the Dardennes, Lorna’s Silence will serve as a fine introduction.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Upbeat it ain't, but when the light fades from the final frame, there remains something unusual in the Dardennes canon – the possibility of an escape from futility's clutches, and a reason for hope that might, just might, be more than an illusion.
Read Full Review >NPR Mark Jenkins
Watching Lorna's attempt to balance self-interest and empathy can be heartbreaking. If Lorna's Silence as a whole doesn't rank among the Dardennes's best, it does follow the money to moments and characters that are unforgettable.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Ultimately, this is not one of the Dardennes' masterpieces. They've made a few of those, but the effect of Lorna's Silence is more modest. It leaves the audience with neither a sense of uplift nor devastation, but, rather, with something more akin to intellectual appreciation.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
The Dardennes retain a company of returning players: Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, and Olivier Gourmet. Such loyalty is rare and touching.
Read Full Review >New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott
It boasts strong acting and a nice dose of suspense.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Lorna's Silence doesn't work, but it's a beautiful misfire.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
