Film review: The Kid with a Bike - miles to go

The film tells the caught-at-a-crossroads journey of a 12-year-old boy, Cyril who lives in a foster home.

Directed by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the sweetly touching and powerful French language film, The Kid with a Bike, was the The Grand Prix award winner at the Cannes Film Festival, and a Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set in Seraing, Belgium, the film tells the caught-at-a-crossroads journey of a 12-year-old boy, Cyril (Thomas Dore) who lives in a foster home. His only link to the father that abandoned him is a bike he can’t find, and his only friend is a kindly hairdresser, Samantha (Cécile de France), whose compassion helps him deal with his despair and frustration.

Things start with Cyril escaping his foster home to look for both his bike and his financially troubled father, at his old apartment building. But before he can get inside, the foster home custodians show up, forcing Cyril to escape to a nearby clinic. Here, he encounters Samantha, who observes the pugnacious youth being taken into custody. Though Cyril learns that his father vacated the apartment long ago, he doesn’t give up looking for him.

The next day, Samantha unexpectedly shows up with Cyril’s bike, and tells him that his father had sold it to someone. The tenacious boy then contacts the buyer of the bicycle to trace his father. When Samantha and Cyril finally do meet Cyril’s father, Guy Catoul (Jérémie Renier), he tells Cyril in no uncertain terms that he simply isn’t wanted.

The Kid with a Bike relates the many trials and temptations young boys face, especially those in need. Later in the movie, a drug dealing youth that Cyril befriends, nicknames him ‘Bulldog’ for his scrappy appearance and randomly aggressive behavior, and we note that, when it comes to his father, Cyril doesn’t give up on sniffing out some love and acceptance, even if it means turning to a life of crime.

Shot in an engagingly naturalistic style, The Kid with a Bike is also very well-acted. Even though the film is only a short 87 minutes, each scene unfolds patiently, lending plausibility to the characters and story. An example of this is a scene halfway through the film that shows Cyril rushing to the kitchen, impatient with hunger. He cuts through a piece of cake with the blunt end of a knife, before switching to the proper end. The naturalistic style of the film allows viewers to truly believe in Cyril, and dare feel hope for him. It also allows many of us to identify with a young boy barely able to contain anxious energy, trying to pedal through life at a mile a minute.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, April 15^th, 2012.