those amazing bus journys

Just go and watch Die Hard and be happy.

Bruce Willis has a gun and is killing terrorists, you'll like it.

Riding on the bus, however mundane, asks an incredible amount about the character. When you see Bruno on the bus with the baby you're afforded the opportunity to ask yourself so many questions about what he must be thinking. "Is he thinking about the money?", "Is he thinking about what he's going to tell Sonya?", "Is he haven't second thoughts?", etc. Studying Bruno's face in that scene is a pleasure. You could easily dismiss the scene as a throwaway narrative device (getting from Scene A to Scene B), however I would completely disagree. It adds to Bruno's character tremendously. Not to mention the fact it adds to the audience's overall empathy of Bruno. The fact we follow him on this journey gives us an insight into how he operates. The Dardenne's are forcing us to spend time with this character, we may not like him, but he's interesting and this plot line is far more intriguing than watching Sonya in a queue.

Dardenne movies are fables-in-a-documentary-style. This involves a lot of silence. But, I don't think this means that the time is empty. I think it builds suspense - what are they thinking? Often - just like real humans - Bruno simply does something which - if we haven't been paying attention, or even if we have - might seem inexplicable. The slow work of interior transformation is hard to depict, and does not come with fanfare.

Bruno and Sonia are very 'real' characters, yes, and are depicted with a minimum of fuss and no overly 'cinematic' framing to suggest 'fable' (which we often take to mean 'fantasy'). But, this film is - among many things - a fable about redemption and its surprises. This is why, among other things, I did not find the end depressing. Rather, it is enheartening, deeply moving to see that Bruno has become - even in prison (or, perhaps one ought to say, requiring prison) - the sort of person who can feel remorse. And, thus, empathy... humanness. Love. We see a simple story about one person's transformation... and this transformation is achieved through the most random (?seemingly?) assortment of circumstances. Through its formal simplicity (and perhaps overstatement of selfishness and somewhat formulaic gangster-almost-French-New-Wave-ish plotline) it becomes broadly universal - a fable about the human condition. We might not all sell our babies, but we all make the trip from the land of pure selfish self-gratification to a land where we can encounter the effects of our actions, and a desire for authentic relationship with other human beings.

Great film. Check out their other stuff. Fables. And, really powerful.