D'Ardennen (The Ardennes, 2015)

D'Ardennnen (The Ardennes - 2015, Robin Pront) 

A Belgian thriller-drama that owes as much to the Dardenne Brothers as to the Coen Brothers. If this sounds weird, it should.

Four years ago a home-jacking performed by three drug-addicts - two brothers, Kenny and David, and Kenny's girlfriend Sylvie -  went fatally wrong: Kenny, the youngest and most unstable of the two brothers - was arrested, the two others got away. Kenny took the fall for what happened and spent four years behind bars. When he's released from jail, he assumes that he can have a fresh new start, as if things haven't changed at all. In reality  Dave and Sylvie are now both clean and they have also become a couple ... and Sylvie is expecting their love child ...

Kevin Janssens is perfectly believable  as the thuggish Kenny and Jeroen Perceval (who co-wrote the script) and Veerle Baetens are nearly as good as the love birds who are very reluctant (for all the good reasons) to inform Kenny about the situation. On script level, there are a few issues. The first half of the movie - the Dardenne part, so to speak - is a psychological drama in which not too much happens and most fears and worries remain unspoken. The script takes a radical turn when Kenny confronts his brother with a dead body in the trunk of his car and asks his help to get rid of the corpse. We move to the Ardennes, where the boys have spent many lucky days when they were young. Kenny's former inmate seems willing to give them some assistance, but in the Ardennnes danger is lurking around every corner, around every tree ...

The first half of the movie may be slow-paced and a bit ponderous, but tension is always in the air and the behavior of the three characters seems logical in the light of what happened in the past. The suburbs of Antwerp are shown as dreary places dominated by grey multi-storey buildings and a permanent drizzle. The second half of the movie is more vivid and eventful, but the shift in tone from drama to nasty thriller is too abrupt. The Coen Brothers' movies (in particular Fargo) were obviously a major source of inspiration, but Pront (who has a brisk, energetic directional style) seems to lack their wit and famous sarcastic touches. As a result an interlude involving ostriches - of all animals - falls flat. The script also becomes a bit haphazard, with too many weird characters and plot twists, but the final twist (which will take most viewers by complete surprise) seems to make it all click, or at least nearly so.

D'Ardennen is not as bizarre as Calvaire (2004, Fabrice Du Welz), nor is it quite as dark and disturbing as the more recent De Verhandeling (The Treatment - 2014, Hans Herbots), but it's still quite bleak and grim and it will no doubt be too downbeat and nihilistic to some people's taste: The characters are low-lives, they act foolishly and there's no excuse for their behavior, they are not redeemed. It's far from perfect, but I would like to recommend it in spite of its obvious flaws. 

⭐⭐⭐

Dir: Robin Pront - Kevin Janssens (Kenny), Veerle Baetens (Sylvie), Jeroen Perceval (Dave), Jan Bijvoet (Stef), Sam Louwyck (Joyce), Viviane DeMuynck (Mother)