La Fille inconnue

As the minutes passed, I better understood what the Dardennes were trying to communicate and, at the same time, understood less why they were communicating it in such a terribly overcomplicated way. They would have done better if they had completely abandoned the very (and intentionally?) unsatisfying pseudo-detective storyline containing too many detours that lead to nowhere and instead used the minor everyday conflicts between the doctor (a role for which Adèle Haenel was superbly prepared) and her patients to point out the mistrust in the community and the problems that arise from it. The film’s main strength consists in its simple, stylistically pure observation of Jenny at work, without any specific objective. Conversely, its weakness lies in its gradually increasing didacticism, which is manifested in the robotic behaviour of the female protagonist, who seeks redemption and rejects compromises, as well as in the oversensitivity of the supporting characters, who are walking theses. We are convinced of the selfishness of people strenuously looking for someone else to blame for their own misfortune through, for example, a teenager who is sick to his stomach at the mere thought that he should be involved in the search for a girl, whom he was one of the last to see before her death. This strange blend of three incompatible genres (social drama, detective story and morality play) culminates with a deus ex machina. Instead of catharsis, we have disappointment. Though that was perhaps partly intentional, (unlike fiction, it does not offer an elegant resolution), but it is largely the result of how poorly written the characters are and how unconvincingly motivated are the actions that the film’s creators forced on them. 55% (30.11.2016)

The best feature of this film is the not very well-known actress Adéle Haenel, who looks a bit like Emma Smetana and looks just as good in front of the camera. If you like her character of an ordinary GP, you will be as satisfied as I was. It is an ordinary story from French countryside, which I liked exactly for its ordinariness, for which Adéle was a good fit. It looks like something that could happen in your town, and you are a part of her story. Together with the likable Adéle, this quality made me enjoy this film. (28.02.2020)

This isn't a movie, this is a thesis. The characters are sloppy, the dialogue is good at first, the camera works with only one layer all the time, always conveniently perched in the center of the frame, and the proclaimed social civility probably works on Cannes bourgeois who have never had the need to visit a small-town clinic or encounter its problems and patients. (02.08.2017)

Ambitious doctor Jenny feels responsible for the death of a young woman whom she refused to treat after hours in a fit of superiority over the more sensitive intern Julien. She gives up her promising career due to a sense of guilt by taking over a clinic for uninsured patients from the poorest and at the same time investigates on her own the identity of the girl who was violently killed. The vicissitudes she has to go through before reaching her desired goal, however, strip her of all illusions. A drama with a psychologically oppressive atmosphere that slips into more boring passages a few times, but it is still worth watching. (27.04.2020)