Review: The Unknown Girl

Image courtesy of Sundance Selects

The films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne frequently concern themselves with lives on the edge - persons facing economic plight, weighty decisions and, occasionally, both at the same time. Their previous works include "The Son" (featuring a boy responsible for another young man's death making a connection with the dead kid's father), "L'Enfant" (a young couple gives up a child for adoption and then tries to get the child back) and "Two Days One Night" (a woman about to lose her job attempts to get her co-workers to help retain the position).

In the Belgian brothers' latest film - "The Unknown Girl" - the protagonist, a doctor named Jenny Davin (Adele Haenel), is seemingly well-to-do, but she becomes caught up in another's tragedy. Davin takes pride in the level of care and commitment she displays to her patients and her aim is always to remain sympathetic to the plight of others. One night, she makes an uncharacteristic slip after failing to buzz in someone who rings her office's doorbell after hours.

The next day, Jenny finds out that a young woman - seemingly, the one who rang the buzzer - was discovered dead near her office. Wracked by guilt, Jenny sets out to discover the girl's identity with the intention of notifying the family of the deceased, but ends up drawing herself into a mystery that provides an element of danger.

Similar to "L'Enfant" and several of the Dardennes' other pictures, "The Unknown Girl" plays out as a humanistic drama that often feels like a thriller. The movie is intense - especially as Jenny puts herself in harm's way - due to its storyline, but also in the manner in which human emotions play on the faces of its actors. The Dardennes' films often play as parables or allegories, but "The Unknown Girl" ends on an uncharacteristically mysterious note, during which Jenny meets a young woman claiming to be the girl's sister.

While "The Unknown Girl" doesn't rank among the Dardennes' best - that would include "L'Enfant," one of two Palm d'Or winners for the brothers, and "The Son" - it is an intriguing, well acted and engrossing drama that features a sympathetic and well rounded lead character and a theme of kindness toward strangers that hits home, considering the current state of the world. When it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last year, the film was noted to be a "minor" Dardennes movie - and, perhaps, it is - but it's still a good one.