Review: Le silence de Lorna (2008)

RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) faces a problem that few wives complain about.  Her
husband Claudy (Jeremie Renier) refuses to beat her, even when she begs him
to do it.  Lorna's pleading to her husband for violent action turns out to
be an act of kindness to him.

In LORNA'S SILENCE (LE SILENCE DE LORNA), by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre
Dardenne (THE CHILD), this request for spousal abuse makes sense, since the
story is about a marriage scam.  A criminal named Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione)
hired Lorna, an Albanian, to marry Claudy, a Belgian, so that she could
become a legal citizen of Belgium.  This was done so that Fabio could obtain
a bride for a wealthy Russian who wants to become Belgian.

Of course, before Lorna can marry the Russian, she must first get out of her
marriage to Claudy.  A heroin junkie who keeps trying to kick his habit,
Claudy married Lorna in the first place as a way to make money since Fabio
paid him.  Out of compassion, Lorna would like a quick divorce, hence the
fake spousal abuse claim, rather than Fabio's preferred way for her marriage
to end.  He had chosen Claudy because he was a junkie and therefore likely
to O.D. soon.

Once you understand the outline of the story, there is remarkably little to
keep your attention, except for the outstanding acting by Dobroshi in the
lead role.  She is completely believable.

A subplot concerns a snack shop that Lorna and her boyfriend Sokol (Alban
Ukaj) want to purchase with the money she plans on making from the marriage
scam.  But it, like the rest of the narrative, is padded with way too many
scenes of little consequence.

Slow and plodding, the movie still manages to keep you interested in where
it is headed.  The ending, however, is completely unresolved and borderline
bizarre.

LORNA'S SILENCE runs 1:45.  The film is in French and Albanian with English
subtitles.  It is rated R for "brief sexuality/nudity, and language" and
would be acceptable for teenagers.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 7, 2009. In
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Cinemark
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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