The Kid with a Bike
Composite Score: 82.17
Starring: Thomas Doret, Cécile de France, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Egon Di Mateo, and Laurent Caron
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Writers: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Genres: Drama, Family, Coming-of-Age
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, brief language, and smoking
Box Office: $7.01 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Kid with a Bike is the Dardenne brothers’ film about a boy living in the French foster system who matures over the course of a few events revolving around his bicycle. It features Thomas Doret as Cyril, the titular kid, in a very raw performance as what is basically an abandoned youth struggling to figure out his place in the world. Cécile de France adds a strong performance as his foster mother, Samantha, who wants to keep him from falling into delinquency. The film’s story is a fairly simple coming of age story that challenges some of the norms often seen in such narratives, advocating for the need for both hardening and softening tendencies to help a young person achieve true maturity. It’s a short but fascinating watch about the things that make us who we are.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
I don’t know that this film would be as well-received had it been made in the U.S. or even the U.K. Part of what makes this film feel so good is its foreign nature, taking a familiar storyline and setting it in a language and region less familiar to many audiences. That being said, the story is strikingly familiar, following a troubled youth whose parents have died/abandoned him and who is taken in by a kind, single woman with no children of her own and difficult relationships with the men in her life. Then, through a series of circumstances that separate them and strain their relationship, the two become a family, and the child becomes a bit more mature. In terms of orphan-based bildungsroman stories, they don’t come much more formulaic than that. While formula is not necessarily bad, I do not know if such a simple story (even with its twist on the coming of age) would be so critically acclaimed had it not come from France – maybe that’s just me though.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Firstly, the overall form taken by Cyril’s coming of age is markedly different from the one seen in most stories like his. Cyril starts the film as a hardened kid, lashing out, running away, doing basically everything without supervision, and distrustful of authority – all characteristics more often seen in mature characters by the end of such stories but still childish on their own, as seen in Cyril. He lacks any childlike qualities beyond his belief that his father will eventually come back for him (and once that belief is broken down, he really has nothing). Still, Cyril feels like a child wanting to be treated like an adult, and an immature child at that. The growing up that he does over the course of the film brings a softening of sorts, allowing him to keep the mature aspects that he had already developed because of the difficulty of his circumstances while also gaining a levity that is appropriate for children his age. By the end of the film, although he has become more childlike (as most would describe it), it is clear that Cyril has matured well past where he was at the film’s start, allowing the story to present a fresh message within its familiar packaging – the need for childlike qualities in order to attain true maturity.
To supplement its fresh ending, The Kid with a Bike benefits from grounded performances by its two leads. Thomas Doret plays Cyril in a way that frustrates the audience with his stubbornness while still drawing on their sympathy. He feels like an authentic pre-teen wanting to appear more mature than he actually is. Once his character begins to open up, Doret also brings solid emotions to his performance, exhibiting all the frustration and sadness and passion that the character needs to help it resonate with the audience. Supplementing Doret’s performance is Cécile de France as his foster mother – the hairdresser Samantha. Young as she appears, de France is able to bring all the maternal care to Samantha that is needed to make Cyril’s transformation believable. Her power when facing down criminals and boyfriends and lawyers is matched by her tenderness when dealing with Cyril and his friends. Together, the two actors form the heart of the film and help carry its story to its fresh conclusion.
Solid, realistic acting on the parts of Doret and de France help to ground The Kid with a Bike’s familiar story, bringing home its fresh take on the coming-of-age story, which makes its place among the Greatest Films of All Time feel appropriate. Though its story is relatively formulaic, the twist in messaging and the foreign setting elevate the film above its familiarity, helping to make it great. Check this one out streaming with AMC+ or DirecTV if you’re interested.
