The Kid with a Bike (2011)
Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 114
Fresh: 110 | Rotten: 4
Thanks to the Dardenne brothers' typically fine direction, The Kid with a Bike is a heart-wrenching, thematically and spiritually rich drama.
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 2
Thanks to the Dardenne brothers' typically fine direction, The Kid with a Bike is a heart-wrenching, thematically and spiritually rich drama.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 22,831
Movie Info
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, the deeply moving new film by the Dardenne brothers delves into the emotional life of troubled 11-year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret). When his father (Jérémie Renier) abandons him, Cyril obsessively searches for his bicycle - placing his last bit of hope in this symbol of their relationship. Almost by accident, he becomes the ward of a kind hairdresser (Cécile de France), who
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Cast
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Cécile De France
Samantha -
Thomas Doret
Cyril, Cyril Catoul -
Jérémie Renier
Guy Catoul -
Fabrizio Rongione
Bookseller, Le libraire -
Egon Di Mateo
Wes
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The Kid with a Bike Trailer & Photos
All Critics (114) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (110) | Rotten (4) | DVD (1)
The directing by the Dardenne brothers reflects their previous work: it wants to be unnoticed either for virtuosity or clumsiness, yet only virtuosos can attain this ideal.
Top CriticThere is not a wasted shot in this stripped down, pared back fable. Yet, it accrues a deep and lasting power. You won't see many better this year.
The film should be required viewing for everyone who has lost faith in the power of random acts of kindness.
This is a film that's not always easy to watch, but just about impossible to forget.
"The Kid With a Bike" vibrates with desperation, frustration and the simple unfairness of life, leavened with glimpses of hope.
Cyril is one of the most inspiringly resilient, self-aware young characters to arrive on-screen in recent memory...
The images speed by so fast that you hardly have time to think. But think you do. And what you think about most are all the lost and neglected children of the world.
French Loach.
The Dardennes have once again crafted a lean, efficient film that is plotted with singular purpose without hitting a false note.
Downbeat but powerful drama about childhood and love.
It's nonetheless immensely satisfying - not least in its commitment to a child protagonist whose near-feral intensity and unthinking ingratitude make him the polar opposite of cute.
It's a powerful, well-crafted film and a striking depiction of a side of growing up few filmmakers have tried to put on film. Fewer still have captured it with this sort of honesty and emotional gravity.
[Thrusts] adults into the psychology of a child, pushing them into a confrontation with their own self-involvement.
The Dardennes smoothly shift one gear up in the film's coda, offering a sting of humility before a flash of quiet grace. Then we're left watching after one boy on his bike, stubbornly moving, moving, moving, a force to be reckoned with and respected.
A frank, no-nonsense drama filled with compassion for a lost soul kid abandoned by his father.
...a deeply humane movie that deserves to be compared with one of its obvious inspirations, Vittorio De Sica's neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves
A moving, sweet and at times harrowing tale...
De France does a terrific job of balancing maternal instinct with matter-of-factness, in a performance that is more human than tender - and all the more powerful for it.
Unlike many films, it genuinely earns every feeling it evokes.
a complex interweaving of bitter reality and a deeply humane worldview that sees the possibility of redemption in even the cruelest of circumstances
A beautiful and stirring story of unconditional compassion, of emotional honesty, and -- above all -- of hope.
The Dardennes' style resists cheap sentimentality, yet in The Kid with a Bike it yields a deeply moving examination of love as a shield.
Dardenne brothers set an orphan in search of a father
Will bad breaks break a boy?
Audience Reviews for The Kid with a Bike
Super Reviewer
Doret's talent makes up for the bare bones details that sometimes remain underdeveloped. Yet the sketchiness of the narrative feels like real life. For me the hardest thing for me to understand was his dad's capacity to disassociate from his pre-teen son. How could a father abandon his child after 11 years so easily? The justification he gives doesn't substantiate the magnitude of his decision. At first the lack of specifics is frustrating. However It provided a justification for Cyril's subsequent misbehavior. The youngster's inability to accept his father's abandonment matched mine. He was an unruly little boy but I felt as he did. Despite his unmanageable behavior, Cyril always remained a sympathetic individual at heart.
Super Reviewer
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- Samantha: Don't be upset if it's not the way you dream it'll be.
- Cyril Catoul: I'm not dreaming.
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- Samantha: He knows you're new!
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- Le libraire: He'll forget me.
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Movie: ID: 771242448 Title: The Kid with a Bike Release Date: 2012-03-16 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 3 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Der Junge mit dem Fahrrad (DE)
- The Kid With a Bike (Le Gamin au Velo) (UK)
