Review: La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl)
The consequences of a missed encounter unsettle the moral compass of a young doctor in La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl), the tenth feature by the Dardenne Brothers.
The unknown girl is a young African immigrant whose dead body is found on the banks of the Meuse River. Opposite the site is a clinic in which Dr. Jenny Davin (Adèle Haenel) is finishing her three-month stint filling in for Dr. Haban (Yves Larec), who will soon be retiring for health reasons. Things appear to be going well for Jenny - her diligence and dedication have nabbed her a place on the medical staff of a private clinic - and she seems a fair but exacting sort as evidenced by her exchanges with her intern Julien (Olivier Bonnaud). These exchanges, however, also reveal that she is capable of exerting the power of her position. When the buzzer rings late one night, she tells Julien not to answer - after all, she reasons, an overtired doctor is more likely to make bad judgments.
Yet she learns that her inaction may have saved the life of the unknown girl who, as the surveillance camera footage reveals, ran in, rang the buzzer in despair, and then ran back out to meet her tragic fate. Jenny can't help but feel guilty, though Dr. Haban assures her that she was in no way responsible for the girl's death. Her moral compass shaken, Jenny decides to do some investigating, especially after she learns that the young woman might be buried without a name. Thus, like the heroine of the Dardennes' previous feature Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night), she goes from place to place, querying person after person, in the hopes of identifying the victim and salving her conscience.
La fille inconnue continues the Dardennes' series of portraits of working class people shouldering psychological and socio-economic tsuris. Structurally, the film resembles a murder mystery, with Jenny a sort-of Sam Spade as she gathers the various pieces of information from the handful of characters she meets. Those unfamiliar with the Dardennes may find their execution too unadorned and too leeched of melodrama to maintain interest, but even fans of the filmmakers may agree that the film is one of their most lightweight. The sense of urgency isn't quite as there as it was in Deux jours, une nuit and, despite a solid performance from Haenel, Jenny isn't quite as compelling a character as Marion Cotillard's from that previous film. Nevertheless, the Dardennes' skill in eliciting a keen understanding of the film's milieu, particularly its social inequities, from its naturalistic vignettes remains noteworthy.
La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Written by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Adèle Haenel, Olivier Bonnaud, Jérémie Renier, Louka Minnella, Christelle Cornil
