Lorna's Fraud

I tried getting tickets for Inglourious Basterds on a Friday night after my Bloomberg Radio Show, which airs from 6:00-7:00 pm, 1130 on the AM dial.  The show had sold out by noon that day so I had to wait a few more days to see it.  After reading a blurb in the New York Post on Lorna's Silence, I decided to see it.  The reviewer, who gave it four stars, wrote:  "From Belgium's revered Dardenne brothers, the story of a young woman who becomes involved in an immigration scam."

The picture is good but far from a blockbuster. It is a Belgian film noir that lacks the sensuality for which the French are famous.I didn't identify with any of the characters, but the story is interesting.

An Albanian woman, Lorna (Arta Dobroshi), fraudulently acquires the right of legal Belgian residency by marrying a Belgian drug addict, Claudy (Jeremie Renier).  Claudy is paid by a crime syndicate for the arrangement.  Lorna intends to divorce Claudy and marry a Russian involved in organized crime who also wants Belgian residency.  The head of the criminal ring with whom Lorna is involved is Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione).  Fabio's enforcement thug is Spirou (Morgan Marianne).

Fabio, wanting to shorten the process allowing Lorna's marriage to the Russian, opts to kill Claudy with an overdose, but Lorna prefers to wait a month for the divorce to take effect. You'll have to see the film to find out who wins out.  The movie is well acted but lacks soul.  (In French, Albanian and Russian, with English subtitles.)

HS said: "The movie was well done and well acted, but it was a real downer.  Every actor was a thug or junkie, except for the one who became a psycho.  The sudden ending left the audience unaware of what befell the unsavory characters in the film.  We learned how immigration laws are circumvented, and how little human life means to gangsters and musclemen.  The title character had the face of a boy.  You couldn't be sure until she stripped for action."

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/08/lornas-fraud/23738/