Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Lin2050
The camera shakes (almost) all the time, making it really difficult for my eyes. It's a "technique". I had to look away from the screen, from time to time, as I became worried my eyes, which had problems, could be physically damaged.The lens, shaking all the time, is long and stays extremely close to the subject, so that most of the time, you can only see a small area of the body of the actress (or of the other two actors). In other words, most of the time the whole screen is filled with the details of one side of the face of the actress, or a part of her shoulder, or another part of her body. I am finally able to see what the actress appears like as a whole, after struggling for 15 minutes.Want to have a look at the neighborhood where she lives? No way.....
Boba_Fett1138
Always hard to say something about these sort of movies, since they are being so simple in its setup and you can really hardly go wrong with these type of movies. And this one is good within its genre, though I can't say that it's being the most involving and interesting movie to watch.You could say that this movie is being like a random slice of life and it's following a young woman around, who is struggling to keep a steady job. There of course is a whole lot of other drama going on as well, also involving a romantic plot.In the end it also still is a movie that leaves more questions than answers. The movie isn't all about explaining everything to you and tells you what happens after certain events and perhaps more importantly; why. It's OK to feature such an approach, especially for a movie of this sort but in this case I would had preferred some more depth and explanations, to get me more involved with its story and characters.That was also a big problem for me; I just couldn't ever like or understand the movie its main character. She obviously has some kind of issues and is socially very awkward. Not really a likable person, you want to hang around with, which also makes her not all that great and involving to follow around, in my opinion.But still as these sort of movies go, I really can't call it a bad one. It never bores and it never drags at any point, though this is obviously a slower type of movie, in which not an awful lot is going on, all the time. It's perhaps not a very engaging movie but it still remains an interesting one, also mostly because it never really gets predictable.Certainly watchable, especially when you are into these type of movies.7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
StarsDown
It really is a shame there is no decent distribution for this film in the US. Rosetta is a film that deserves one. Rosetta is a poor girl fighting against the circumstances of her life. She fights a futile effort to keep a job to make a steady wage to be able to move out of the trailer park where she is stuck with her alcoholic mother. Being a teenager she gets a lower wage and does not get to work a job long enough to get unemployment or has not been unemployed long enough to get hired long term. She wants a normal life so badly but something seems to happen to get in the way. I could not help but draw many parallels to Robert Bresson's film Mouchette which is also about a girl living a tragic life. Unlike Mouchette though Rosetta is trying to do something about it and will fight the world if needed. There is a very touching scene where Rosetta gives herself a pep talk before going to sleep. She has a normal job, a friend and a normal life and she will not falter. Like always though circumstances are working against her.The Dardenne brothers shot this film with hand held cameras and you can tell with the way it moves and sways as it tries to keep up with Rosetta who is constantly moving. It almost seems if she stands still for too long she will be stuck in her impossible situation forever. The Dardenne brothers as always do a great job of shooting the film with natural lighting in long takes often following the character almost if she is an animal in the wild and if they get too close she will run away. All throughout the film Rosetta suffers from sudden and extreme cases of stomach pain. This pain is never given a cause but the amount of different probable reasons that she might have this pain shows just further displays the challenges Rosetta must face. She uses a hair dryer on her stomach to ease the pain and the viewer cannot help but feel that this might just be a replacement for the human warmth Rosetta does not have in her life. Emilie Dequenne gives a subtle yet powerful performance of this woman who is in a desperate struggle against the hand she was dealt in this life.
Myshkin_Karamazov
Watching her walking with cylinder-full of potentially deadly gas, I could not help but thinking of Christ carrying his Cross on his way to reunion with his holy Father. Only here we had this mother instead of father, and not that holy either.However, as it happens, the holy ghost, in this case the bike boy friend, saves the day. He "raises" her up, clinging though she is with her "death", her despair. Her total loss of sense and life, even as she is alive and in motion.Just look at the lifetime of suffering, anger and disillusionment etched on her face, so young a face: she returning with the "cross", and the "ghost" circling her: the otherwise talkative guy never utters a word in this miraculously simple and likewise effective scene. She too tries to send him away by throwing stones at him, another symbolic act.One feels momentarily lost for words. As she is. Or he.Tears mark her journey to hope, to life. Redemption, without Rita Hayworth or any other pinup in sight.
