Ian (Flash Review)If you failed to assist a fellow human and come to learn they later died, how would you handle that emotionally? Well, this up and coming doctor chose not to help someone and after learning what happened to them is driven by regret to learn what happened. What facts and truths will she uncover? Will she be able to overcome her regret? What is an intriguing spark for a story is spoiled by being executed by what in my opinion lacks the spirit and inspiration of the medium of film. Riddled with bland cinematography and the film has about as much drama that can be contained within a child's toy tea cup. What some may describe as true real life portrayal (nothing wrong with that) just lacks any intrigue or any energy. There are dashes of momentary drama that partially refocuses the viewers interest but nothing that can hold it for the duration. This didn't work for me.

subxerogravity Simple yet effective, The Unknown Girl starts out as a typical day in the life of Jenny Davin, a doctor running a private clinic who feels guilty not answering a late night door bell ring at the office that oddly ends up costing a young woman her life. Feeling guilty, when Davin discovers that this woman's identity is unknown she makes an effort to find out who she is so that she won't have to lie in an unmarked grave.It's a well done movie, I'm very impressed with what they did with so little. Some what like a Dogme 95 movie in the sense that they do nothing to enhance the story, which is so basic. No music, no flashy cuts or cinematography. Nothing to make it sparkle, Yet it does. It could have been so dull but it wasn't at all, was interesting and really pulls you into the story. worth seeing.http://cinemagardens.com

Andres-Camara Maybe it would have been a good movie, but for my taste has a big mistake, it's too long telling us things at the beginning that we do not care. Once presented the protagonist character, it is not necessary to see more times the same thing. There are many characters that do not tell us anything. And this only makes us bored.Adèle Haenel is fine, slightly cold for my taste, but it is that the film is very cold, too. For what counts should be what, but the problem is when the coldness is no longer achieved by photography, it does, but it gives the Dardenne brothers a movie without heart.It has a photograph that, to be French and typical French, at times, even something, but there are other moments that photography is not good.The obsession to make every plane sequence, leads to there are times when you do not see the actors, you want to make the plane in sequence about what you want to tell us and that is bad. The sequence plane is a narrative tool more, not an end. The management focuses on telling the story, but in a bad way, it does not matter the plane, the staging, photography. If you have to make an ugly camera move you do it instead of putting the camera where you should put it.I have largely remembered Citizen Kane, since it is the search for a name, only in this one, Orson if he cared that all aspects would fit well.

Howard Schumann While The Unknown Girl, the latest film by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne ("Two Days, One Night"), is suggestive of social and political issues such as immigration, unemployment, and economic imbalance, its main concern is with moral character, accountability, and spiritual redemption. Like many other films of the Dardenne Brothers, it is simple, natural, and direct, without using a musical background or resorting to sentimentality. Consistent with recent exceptional performances from established actresses such as Cecile de France in The Kid With a Bike and Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night, Adele Haenel ("Love at First Flight") is transfixing as Dr. Jenny Davin, a young general practitioner in Saraing, Belgium whose quiet strength, professionalism, and fierce determination dominate the film and make it a worthy addition to the two-time Palme d'Or winners' oeuvre.Shot by cinematographer Alain Marcoen ("Two Days, One Night"), the film begins at a small clinic where Jenny has been filling in for the retiring Dr. Habran (Yves Larec) but must soon decide whether to accept a more lucrative position out of town. When a young boy has convulsions, Jenny deal with it promptly but later calls out her intern,, Julien (Olivier Bonnaud) for letting his emotions get the better of him, a dressing down that causes him to rethink whether or not he wants to be a doctor, though she later confesses to him that she was being high-handed. Her next admonition to Julien, however, has much more serious consequences.When they hear an after-hours buzzing on the intercom, she instructs him to ignore it, telling the young intern that he cannot let patients rule him. When a young African woman is found dead on the opposite side of the freeway by the river Meuse, however, Jenny is riddled with guilt. It is soon clear that the deceased woman was the same person who knocked on their door late at night, yet without any identification papers, discovering her identity and the cause of her death is a challenge which becomes the central focus of the film. Though it deals with a possible criminal investigation, it is less of a "whodunit" than an exploration of the many ways in which people deal with feelings of guilt.Realizing that if she had answered the ring, the young woman might still be alive, Jenny takes it upon herself to conduct a solo investigation. Hoping to discover the victim's name and find anyone who knew her in order to give her a proper burial, Jenny walks around the town, talking to adults and children who may have seen the woman, showing them her photo and reassuring them that any information they provide will be held in confidence. Though most are in denial and refuse to cooperate, Jenny is able to pick up important signals, especially in an interview with a teenager (Louka Minneli) when his accelerated pulse rate indicates that he may not be telling the truth.The Unknown Girl is mostly muted with little variation in tone, but there are moments of joy when two young male patients sing a lovely song they wrote for Jenny, and when an elderly woman throws a gift of a panettone out the window into Jenny's waiting arms. It also touches on the spiritual when a man asks Jenny, "Why should I screw up my life if she's already dead?" and Jenny replies, "Because, if she were dead, she wouldn't be on our minds." While a too-neat resolution and a lack of the element of surprise keep the film from being in the top rank of the Dardennes' works, its message that healing can only begin when there is a willingness to communicate and to be responsible for one's actions is as good as any that have been delivered in previous films.