The Kid With a Bike: Press reviews

'Compassionate, humane but never sentimental, ranks among the Dardennes' very best work'

'You want a simple, moving tale, beautifully told? Bring on the Belgians.'

'You think you know what you're getting with a Dardennes film – and then they give you a whole lot more.'

'One thing that makes the Dardennes' work so vibrant, at once new and seemingly timeless, is that they ask the most urgent questions we can ask of ourselves...'

'If you're looking to get into the Dardennes, this is a great place to start.'

'...proves once again what uniquely valuable film-makers the Dardenne brothers are.'

At Cannes: 'There's not a superfluous gesture or a redundant line of dialogue in The Kid With a Bike. Nor is there an image held for a second too long, including some gorgeous extended tracking shots. Everything here is 100% in the service of character and storytelling'

'[The Dardenne Brothers) have aimed [...] for a downbeat intensity, and "The Kid with a Bike" tightens that process to its most heartbreaking pitch so far'

At Cannes: 'This is as resonant and engaging a Dardennes story as ever'

At Cannes: 'As they have done time and time again, the Dardennes have created a wholly gripping, emotionally acute work of humanistic cinema'

'[It] has some of the tangled, schematic, involving fascination of a board game'

'The film is unafraid of emotion, unafraid of plunging into basic human ideas: the need for trust, and the search for love.'

At Cannes: 'So there are flaws, and yet the Dardennes' tough, spare, almost haunted storytelling style was much in evidence'

'devoid of sentiment and melodrama that is all the more vital and compassionate for it'

At Cannes: 'Another fest-ready, arthouse-bound neorealist snapshot that subtly echoes virtual soul brother Vittorio de Sica's "Shoeshine" and "Bicycle Thieves."'

'The ending is somewhat contrived and forced, but not false, and there's a moving moment when Cyril and Samantha, riding beside a canal one sunny day, exchange bicycles.'

'For anyone else, it would be solidly commendable stuff: it's their own fault for setting the bar so high.'

'lacks the unsettling moral dilemma that animated their last film'

'Beyond Samantha's hard-to-fathom loyalty, many of the plot twists are predictable and contrived.'