The Ardennes

Unrated

10/18/20151h 33m

Premiere Release (US)

Overview:

A brutal home-jacking goes hopelessly wrong. Dave, one of the two robbers, manages to run off, leaving his brother Kenneth behind. Four years later, Kenneth is released from prison and much has changed. Dave has his life back on track and is trying to help Kenneth however possible, but is witnessing how the highly strung Kenneth tries to win back his ex-girlfriend Sylvie.

Director:

Robin Pront

Status:

Released

Language:

Dutch

Buget:

$2,200,000.00

Revenue:

$1,366,879.00

Key words:

fire
police
love triangle
antwerp
release from prison
pregnancy
nightclub
belgium
murder
snow
brother against brother
ostrich
convict
car wash
house trailer
ardennes
techno music
cell mate

Cast

Jeroen Perceval

~ as ~

Dave

Veerle Baetens

~ as ~

Sylvie

Kevin Janssens

~ as ~

Kenneth

Éric Godon

~ as ~

Gérard

Jan Bijvoet

~ as ~

Stef

Peter van den Begin

~ as ~

Car Wash owner

Sam Louwyck

~ as ~

Joyce

Viviane de Muynck

~ as ~

Mariette

Rachid El Ghazaoui

~ as ~

Chalid

Nico Sturm

~ as ~

Danny

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

Reno
Written 9 year(s) ago
6

The brotherhood is tested for a woman they're onto.

The Dutch crime-drama about two brothers, especially the plot revolves as a love triangle, but it is not a romance movie. The movie opened in the middle of some crime scene which is never going to be revealed what actually happened, because it wasn't important as the film's narration is something else. What comes later is the twist in the character's relationship with each other, especially between two brothers and a woman they're in love.

The actual story begins a few years later to that opening incident. Looks everything has changed at that point, except one of the brother who just stepped outside the prison. The remaining is all about the condition of the family and the romance relationship that appears to be complicated to explain to one another. When it begins to unfold, the final twist strikes which bring further complexity to the conclusion section.

Frankly, I did not like the first two acts. Actually, I expected it to be a crime story. With two tough characters the scenes did not create enough curiosity or the thrilling moments. But the third act is where the movie changed its pace as well as genre to what I was eagerly waiting for. Because of the decent developments in the earlier, this ending was so exciting. But overall product is just above average. That means it is not a bad flick, yet everyone's not going to like it.

6/10
CinemaSerf
Written 1 year(s) ago
6
"Kenny" (Kevin Janssens) and brother "Dave" (Jeroen Perceval) are involved in an abortive burglary that sees the latter escape leaving the former to spend the next four years in jail. When he is released, the siblings are reunited with their mother and for a while, bygones seem to be bygones with "Kenny" even seeming to forgive his ex "Sylvie" (Veerle Baetens) who now has a child and who has also taken up a job pole-dancing for a Moroccan night-club owner. It's round about now that we start to see some cracks appear in the brotherly relationship. "Kenny" finds out who the father of the child is, loses his temper, then things are exacerbated by some thugs who visit their workplace and one of those is accidentally killed. Unsurprisingly, they get fired and then have to take the corpse to the remote rural home of ex-cellmate "Stef" (Jan Bijvoet) and his pal "Joyce" (Sam Louwyck). Ostensibly they are just going to get shot of the body, but their relationship only gets worse and "Dave" begins to wonder if he can, actually, trust his brother. Robin Pront does try to mix up the narrative a bit, it's gritty and dark at times and I thought Janssens made a decent fist of his "Kenny" character. The rest of the film, though, isn't really up to much. The dialogue is strained and a bit contrived, the direction style staccato and it really falls to the eccentricities of "Stef" and "Joyce" to breath a little quirkiness into what is otherwise all just a bit of a dreary denouement. I didn't hate it, but I doubt I'd watch it again.