Fabrizio Rongione

Plain-good storytelling: rigorous acting, handheld urgency, and editing prowess render the whiff of manipulation moot.

The Dardenne brothers have seemed infallible, but their signature style begins to show strain in Lorna’s Silence.

Cotillard's heartbreakingly raw work carries the day, as she fleshes out both Sandra's suffering and emotional endurance on a journey of discovery that the latter, not the former, defines her.