Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Jenny, a young doctor who feels guilty after a young woman she refused to see winds up dead a few days later, decides to find out who the girl was, after the police can't identify the young woman.
The Dardenne brothers' typically restrained social realist style is present, but The Unknown Girl is considered one of their weaker efforts. The premise is compelling — a doctor's guilt driving a quasi-investigation — but the thriller elements feel grafted onto their usual humanist framework awkwardly. Acting is naturalistic but lacks the emotional punch of their best work. Cinematography follows their signature handheld close-up style competently but without distinguishing itself. The mystery resolution feels underwhelming and the ending doesn't fully satisfy either the thriller or the drama it sets up. Novelty is modest — it's recognizably Dardenne but a familiar iteration of their formula rather than a fresh expression of it.