Les Géants (2011)
Directed by Bouli Lanners

Film Review

Belgian actor-turned-director Bouli Lanners has already demonstrated his love of the classic American road movie in his first two features Ultranova (2005) and Eldorado (2008).  No surprise then that his third film should stay with the road movie theme, except on this occasion his protagonists are not adults in search of an identity but stray adolescents looking for a home.  Owing as much to Rob Reiner's 1986 film Stand by My as it does to Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer / Huckleberry Finn adventures, Lanners' latest homage to the Hollywood angst movie is a characteristically mischievous coming of age tale in which three cocksure teenage boys discover how difficult it is to survive in the adult world.  To its credit, the film stays well clear of the kind of heavy-handed sentiment-milking and moralising to which this kind of film is notoriously prone but is somewhat let down by a threadbare plot which looks like it was made up on the hoof and some superficial characterisation, a surprising contrast with Lanners' previous film.

Before he became an actor, Bouli Lanners made a living as a painter, and you might guess as much from the sheer visual beauty that he brings to his film work.  Les Géants is particularly splendid in this respect and whatever other faults the film may have it certainly does not offend the eye.  Lovingly photographed in Cinemascope, Lanners ekes out every last drop of natural splendour from his picturesque rural location, with the result that his film feels like more an idyllic fairytale in some imaginary Eden than a road movie set in the backwaters of Belgium.  The film is probably too pretty for its own good - its grand panoramic vistas undermine the realism of the quite precarious situation the three youngsters finds themselves in and takes away something of the danger they should feel as they get caught up with exploitative drugs dealers and other undesirables.

Lacking anything more than the bare minimum of a plot, that Les Géants holds our attention is largely down to the engaging performances from the three lead child actors, who carry the film with remarkable ease.  Of particular note is Zacharie Chasseriaud, who is so good he practically walks off with the film (he'd make a superb Huck Finn).  The adult actors have a comparatively thankless task, partly because they are out-charisma-ed at every stage by the three leads, but mainly because their characters are the most appalling caricatures and leave nothing to the imagination.   The sequence with Marthe Keller is borderline cringe-worthy, but Lanners' penchant for black humour gets us through this and other similar narrative atrocities.  Far less interesting and nuanced than Eldorado, Les Géants is clearly a lesser work, but it is not without charm and it manages to at least partly redeem itself with its intoxicating landscape photography, something that makes the film more a celebration of the natural world than simply a modern version of Truffaut's Les 400 coups.

Film Synopsis

One summer, Zak and Seth find themselves alone and without money at their house in the country. The two teenage brothers expect they will have to spend yet another miserable summer holiday with nothing to do, and no money to do it with.    This summer, however, will be different, thanks to Danny, another adolescent whom they meet in the region.  Together, they embark on the great adventure of their life, one that is filled with danger.  But who cares about danger when you know you are going to live forever?