We
never find out what happened to Cyril's mother but we do know his
father doesn't want him and also sold his bike which Cyril gets back
along with the foster mother he finds in a doctor's office. It only
takes the first 20 minutes of this 88 minute film to find that out along
with the fact that he lives in a foster home. Along with watching Cyril
ride his bike at all kinds of speeds in all kinds of directions plus
very intrusive bars of Beethoven we watch him become involved with all
sorts of situations that in an American film would have sent "The Kid
With A Bike" in a completely different direction than this French film
goes.

When Samantha, played by Cecile de France, the woman who becomes Cyril's (Thomas Doret)
weekend foster mom, is asked by her boyfriend to choose between him and
Cyril she chooses the latter. Cyril is befriended by Wes (Egon de Mateo) a drug dealer and thief who comes from the same foster home who
seems to be leading Cyril in an additional direction besides becoming a
robber.

Will Samantha make
everything right? Will she love, hold on to, Cyril enough to turn him
away from he life Wes seems to be taking him? Will Cyril get his father
back? Will get on his bike and go in the right direction? That last
question isn't as crazy as it sounds because a lot is not explained in
this film including who Cyril is and what he wants or needs except his
father and bike.

Cecile de France gives a warm performance who slowly brings the boy into a circle of love while Thomas Doret goes through the film mainly looking angry. Jeremie Renier has the small but tough role of a man who feels he has no choice but to give his son up. Egon de Mateo is scary as the drug dealer who leads Cyril astray and into a tough spot.

The co-directors, and co-writers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne didn't seem, to me, to know what to do except give Doret more reasons not to be loved and, yet, let him be loved more and more
while whenever they didn't know what to do they put him on a bike and
had him ride around.

Meta
critics gave this an 87% rating while Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it
96%. I just finished reading the New York Times review which brings a
whole religious aspect to it. I very seldom ever read reviews before I
see a film and after reading these reviews I wonder if I saw the same
film, did all the themes go over my head or did I just not get it?