| ROSIE Director: Patrice Toye "I don't like to shoot in a studio. It doesn't feel real to me. I don't feel like I'm a good director if I'm in a studio. I like the fact that when Rose and her mother looked out of the window of their apartment they could actually see the kind of lousy neighborhood they were living in. That has to have an influence on the actor's performances." Patrice Toye The actual translated title of this film is Rosie: The Devil in My Head, which is a title that has a lot more bite but was changed because undoubtedly audiences might expect they were going to see a horror film. There is horror in this film, and sadness and pain but no devils and not much blood. What it is instead is a coming-of-age tale about a 13-year-old Belgian girl who is desperately in search of stability. The first scene has Rosie in a youth correctional where we learn that most of Rosie's problems stem from her mother (Sara De Roo) who insists that Rosie refer to her as a sister because she's too embarrassed to let the men she's dating know her age. To add insult to injury Rosie's boorish, free-loading Uncle (Frank Vercruyssen) comes to stay with them and begins bossing her around like he's the father, which in fact he may be. Where the film trips up is in its predictability. This film is a classic case of the poor neglected kid (in this case a girl rather than a boy) who is desperately in need of love and who clings onto anyone who will look her way. The crux of her situation and the thing that drives the plot is that in her attention-starved, impressionable state she falls in love with an older boy who ultimately becomes a bad influence on her. The business about the devil in her head is really just her imagination, which she uses to create romantic fairy tales but which -- as things get worse in her life -- she lets actively grow and turn into something much more disturbing. First-time director Patrice Toye (who is the first woman director from the Flemish side of Belgium) does a credible job in developing a solid involving plot with well-rounded mostly likable (or at least understood) characters. The film focuses on the underbelly of working class Belgian society. The film is occasionally sad, in particular when Rosie, who is upset about her mother's attitude, decides to run away from home. The social realist element verges on the dreary and may remind some of the work of British director Ken Loach but Toye doesn't have Loach's skill in creating harrowing characters locked into exhilaratingly bleak situations. It's a good first film and hard to fault for its honesty but it's just a bit too typical and predictable for its own good. - Matt Langdon |