In Lorna's Silence, an Albanian woman is pushed to her moral limits to achieve her dream of opening a snack bar by getting entangled with a local mobster and marrying a druggie for money. When the mobster kills her husband and prepares for another immigrant to take her place, she realizes that she's gotten in over her head.

Lorna's Silence, winner for Best Screenplay at Cannes and Best French Language Film at the Lumiere Awards, is a well-written and -acted drama that, unfortunately, is extremely boring. Arta Dobroshi turns in a strong performance as Lorna, though she primarily spends most of the movie looking concerned and dressing and undressing. Her performance is an understated one, but it slowly grows in intensity as the risks to her life and wellbeing increase. She rarely exuded the emotion she's feeling, but it's easy to relate with her and feel her pain.

But seeing her performance isn't worthless. The movie is well-crafted by writing/directing team Jean-Pierre Dradenne and Luc Dardenne, but their subtle approach to storytelling falls disastrously flat. The slow-boil approach the directors take has two problems: the movie never reaches its boiling point, and it's about as exciting as watching a pot boil. In other words, the picture is a real yawner.

There's not much else to say. Despite a good performance by Dobroshi, Lorna's Silence offers little in the way of memorable moments or storytelling.

Review by Erik Samdahl.