While I liked it, I'm not completely sold on this one. It was very strange, to me, with its realism and quite engaging story mixed with sparse, stylized dialogue and intermittent long close-ups of expressionless faces. I have only watched one Bresson, but one can definitely see the influence. The approach is interesting and it gradually won me over, yet I was never as fully involved as I had hoped. Have not watched the Criterion supplements yet, though, so they might illuminate it more for me.

Costa's got a style I enjoy, but I had a hard time getting into this movie. The problem is that I couldn't relate to the characters very well... in fact, I often couldn't understand them or their motivations. Costa seems to go out of his way to withhold information, which is sometimes an interesting way to subvert expectations... but sometimes just a frustration. I really wanted to like this film, and in a lot of ways I was intrigued, but ultimately I felt unsatisfied.

Like L'Enfant with a much more pronounced Bressonian style (although actually while watching it Bartas came to mind as an even closer comparison). In other words, textbook "contemplative cinema" arthouse miserablism, although interestingly done for what it is.