A truly compelling and provoking drama about the lower class, what La Haine is to Race and Class, this is to Gender and Class. La Haine's strongest and most memorable scene is its ending, while Rosetta's is its opening. It's funny how the two compliment each other while having very little to do with each other.

The Dardennes mix bleakness and hope into a human drama that uses a single young woman's struggles to gain a foothold in the working world to explore the larger themes of endemic poverty in society. What an ending, too.

It is not much better than i was expecting from Dardennes.

Raw and extraordinary. As expected, the Dardennes pull out an astonishing portrait from Dequenne.

The shots pursue Rosetta in a quick, almost brutal way, and they condense an unbearable inner rage: this poor gil, ravinshingly interpreted by Dequenne, just wants an ordinary life, a normal routine. But this modest little dream seems to be threatened by everyone, everything around her. The inconclusive finale just left me even more astonished -- I guess it's hopeful though. Devastating film.

OK piece of work, but the girl (Emilie Dequenne) is stunning. Easy to watch, simple story of being at the wrong end of everthing.

It's so real .. that's life !! ..

A relentlessly depressive, slow, and sometimes abrupt film with an admittedly good performance from Emilie Dequenne, but it's just way too bleak for my taste. Not that I dislike bleak films, but the way it moves reminds me too much of an episode of Springer without the crowd snaps. In Belgium.

This is pure reality

See my review of "Le Silence de Lorna."

Bresson is written all over this, most obviously in the story's similarity to Mouchette, but also in the heightened use of sound, complex moral questions, and fanatical attention to detail concerning mechanical routines. However, the Dardennes give their work an emotional intensity that Bresson shies away from, helped especially by the up-close handheld camera work. A moving and intriguing work, with a wonderful performance by Dequenne.

The first Dardenne which I can really appreciate. ... I finally understand their Cannes victories.

Just because a movie is filmed with a loose cam and has an arthouse feel to it, doesn't make it a good movie.