Meisje

The story of Muriel, a young girl who leaves her parents, moves to Brussels to live alone and work for her own money, and the people around her: Laura who gives her a room for rent, her mother Martha who wants her youth back after 35 years of marriage, Oscar the ex of Laura...

There's not much story... It's more like a piece taken out of reality, stylized and put into film.There's no good or bad in the movie, every character has problems, makes mistakes and self-reflects on his/her thoughts and actions, without doing anything better next time.

To some this might sound really boring, but life is boring for most and people don't learn from their mistakes in reality as well. It's a movie best seen on your own, to be left alone with your feelings.

"Meisje" ( dutch for girl ) is the tale of 3 women at crossroads in their life. Muriel, a lost girl, breaks away from her home, her steady boyfriend and the socially crippling qualities of her home town, to gain and enjoy her independence in Brussels. She moves in with the uninhibited and lively Laura, a woman with a chaotic lifestyle and the growing desire of motherhood. Martha, Muriel's mother, follows her progress from afar, and finds herself breaking away from her routine and rediscovering a long forgotten childhood dream. Their lives cross over until they all meet up during a turbulent night. "Meisje" is a movie about the incredible power that drives women.

this isn't really a comment, just a synopsis for people looking for info about the movie

This story about three women is a very sensitive study about: Muriël (Charlotte Van Den Eynde) the youngest, Laura (Els Dottermans) who is about 37 and Martha (Frieda Pittors) the oldest who is the mother of Muriël. They live together in the same building. They have different expectations of life. The vital Laura wants a child. Muriël comes from a village and wants to change her life in Brussels. Martha dreams about her youth when she was a young girl. In fact nothing happens in this movie so you wait for something - for instances an accident - which could dramatize this story. As times goes on, you discover that the director Dorothée Van Den Berghe only wants to develop a psychological portrait of the three women and nothing more. This movie is disappointing because you expect the women to learn from their experiences which is not the case, so one is left with a feeling of emptiness.

This movie was a pleasant surprise for me. Not only did it have a well written story, the acting was amazing as well, specially Charlotte Vanden Eynde. I think she should have won the Joseph Plateau Award, because her performance was much more superior than Els Dottermans' performance.

Something more about the story now, because this might be the main reason why I liked this movie so much. I saw a similar situation in my family and I thought this movie told a very realistic and touching story. What we see is a young girl with a desperate hunger for independence and a mother who's afraid of losing her daughter. This was the aspect I loved the most about "Meisje". Muriel wanted to stand on her own feet, she wanted to be no longer independent from everyone, she wanted to make a new start. And when you're dreaming of this new start, you think everything will work out easily and your life will be great in no time... but the problem is that it's never as easy as it seems. Starting all over again is tough and you do need people around you who you can trust and who you can count on. Everyone needs someone who takes care of them.

It's exactly this aspect that I was touched by the most. "Meisje" is a sensitive and great Belgian movie which tells a story of growing up, closing chapters and starting new ones. It's a wonderful movie and Charlotte Vanden Eynde is definitely the star of the show.

8,5/10

I found the movie to be pretty interesting at times; a beautiful and bitter exploration of an uncommunicative mind. The film deals with the themes of loneliness. Muriel is a budding woman, who just wants to be connected, while also being ignorant of her mother. Laura is a middle-aged woman who wants to settle down by having children. And Muriel's mother, Martha, is an old woman re-experiencing the flames of passion with another man, while being ignored by her daughter. Basically, they all want love and sex. As Muriel is our protagonist, she travels through the city life with experiences of jealousy, envy and eventual redemption from her loneliness, through a mother's affection. So yeah, that's what the movie is. A movie about a girl. I felt pretty chilled out, with the calm-inducing background music, as Muriel walks around the city. Falls a little bit apart during the 3rd act, but redeems itself, by the end. A good one time watch.