Great film?

You may be wondering who those people are to the left. Let me first say that I know I should have been packing for our trip to NC tomorrow. I couldn't help it. I watched a movie instead. I'm addicted. The movie this time was the French film, L'Enfant. The shot to the left is from the DVD's cover. What's blog-worthy about this experience is how unlike it was from watching the average American film. No soundtrack. Few words. Deep moral dilemmas to wade through. I didn't really know what to think as the credits rolled by. Being the addict that I am, I like to go online and see what others think. Ebert gave it 4 out of 4 stars. Rotten tomatoes rates it at 86% (which is a very good rating). And for a second I thought, so what. That doesn't mean anything...just because 86 out of 100 professional critics think a film is outstanding doesn't mean I have to like it. But then I wonder if maybe I just have more to learn about what makes a good film. We don't expect school children to be able to identify great literature or art, we teach them what makes something great. Maybe in our culture since we have such a large amount of mass-produced, vapid entertainment, and we are not taught anything about film, we have no foundation for understanding what makes films great. Just spitballin' here. I'm not saying you should all go out and rent L'Enfant. In fact, Will would rather work an extra shift than watch a film like this. But if you do see it, I'd love to know what you think.