The Treatment

The film is cruel in its theme, no doubt about that. Pedophilia is a scary topic. Here, they managed to combine it with a truly chilling atmosphere, where you're almost afraid you'll see more than you wanted to. And maybe you will. However, at times I felt that it was overly calculated and that in some cases, longer uninterrupted shots would have been more suitable instead. If they didn’t speak Dutch, I would have thought it was an American film. But it's a more intense experience than Out of Bounds, but not necessarily a better film. (07/18/2014)

I don’t know if I could imagine a more sickening and depraved crime than the one committed by this film’s paedophile psycho – actually, for the sake of my own peace of mind, I’d rather not try. The director never shows it explicitly, we only hear being spoken about or we see unsettling scenes through a crack in the wall, etc., so the imagination can work at full steam… and it’s awful. Pure darkness, and on top of that, the film is PERFECTLY shot and acted. Hands down, the best pure psycho-thriller with the most despicable villain in recent years. It affected me more than last year’s (thematically quite similar) The Prisoners, and even comparisons with cult movies like Seven are not as wide off the mark as some would expect. If you like this genre, don’t hesitate. Belgium has surprised. (06/21/2014)

I understand the enthusiasm about this movie after having watched it, but its brutal gloom, insincerity and impersonality combined with zero emotions towards the main investigator character made it difficult for me to even finish the movie at all. A very harsh (even in human terms disgusting) story takes place in a dark gray environment where there’s nothing positive and cannot ever be. What can I say, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. However, I admit that Belgium surprised me to come up with such a movie. (08/08/2016)

I'm terribly pleased to see this film being compared to Se7en, since despite a few similarities – notably the lighting, the ritualistic appearance of the crime scene, the tired desperation of the characters, and basically even the point of the perpetrator’s acts – it’s a tad more challenging of an experience, which will leave those looking for "a whodunit for the evening" may well find themselves cringing at for a long time to come. The grey heaviness of the suburban setting, the impenetrability of the suspects, the constantly pissed off and therefore often irrational protagonist solving crimes pretty much off the leash, the running time of over two hours... well, it’s nothing you'll be telling your parents about at family dinner. But The Treatment scores the most points for constantly passing the baton of evidence as to who the perpetrator could be and for having a fairly decent pair of balls, among other things. Also, I haven't seen such a detailed observation of a tortured child in a film in quite a while. (07/01/2014)

A very dark, sophisticated thriller on a very uncomfortable subject and with a decent asshole as the villain, though he could have been given more space. Overall, the film is rather slow, there is no frantic action, but I still wasn't bored, and especially towards the end, it gets chilling and makes you feel uncomfortable. Good job from Belgium.75% (06/25/2014)