JULIE KEEPS QUIET (JULIE ZWIJGT)

A Cannes favourite earlier this year, Flemish 'me too' tale Julie Keeps Quiet is at heart a short film stretched out to feature length that aims for subtleness yet ends with an unremarkable, tedious shrug.

Nearly a decade after the first Harvey Weinstein allegations and the ensuing cultural debate, which produced plenty of films on the subject, are there still interesting new stories to tell about sexual assault, harassment and abuse of power? Julie Keeps Quiet seems to think so, but the film hardly shows a new perspective, with subdued emotions lazily entombed under predictable morals.

The titular Julie is a promising Belgian tennis player whose world is rocked when her coach is investigated after another teenage tennis prodigy at the club takes her own life. Though her teachers, parents and friends encourage her to open up about her own experiences with the disgraced coach, she finds it hard to demonize a man that was a formative figure in her youth.

Julie Keeps Quiet handles the subject with kid gloves, making sure the audience is aware of the multifaceted nuances of Julie’s refusal to open up. Debut writer-director Leonardo Van Dijl takes the approach a step too far however, if you ask me, up to the point where a plot is all but omitted and the subtlety crosses over in the territory of not saying anything meaningful at all.

The continual lack of forward momentum drags out the narrative endlessly, while the abundant subtle looks, glances and observations fail to blend theme and story together to a compelling whole. The fine lead performance of Tessa Van den Broeck hints at deeper emotions and revelations lurking beneath the subdued cinematic approach but that’s not nearly enough to capture your attention for a full hour and a half.

Who knows, Julie Keeps Quiet might catch on with Oscar voters – it’s Belgium’s official entry in the International Feature Film race this year – but I’d wager that most people on the other side of the ocean will just shrug off the movie as a decently made, well intended but ultimately easily forgotten dime-a-dozen drama, just like I will.

release: 2024

director: Leonardo Van Dijl

starring: Tessa Van den Broeck, Koen De Bouw, Claire Bodson, Pierre Gervais