Rosetta is poor, never helpless and extremely hostile. She's like a hurt animal, constantly trying to feel the pulse of that survival instinct - constantly trying to bag herself a luckky break. As the film proceeds, her routine becomes a white noise - an almost numbing factor in our viewing experience. I found my mind wandering, through, I feel, no fault of my own. We are given this character that we're supposed to be sympathetic towards. We're shown her current state and asked to feel bad - yet the film never grants her an ounce of humanity. She's this unlikeable girl, unable to find work to support herself and her mother (an alcoholic, played by Anne Yernaux), who are living in a caravan (French for trailer park). When she reaches her ultimate solution, (and this film presents no surprises - so don't scoff as if I've given somethiing away) we can't help but feel it may be necessary for this course of action to take place. How unnecessary a trip into reality though.

 The film has no score. This, surely is meant to create a dry voyeurism - an undistracted singular look at Rosettta. The opening shot of her being fired from her job - rickety and blistering - as she attacks her superiors in an aggressive, violent manner, is brilliant. By the third or fourth shot that was this wildly pretentious, Rosetta digging in pads, paws and claws - I needed a break. The photography - which works in films like 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Breaking the Waves' - seems so forced here. We're right in her face, but nothing is coming of it. Steadicam shots, I’ve found,  are usually the result of impatience of meant to make a statement. Yes, the film may have no music and be, from a technical stance, one continuous cinematic line, but here, the photography seems a boldfaced apology for lack of creativity.

 The filmmakers give us this girl. Rosetta, to me, is full of a stubborn honesty that, in any other film, would make her a modern heroine. In 'Rosetta', I end up simply loathing her.

 Almost American in it's absurdity, which becomes unintentional dark comedy here, the film makes it's key moments so concrete-heavy handed - it's nearly apalling. When she first smmiles - I want to roll my eyes. When she hits her head on the way to her deathbed and then must re-fill a gas container as it runs out during her own suicide - these are events that are so out of range of the natural emotional impact, they become tragicomedy.

 Finally, the film is a girl's journey into being able to physically show emotion before others and ask for help. Of course this is a loose interpretation that took me a while to come up with. And it may not be true since I was left to put the film's inner meaning together on my own. Paying to do the job of the filmmakers myself is not my idea of good cinema. 'Rosetta' follows suit.