THE TREATMENT is a Belgian crime drama that's heavily indebted to the look and feel of Scandinavian noir. It's based on a novel by Mo Hayder, one that tackles the ugly subject matter of child abduction, and it follows a team of detectives as they investigate the disappearance of a nine-year-old child and quickly uncover a paedophile ring's involvement. The hero, inevitably, has his own personal demons which are gradually uncovered as the tale progresses. This is a slow-moving story and one that's rather overlong, spoilt occasionally by unwise slow motion used at the wrong times and some heavy-handed writing. However, the gloomy atmosphere is sufficiently downbeat and the psychology of the characters keeps you watching.

British crime novelist Mo Hayder's series of Jack Caffery potboilers have been gaining quite a fan following since 2000's inaugural entry Birdman. Surely even the author herself could hardly have hoped for a better introduction to cinema audiences than this Belgian adaptation of its 2001 follow-up The Treatment. Chauvinism aside, a concept largely alien to the majority of the Belgian population let me assure you, this ranks as one of the most accomplished thrillers produced worldwide this year. Underrated director Hans Herbots, most frequently employed in TV but also responsible for one of the more exciting domestic big screen debuts with the English language adaptation of Anne Provoost's popular young adult novel FALLING in 2001, has style to burn but wisely never lets it get in the way of a complex and compelling plot, expertly bowdlerized by respected screenwriter Carl Joos who also adapted Jef Geeraert's classic lowlands noir The Alzheimer Affair for Erik Van Looy's well-received THE MEMORY OF A KILLER.The Jack Caffery character has been "Flemicized" into Nick Cafmeyer (Geert Van Rampelberg in what should be a star-making performance), hands on police detective carrying the heavy emotional burden of having been a near witness in his early teens to the kidnapping of his kid brother Bjorn. Pointing the finger towards a suspected local pedophile, the creepy Ivan Plettinckx (a devastating turn by Johan van Assche from another Geeraerts adaptation, Jan Verheyen's solid DOSSIER K.), but lack of evidence prevents his conviction. In the twenty-odd years since, Plettinckx has tormented Nick with every conceivable scenario of what might have happened to his sibling, whose body was never located. So when a home-jacking goes tragically wrong and the couple's 9-year old son is abducted, things are about to get profoundly personal for Nick who suspects a link to what happened some two decades ago.To reveal anything more would be a crying shame as the film (at least for the source novel's non-readers) pulls one shocking surprise after another out of its magician's high hat with nary a false note credibility-wise. True, the culprit's nominal motive for his heinous deeds did strike as a little far-fetched, going as far as raising an unintended smile, but bearing in mind that this emanates from an extremely twisted mindset to begin with quickly puts the narrative back on track. While the movie pulls no punches in detailing the detective's downward spiral, much more is (strongly) suggested rather than explicitly shown, which is a good thing as it involves several unspeakable acts committed on young children, at least one of which is bound to hit you like an 18-wheeler cruising down the highway. The beyond bleak ending cynically bars all exits from this "hell on earth".A major plus for domestic audiences is that Herbots recruited most of his cast among the reliable but faintly generic second stringers from his TV heritage where more instantly recognizable faces (such as the ubiquitous Jan Decleir or Koen De Bouw) would have harmed the film's brand of stylized semi-documentary realism. Handsome Van Rampelberg has been building an intriguing body of work since the turn of the millennium and brings a febrile intensity to the troubled anti-hero faced with an unbearable judgment call when he has to choose between upholding the law or finally learning what happened to his brother. Although he definitely gets into hot water morally, the viewer will root for him every step of the way. Burly Dominique Van Malder, following an indelible bit part in Peter Monsaert's uneven OFFLINE, equally impresses as a severely socially handicapped neighbor who may unwittingly (?) hold the key to the whole mystery. A prime suspect, scrawny swim teacher Chris Gommaer is played to twitching perfection by Michael Vergauwen whose arrest ranks among the film's most heartbreaking moments, a magnificently composed image shot overhead, indicative of the director's effortless technical brilliance.

A policeman with a personal back story of child abuse / abduction attempts to track down a paedophile who has attacked a family. The start of the film is deliberately unclear and it starts at a slow pace but stick with it. Note everything. Add one detail or take one detail away and this film would be less than it is. The pace steadily picks up with the increasing frustration of the brilliantly played investigating officer as he attempts, through official and increasingly unofficial means, to prevent another attack. The mood of the film is dark. The story line meticulous. This film doesn't spoon feed you. You really have to concentrate and even then I guarantee it will throw you off balance more than once. The subject matter couldn't be darker or more disturbing but is never shown directly on screen. The crimes are shown through the consequences, and the corrosive effects on the victims and the investigators. The perpetrator is a truly chilling creation. Entertaining isn't really an appropriate word for this film but, if you bear with it until the story begins to unfold and you can bear with the subject matter, you'll stick with it to the end and it will stick with you for a long time afterwards. Watch this genuinely stunning Belgian film before America goes for the almost inevitable remake. I cannot imagine America producing anything approaching this level of bleak brilliance. Reminiscent: Silence of the Lambs, Seven. My rating 9/10.

The film is, to any standards, incredibly well made technically and superbly acted by all actors (which explains the one point I gave it). But, what on earth was the rest of it?! It is one of the most unabashedly manipulative and exploitative films I've seen in a long time, and that includes American ones. This police story is trying desperately to reach a higher level of intensity and emotion by the cheapest of the cheapest means possible; the exclusive of the medieval-style fear our modern 'big bad wolf', 'boogie man', or 'witch'. Understand: 'the pedophile'. Yes, that unknown sadist gazing (upside down and from a roof...: we are never really explained how this is possible) who prey on, then attack defenseless small children . (they tried in the film to make it a pedophile 'ring' but that failed). Then to take us on this manipulation ride, we are force-fed child mutilations, real- time raped child post-mortems, pornographic child rape photos, etc. ad nausea. This film reminds of those drivers who stop their cars to look at mangled bodies in a car wreck... The list of crassness' are in-exhaustive: the lone policemen with a deeply personal motive solving the case all by himself (with bare hands in the end), cryptic symbols 'inadvertently' left by baddies, car number plates visible on found videos, a fully detailed and beautifully designed scrap-book created by the criminal (who is completely insane and unable to even keep his hands together), we even have …maps, yes maps that lead the goodie to the hidden treasure cove of evidence! Since I'm here to save you from having to see this piece of idiocy, one more crassness: the Big Bad Wolf, on his way to (indirectly) rape a small boy, takes a lift… and ..in comes a tiny 6 year old, alone. And we are supposed to feel 'fear'? All we feel is the stupidity of it: so now little 6 year old's take the lift down to the cellars ...alone? The only missing crassness was …there was not catholic priest involved in this inexistent 'pedophile ring'. Where was he in this film? They must have cut his scenes out. The film takes the audience manipulation so far as to force us to believe the swimming teacher (gazing longingly at little boys bodies underwater) is a pedophile, then told he ...isn't one at all. Shameful cheap tricks, truly.Some absurd moments? One minute the child victim at the end is screaming his head off as his father anal rapes him, then next second he is completely flaccid and lets himself taken quietly by B.B.W, without a sound, or a single movement. He is put down whilst B.B.W tries to kill the cop (with spit), and…just stays there! Literally waits for BBW to come back and take him away to ...(well, we don't really know to where, just somewhere). What?! The film gets so carried away by its blatant attempt to force-shock us, we are made to believe the child's fathers themselves were made to rape their sons... You mean to say that, half dead with fear, hunger and thirst, they manage to get an erection over their tiny son, penetrate them anally and get an orgasm enough to fill their cavities with their semen (and thus lead us to a false suspect again)?! What, what, what?!!! What are you on about?! What kind of sick joke is this grotesque film trying to sell? What kind of idiots does it take its viewers for? The entire film is carried by a detective-man who clearly belongs in an insane asylum, not as the head detective in charge of child crimes.We have not changed one bit since the witch hunts, people still exploit these themes and make money from it...Rather than exploit human fear and stupidity, why not, for once, make a film about the truly scary thing about this modern world? The real horror, the most atrocious suffering ever in our modern times. A film about the 95% of all crimes against kids, the highest number of killings, rapes, tortures, mental tortures, and abuses of all kinds, carried out by ...their own parents? Oh but no, that interests no one, not medieval enough. And whilst we keep these figures and truths silent, we pat these exploitive filmmakers on the back with gold-leafed awards, and talk how great and useful these films are that 'break the silence'. Go on, take the ride. You know you want to.