Admirable film.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is an absurdist dark comedy from Belgium. Shot perfectly in crisp black and white, Benoît Poelvoorde (Man Bites Dog) is on fine form as Roger, the angry, obsessive father of a family in a small, sullen Belgian mining town. Roger is a photographer who, along with his young daughter Luise, visits road accidents to take photos. He is also obsessed with winning a car by entering a competition where the contestant has to break a record - and he decides that his son, Michel, must attempt to break the record of perpetually walking through a door - he even hires an overweight coach to train him. Michel dresses as Elvis and has a spot on a radio show called 'Cinema Lies', where he describes mistakes in films. Luise is friendly with near neighbour Felix, a pigeon fancier. Roger is a callous figure as he pushes Michel right over the limit during the record attempt, which almost results in his death. Interspersed throughout the film are Magritte-like surreal images. It's undeniably charming and well worth your time.

Some critics found this film bleak, but for me there was enough good humour and optimism to overcome this impression. For example, the quietly positive and stoic character of the daughter is the still centre of the film, often counterbalancing the unhappy aspects of the setting and plotline. The film is full of original ideas and characters, and the final outcome is not predictable: I felt it could've gone either way.By the way, many reviews I've read mention the effective use of black and white, but the print I saw, shown on the SBS TV network here in Australia, was in full colour.

The director of this film has obviously seen a Shane Meadows film or two. Not only was the film set in a small town and centred around the poorer parts but it was also in black and white and featured an odd lonely man who befriends someone much younger than him.It has been described as a comedy but it isn't funny in the way that Hollywood tells you when to laugh and builds up to a big punchline (that is usually very disappointing anyway). This film is of a realist nature and so anything that is funny is funny because it could happen to you or i. The plot is simple and the performances are brilliant. Everything is subdued and wonderfully not over the top which gives it a certain charm that is lost in anything that places special effects over a storyline.The young girl who played Luise could have a bright future ahead of her. Why is that the children i have seen in European cinema are much better at acting than those in Hollywood films? I blame the parents.

The movie is set in rural Belgium, in a place inhabited by poor, gloomy people who do not look like Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant. The "hero", a clueless photographer for a local newspaper, is a father who decides that his family deserves better : the only way out appears to be in the Guinness Books of Records. After a failed attempt at spitting olive stones as far as he can, he forces his son to be the next world champion of door openings so that the family can get a new car... This movie is a unique mix of gritty social comment (though not heavy-handed) and dark humour, something often to be found in recent movies from Belgium, the Netherlands and North of France (Benoit Poelvoorde was also the hero of "Man Bites Dog"). Some of the strangest people we meet (a Belgian Elvis, a school teacher right out of the 50's) are in fact playing themselves, and the scenario itself is based on the true story of a father who trained his 3-year old son to be a professional biker. Certainly not for all tastes, and with its share of very dark humour and a little brush of tragedy, and with a fantastic Poelvoorde, "Les convoyeurs" will please the viewers who enjoy "different" movies.