Joyce Glasser reviews Julie Keeps Quiet (April 25, 2025) Cert 12A, 100 mins. In cinemas
In Julie Keeps Quiet Belgian auteur Leonardo van Dijl approaches the hot topic of child grooming in sports from the point of view of a victim and goes for a subtle, steady and internalised drama, rather than a story full of emotive explosions and a cathartic climax. This approach strengthens the realism of the film and cranks up the tension but risks leaving the viewer underwhelmed. The same can’t be said for lead actress, Tessa Van den Broeck, an elite junior tennis player in real life who inhabits the milieu naturally and adds authenticity to the gruelling tennis practice scenes.
From the outside Julie is not entirely a normal, middle-class teenager, but a talented, driven one who is the star player at an elite tennis academy. But from the start, we hear about a Jeremy (Laurent Caron) and then the line that, “Sophie said they suspended Jeremy because of Aline’s (Tamara Tricot) suicide.” After this surge of information the viewer, accustomed to the endless murder or youth suicide stories on the news or in series streaming on television, expects this will be the investigated on screen and form the central thrust of the plot.
But we watch a video of Aline, with whom Julie played competitive tennis, discussing how her coach taught her about controlling emotion. Using this and other clever techniques, van Dijl avoids expository writing but feeds us the information he wants us to have.
To other coaches, parents, school staff and perhaps most students, Aline’s statement should not raise eyebrows. Good coaches must train their players to deal with the emotional competition as well as the physical.
The viewer can read something more into the statement. Julie seems to be using this training instinctively. And when she is questioned by school staff and her parents she controls not only her emotions but her conversation. This, we sense, is less to protect Jeremy than for self-preservation. Sports people of any age, but particularly young people, need continuity and as little upheaval in their lives as possible.
What they don’t need is a new coach mid-season and Julie doesn’t take to Backie (Pierre Gervais) for a long time. But she and Backie gradually build a healthy coach-student relationship. Although he earns her respect and trust she will not confide in him. Whenever any adult asks her if she has anything to say, or if she wants to talk, Julie, like Arline keeps quiet.
The most explicit and telling scenes in the film involve Jeremy’s contact with Julie, on the phone and in a chilling meeting where we realise what a narcissistic, cowardly and insensitive person he is, trying to obtain information from Julie. We see what a selfish and cowardly person he is, continuing to manipulate Julie for his own ends, and trying to obtain information from her, oblivious to the psychological damage he has caused. Though Julie is torn, she is coming round to the truth about the man responsible for her career, and in a pivotal moment she lies to him about having spoken to Sophie again.
The distress that infiltrates these intimate scenes are masterfully conveyed by cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis’s (I, Tonya, Cruella) who is equally good at capturing the tennis action shots.
That van Dijl and lead scriptwriter Ruth Becquarts are sensitive to the nuances of a victim’s reaction to a child abuse investigation is dramatised in a scene that is easy to overlook. During group practice Backie asks Julie to demonstrate her second serve to the group, but she walks out of the practice session. When Backie asks her about the incident, she complains that he is putting the spotlight on her and it’s not fair to the others who pay for lessons. Taken aback, Backie says that he asked her to demonstrate because her second serve is good. ‘Don’t read more into it than that’ he says, perhaps realising that Julie might be afraid of recreating that favouritism that characterised Jeremy’s attached to Aline – and her.
Running parallel to Julie’s interaction with her colleagues and family is the investigation into Jeremy. He has been suspended pending the investigation and it seems the police are taking over. Throughout, Jeremy’s aura and absence looms large, but so does the reluctance to discuss him. And throughout, Julie keeps quiet.
You appreciate van Dijl’s restraint in what could have been or salacious issue-based TV drama. But sometimes, it’s good to talk.
