This story is wrong on so many levels - a French pre-teen is kidnapped by the village idiot (or at least misfit) who literally carts her off in a trailer attached to his moped. (This, after sexually propositioning her mother and being rebuffed.) Oddly enough, she submits to her abduction as if it's all a bit of a lark. Once back at his pad (the attic of a barn, by the looks of it),he installs a primitive surveillance system and warns her not to try and escape. It's all looking pretty dark by this point, and we fear he will turn into some kind of monster. Instead he mellows and even shows her small acts of kindness, emerging as merely a sad loner. The power balance inevitably shifts - a kind of Stockholm syndrome scenario - and by the end of it, she is free. Was she smart and resourceful enough to suss him out and get the better of him, or just feel sorry for him? In any event, she comes out looking a lot cleverer than him.

A truly beautiful film about two misunderstood characters that form an enviable bond in the strangest manner possible.

I watched this movie with open mind knowing that it was French, therefore not expecting Hollywood plots. I know it was going to be quiet but I wasn't expecting something boring! It is about Mado, a 11 y.o. girl who lives in the countryside with her mother. Even thought the mother character is not developed at all we are told mom and daughter do not love each other. One day the girl is kidnapped by Francois, a mousy and lonely guy about 20, for no apparent reasons. It's strange that Mado does not put up too much resistance.

Francois does not have a good relationship with his parents either and he lives with them but apart in an attic, the same place where he keeps Mado locked. Then you realize that Francois kidnapped her just because he needs company. After a while Mado becomes his sister, his daughter, his wife, his friend, etc. They sleep and eat together and develop a love & hate relationship (oh, they sleep together but clothed so don't think bad).

The movie drags along with this and you start wondering if she DOES want to live locked there forever. At some point she has the chance to go away but she returns. The movie turns boring because you don't know what the point is with this implausible bunch of things. She stays days by days there with the same clothes, no bathroom, no school, almost no food, and she is not reported missing or anything.

If the director wanted to make a love & hate story about a lonely boy and a lonely girl I think there are many other interesting ways to do it. The strangest and misunderstood fact of this movie is its stupid title "La Drôlesse" that means "The libertine girl" or "The hussy". It could even been translated as "The little whore" while actually Mado is a lovely and innocent girl far away from that and has nothing to do with "libertine" behavior.