Like getting caught in a storm because it was sunny when you left home and you didn't take your umbrella, Tori and Lokita starts off routine but catches you off guard with a surprising turn. I'm not a huge fan of the Dardenne brothers' films. I find their bare bones approach and insistence on overly amateur actors falsely naive and more than a little cloying. Nevertheless, Tori and Lokita (a couple of kids who escaped from Benin together and are trying to get papers in Belgium) succeed in catching the audience's hearts despite all the cinematic cliches in which the Dardennes drape them. What really saves the film, however, are some bold choices in the story that leave the viewer -- or at least, this one -- with a begrudging respect.