The Treatment Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Treatment Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson January 22, 2017

It is a tribute to Belgian filmmaker Hans Herbots's restraint and relative subtlety to such grim subject that his mystery suspense thriller The Treatment (original: De behandeling) works so well. Based on British crime author Mo Hayder's 2001 novel of the same name, and adapted for the screen by Carl Joos, The Treatment is an extremely dark and lugubrious trip inside the minds of both perpetrators and victims of pedophilia. While the film is often hard to watch due to the harsh nature of the heinous acts committed against families and their children, Herbots at least spares his audience of having to witness all the gruesome details. The Treatment is a film to be admired from afar for its professional craftsmanship, dedication to telling an important story, and a refusal to succumb to outright exploitation.

Herbots and Joos have transposed the setting of Hayder's novel from London to Antwerp where police officer Nick Cafmeyer (Geert Van Rampelberg) lives a quiet life away from the city. But Nick is still haunted by the devastating disappearance of his nine-year-old brother, Bjorn Cafmeyer (Sten Van Gestel), twenty-five years earlier. Nick experiences recurring memories of playing cowboy and Indian games with Bjorn that are interrupted by a dirty old man whom Nick believes was his brother's abductor. Bjorn was never found and the man, who still lives by Nick, never faced a conviction. Herbots and his cinematographer Frank van den Eeden film the scenes of the alleged pedophile taunting Nick from outside his backyard in such a surreal way that viewers may feel the bones tingle in their vertebral column. Even more creepy are the letters this old man (whose character name I will refrain from revealing) bring over to Nick's house. As Nick reads one of them, for example, a spectral figure—a phantom from Nick's past—hunches over him...

A typical scene from THE TREATMENT.

The Treatment's editing intertwines Nick's personal obsession to locate the sicko(s) who took Bjorn with a couple of recent cases involving children and other family members abducted. The pattern that seems to be emerging is that at least one of the perpetrators is handcuffing the parents to a radiator (depriving them of food and water) and keeping the kids in a separate room. Herbots steadily unveils clues and forensic evidence at a gradual pace, leaving Nick and Danni Petit (Ina Geerts), his boss at the the Belgian Federal Police, with the task of adding and piecing them all together. The plot of The Treatment is original and the editing, while at moments seamless, is quite complex in unraveling all the strands. The look of the film has a dense and detailed texture within its dark tones that will remind one of David Fincher's aesthetics, notably Se7en (1995). The Treatment reminds me of Lodge Kerrigan's cinematic works, especially his Clean, Shaven (1993) where we are privy to the psyche of a schizophrenic.

The Treatment certainly does not call for a cheerful ending and while there is a resolution to one part of the story, Herbots leaves another one hanging. The film would have been more fulfilling had Herbots given it some closure. He seems to be saying that there are many things in life that we should be deserving to know, but don't have to access to.

The Treatment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Treatment makes its American debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Artsploitation Films. The label presents the movie in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which closely approximates its original theatrical exhition. The image appears largely clean with a few imperfections. Authoring and compression, however, are less than average. The BD-25 carries a total video bitrate of 17.68 Mbps. By comparison, Dutch FilmWorks' edition placed the 125-minute feature on a BD-50. I believe that Artsploitation could have brought out more detail by putting the movie on a dual-layered disc and maxing out the bitrate. The label has not engaged in any contrast boosting but during the darkly lit scenes (of which there are many), contrast is mediocre. The image looks a bit soft during such scenes. This is a fairly solid HD transfer but Artsploitation could have stretched its technical resources to improve in the areas I've specified.

The Treatment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Treatment comes with two audio options: a Flemish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (448 kbps) track and a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (192 kbps). Sound editing is one of the film's greatest strengths and the scenic transitions where a sound bridge connects two scenes is conveyed pretty well on the surround channels (the whooshing of the train is a standout example). Dialogue is clear and legible with good bass support. Still, it's regrettable that Artsploitation did not equip the sound track with a lossless mix. There is no reason (outside of licensing and availability) that it could not have procured the Flemish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track DutchFilmworks used for its Blu-ray. The two lossy mixes are all right for DVD but Artsploitation could have at least given the movie an LPCM 2.0. The DD 5.1 doesn't bring out the musical score as much as I would have liked so be prepared to have the volume up a bit more than normal.

Artsploitation have incorporated both English subtitles and English SDH. I watched the movie with the former and there were no typographical errors I noticed.

The Treatment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Premiere Featurette (7:42, 1080p) - footage from one of The Treatment's premieres intercut with clips from the movie. The program includes interviews with director Hans Herbots, scenarist Carl Joos, as well as actors Geert Van Rampelberg, Lotte Heijtenis, Robby Cleiren, Tom Audenaert, Dominique Van Malder, and Lien Van de Kelder. In (probably) Dutch and Flemish, with obligatory English subtitles.

• Deleted Scenes (8:30, 1080p) - a collection of three or so lengthy scenes that did not make the final cut. Each contains an English title card with the scene name and # from the shooting script and a well-written explanation (presumably by Herbots) for why they were discarded. In Flemish, with obligatory English subtitles.

• Trailer (1:15, 1080p) - a 2.35:1 16x9-optimized trailer for The Treatment. In Flemish, with obligatory English subtitles.

• Artsploitation Trailers - trailers for Der Samurai, Horsehead, The House with 100 Eyes, and Reckless. These load after the disc's insertion and can be played through the extras menu.

Artsploitation has dropped the photo gallery found on the DutchFilmworks disc and not retained the nine-minute interview with Herbots included on Peccadillo Pictures' UK release.

The Treatment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Critics have compared The Treatment favorably to Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners (2013) and I am inclined to agree. (My colleague, Michael Reuben, recommends Big Bad Wolves (2013), which has similar themes as The Treatment.) Herbots's film is a difficult watch but if you appreciate taut thrillers, you'll want to give it a look. I would suggest a RENTAL first because it's not the type of picture that you're likely to revisit on a semi-regular basis. RECOMMENDED with caveats mainly due to the mature content.