If you’re tired of the same old Hollywood heist tropes, you need to watch Racer and the Jailbird. Honestly. It’s a Belgian-French production that goes by the original title Le Fidèle, and it’s basically a gut-punch wrapped in a high-speed car chase. Directed by Michaël R. Roskam, the same guy who gave us the gritty masterpiece Bullhead, this film isn't just about cars or crime. It’s a tragic, messy, and deeply emotional look at what happens when your past refuses to stay in the rearview mirror.
Most people go into this expecting a European version of Fast & Furious. Big mistake. While there is definitely adrenaline and some sleek racing sequences, the heart of the story is the suffocating, almost obsessive love between Gigi and Bibi. You've got Matthias Schoenaerts playing Gino "Gigi" Vanoirbeek, a high-stakes bank robber, and Adèle Exarchopoulos as Benedicte "Bibi" Delhany, a wealthy professional racing driver. It’s a collision of two worlds that probably should have stayed separate.
The Brutal Reality Behind Racer and the Jailbird
The movie is split into three distinct acts, and the shift between them is jarring in a way that feels incredibly real. It starts as a slick, stylish romance. You see Gigi and Bibi meeting at the track. The chemistry is immediate. Schoenaerts has this brooding, physical presence that makes you believe he’s a guy who lives on the edge, while Exarchopoulos brings that raw, uninhibited energy she’s known for since Blue Is the Warmest Color. They look like the perfect "cool" couple. But there's a lie at the center of it all.
Gigi tells Bibi he imports cars. In reality, he’s part of a brutal gang of "gangsters" (as the Belgian press often calls them) who specialize in high-speed heists. This isn't some glamorous Ocean's Eleven setup. The robberies are loud, terrifying, and chaotic. When the truth eventually comes out—and it always does—the film stops being a fun crime caper and turns into a heavy, suffocating drama about loyalty and the consequences of a life of crime.
Roskam doesn't hold back on the grit. The cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis captures the gray, damp atmosphere of Brussels and the clinical brightness of the racetrack. It feels grounded. There’s a specific scene where Gigi is hiding his true identity while visiting Bibi’s upper-class family that feels more tense than the actual bank robberies. It’s that social friction, the feeling of being an imposter, that really drives the character's desperation.
Why the Critics Were So Divided
When Racer and the Jailbird premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017, the reactions were all over the place. Some loved the melodrama; others thought it took a turn into "too much" territory in the final act. It currently sits with a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but a much higher audience score. That gap tells you everything. Critics often wanted it to stay a tight crime thriller, but Roskam wanted to make a "film noir" in the truest sense—a story where fate is a trap.
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The second half of the movie takes a massive risk. Without spoiling too much, the "jailbird" part of the title isn't just a metaphor. The story moves from the streets to the prison system, and the tone shifts from high-octane racing to a slow, agonizing burn. It’s about the physical and emotional decay that comes with incarceration.
A lot of viewers found the third act’s twist to be a bit melodramatic. But if you look at the film as a modern operatic tragedy, it works. It’s not meant to be subtle. It’s meant to be felt. The stakes aren't just about getting caught; they're about the literal survival of their connection when the world is trying to tear them apart.
The Power of Matthias Schoenaerts and Adèle Exarchopoulos
Let’s talk about the acting. Honestly, without these two, the movie might have crumbled under its own weight. Schoenaerts is a frequent collaborator with Roskam, and they have this shorthand that allows for a lot of non-verbal storytelling. Gigi is a man who is terrified of dogs—a weird, specific character trait that actually plays a huge role in the plot—and Schoenaerts plays that vulnerability against his tough-guy exterior perfectly.
Adèle Exarchopoulos is equally impressive. In many "girlfriend" roles in crime movies, the woman is just a peripheral character. Not here. Bibi is a driver. She understands speed, risk, and adrenaline just as much as Gigi does. She isn't a victim of his choices; she is an active participant in their doomed romance. Her descent from a confident, wealthy athlete to a woman broken by circumstances is harrowing to watch.
A Different Kind of Heist Movie
One thing that makes Racer and the Jailbird stand out is how it handles the heist genre. Most American films focus on the "plan." We spend forty minutes watching people draw on whiteboards and talk about timing. Roskam skips most of that. He focuses on the feeling of the heist—the heavy breathing, the sweat, the adrenaline, and the sheer terror of things going wrong.
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The film also digs into the Belgian underworld in a way that feels authentic. It’s not flashy. It’s dirty warehouses, cheap masks, and the constant threat of betrayal. There’s a sense of "no way out" that permeates every frame once the first job goes sideways.
The racing scenes are also handled with a lot of respect. Since Bibi is a pro, the movie treats the track with a technical eye. The sound design is incredible here—the roar of the engines feels like it’s vibrating in your chest. It serves as a great contrast to the silence of the prison cells later on.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Ending
There’s a lot of debate about whether the ending of Racer and the Jailbird is "earned." Some people think it goes off the rails into "soap opera" territory. But if you’ve been paying attention to the themes of the film—loyalty (Le Fidèle actually means "The Loyal One") and the inescapable nature of one's past—the ending is the only way it could have finished.
It’s a movie about the impossibility of starting over. Gigi wants to be a better man for Bibi, but he’s already "in." He owes people, he has a record, and he has a nature that craves the high of the score. Bibi wants to save him, but you can’t save someone from themselves. The tragedy isn't that they get caught; the tragedy is that they were never really free to begin with.
Technical Details for the Film Buffs
- Director: Michaël R. Roskam
- Release Year: 2017
- Language: French, Dutch
- Runtime: 130 minutes
- Awards: It was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards (though it didn't make the final shortlist).
The film also features a haunting score by Raf Keunen, who worked with Roskam on Bullhead. The music doesn't tell you how to feel; it just adds to the mounting sense of dread. It’s a very European approach to a story that, in Hollywood's hands, would have been much glossier and probably a lot less interesting.
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How to Watch and What to Expect
If you’re going to sit down with Racer and the Jailbird, clear your schedule. It’s over two hours long and it’s emotionally draining. Don't expect a happy ending. Expect a masterclass in acting and a story that will stay in your head for days.
You can usually find it on major streaming platforms like Amazon Prime or MUBI, depending on your region. It’s worth the rental fee just for the cinematography alone.
Actionable Insights for Movie Night:
- Watch it with subtitles: Even if you speak some French or Dutch, the nuances in the dialogue between Gigi’s rougher background and Bibi’s upper-class upbringing are important.
- Pay attention to the dogs: It sounds weird, but Gigi’s phobia is a major symbolic through-line in the film. It represents his fear of being trapped and his loss of control.
- Don't skip the first act: The slow build of their romance is what makes the heartbreak of the second and third acts actually hurt. If you aren't invested in them as a couple, the rest of the movie won't work for you.
- Look for the parallels: Notice how the speed on the racetrack mirrors the frantic energy of the heists. Both characters are addicted to a certain kind of intensity that eventually consumes them.
This isn't a movie for everyone. It’s polarizing, it’s long, and it’s occasionally very bleak. But if you want a film that takes risks and treats its characters like real, flawed human beings rather than action figures, Racer and the Jailbird is a must-watch. It’s a reminder that in the world of crime and love, nobody gets away clean.
To get the most out of your viewing, try watching Roskam’s earlier work, Bullhead, first. It sets the stage for his fascination with masculinity, crime, and the physical toll of a violent life. You'll see the stylistic DNA that he brought over to Racer and the Jailbird and appreciate the growth in his direction.