2014 | Dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne | 95 Minutes
"Every time I feel like a beggar, a thief coming to take their money."
After spending a period of time away from work, clinically depressed Sandra has one weekend to convince each of her co-workers to vote on Monday morning for the business to keep her employed as opposed to making her redundant and accepting a substantial bonus. As Sandra meets colleague after colleague face-to-face, her depression worsens as nearly every casual acquaintance and close workmate needs the bonus, each one like her and her family struggling to make ends meet, whether or not they ultimately vote to assist her.
With the other actors in the film portraying simple characters that exist only to interact with the lead, the entire film hinges on Marion Cotillard's performance as Sandra, and she truly delivers. Cotillard is appropriately hard-edged as a woman of the shrinking economic middle-class, staving off despair while also fighting to maintain her pride. From the outset, Cotillard's turn as Sandra is unglamorous but strong and captivating, ingesting anti-depressants like candy, expecting the worst of her co-workers even if the outcome of the vote turns out to be in her favor.
Running just over an hour and a half, Two Days, One Night is a short film that asks simple but difficult questions. Is it right to help yourself if in doing so you forsake others? Is it right to ask for help from others if in doing so they forsake themselves?
FRAGMENTS
- I'm embarrassed to admit that I've only ever seen Marion Cotillard in Christopher Nolan films in which she plays underwritten characters that never really have much to do
- Cotillard won an Oscar in 2007 playing singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, and her performance in this film earned her another nomination
- The classic French pop tune that plays on the radio halfway through the film: Petula Clark's "La Nuit N'en Finit Plus"
