The insanely versatile Marion Cotillard gives a near career best performance as Sandra in Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne's TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT. This is a perfect example of minimalist storytelling allowing for performance and emotion to take center stage.
Sandra (Cotillard) has come out of the hospital to some very unwelcome news, during her stay in the hospital she has been fired. The infinitely wise and spineless management decides, the only way Sandra can hope to stay employed at the factory is to convince her co-workers to give up their much-needed yearly bonuses. Now, over the course of one weekend, Sandra must confront each co-worker individually in order to win a majority of their votes before time runs out.
With TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT, the Dardennes have taken a simple but important look at how self interest plays into society. The story is straight forward and striped down but this is a powerful and honest portrayal of how we react in the face of compassion when it might compromise our own self interest.
The Dardennes are playing to their strengths with this film. THE KID WITH THE BIKE and ROSETTA are undemanding in their execution but thoughtful, important films demanding our attention. TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT is a film that is simple on the surface but overflowing with both compassion and wisdom. In short, this is a film that everyone should watch.
We rarely see films so raw and poignant that border on but never cross over into preachy or self important. This is the kind of film that plays on multiple levels and could be taken as a simple tale but I firmly believe the Dardennes are saying something about us a a whole. About how we judge and ignore our neighbors on both a local and a global level. They are grappling with some complex issues but, what exactly are they saying? Watch the film, you should hear them out, they have something important to say.