Hell of a Weekend

It’s a Friday afternoon. You’re napping after (half-heartedly) baking a pie for your kids. The phone rings; it’s a co-worker calling ya with a heads-up: you’re getting laid off. And it’s your colleagues that voted on it – on casting you out...away – all so that they could make their bonuses.

You are shell-shocked.

And if you happent to be Oscar winner Marion Cotillard then you are at the excellent, Academy Award-nominated center of the French-language Two Days, One Night, the latest offering by filmmaking brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.

Cotillard’s character’s name is Sandra. She’s recently taken a leave of absence from her job at a manufacturer of solar panels to get a hold on this crippling depression she’s been battling, but, unlucky for her, the brass at the company has decided that they can do without her. That the job that they thought they needed 17 people to perform can just as easily get done with 16 workers on hand.

Ergo the vote.

Sandra’s colleagues weren’t the ones that decided to send her packing, though – they were given an impossible choice and they opted to keep an extra 1,000 euros coming their way. Given that they all live paycheck to paycheck in this Belgian industrial town, they, well...they chose themselves. Like just about anyone would, really.

Alas, Sandra can’t afford to lose her job (even if she completely understands why folks may have decided to dismiss her). Her husband, Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) works at a restaurant, and his income alone just won’t do...it won’t float their family of four. Sandra must do something, and that something is go door to door during the weekend, convincing her co-workers to vote to keep her employed in this do-over that she’s secured (company higher-ups may have influenced the first round).

Two Days, One Night is a most harrowing tale, and Cotillard – who is every scene of the oh-so-naturalistic film – helps tell it quite sublimely, in one of those unglam turns that often catch the eye of the Academy (which explains, in part, her nomination for Best Actress this year). Her Sandra has a daunting task ahead of her, and it is made even more so because she’s still feeling down, and the actress goes and delivers every emotion and nuance – she’s ashamed and angry and frustrated...– perfectly. More importantly, she does so honestly; nothing feels phoned in or like, unlived.

Also interesting is the fact that this is a film about people. When I first wrote about it almost two years ago, I said I I couldn’t “imagine what some of those people will want in return for the favor...”. Meaning Sandra’s colleagues.

In an American film, our heroine may have been more entitled and, perhaps, violent. Her co-workers may have taken advantage or humiliated her. What a refreshing thing to see on the silver screen, that the characters that the Dardenne brothers showcased were all far more complex (and humble) than that.

A different sensibility that Two Days, One Night. We could do well to get more of that in our entertainment.

My Rating ****

Photo: Variety.com.