Two Days, One Night- 2014
Directors Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Starring Marion Cotillard
Scott’s Review #268
Reviewed August 21, 2015
Grade: B
Two Days, One Night (2014) is a French-language drama starring the wonderful and highly talented Marion Cotillard, who received an Academy Award nomination in 2015 for this role and is the main draw.
I never tire of viewing any of her film performances; however, I felt the film itself lacked something special. Adequate, but below the standards I was expecting given the award recognition.
The film is good, with an interesting moral tale, but it becomes redundant as it goes on.
Sandra, played by Cotillard, is a working-class woman living in an industrial town in Belgium. She works in a factory and struggles to make ends meet with her supportive husband, Manu.
They have two young children.
It is revealed early on that Sandra has a history of suffering from depression and has recently been forced to take a leave of absence from her job due to her struggles.
Now recovered, she is ready to resume normalcy, but her boss forces a vote among her sixteen colleagues to either save her job or eliminate her position; whoever wins will receive a hefty bonus.
Sandra and a co-worker she feels close with convinced the boss to allow an anonymous vote the following Monday, leaving Sandra with one weekend to convince the others to save her job.
The conflict is that the department ran successfully during Sandra’s absence, so why is she needed?
The plot has an interesting moral concept. Will people sacrifice personal gain to assist someone else?
Sandra’s kindness makes the decision seem easy. However, many of her colleagues struggle to put food on the table for their families and could use any extra wages they can manage.
The audience sides with Sandra and her equally kind husband, who keeps talking her out of giving up and instead encourages her to spend the weekend convincing others to vote for her come Monday morning.
The weak point is that it follows a basic, formulaic story and doesn’t branch out. The plot is simple, but I expected a bit more from this film.
The action takes place throughout one weekend, and the entire plot is that of Sandra traversing the town looking for colleagues to persuade them to vote for her. Most of the people she encounters are sympathetic and, if they cannot help her, they empathize with her.
Soon, we get that she needs their votes. The same scene repeats over and over.
The character of Manu is undeveloped. We learn nothing about him except that he is a devoted husband and father, but what about his feelings? How did he deal with Sandra’s depression?
Strangely, many co-workers Sandra looks for are not home, so she has to go to the park, the laundromat, or the pub to track them down.
I question the story’s authenticity.
Sandra’s boss has the power to pit colleagues against each other (supposedly approved by management) and to decide one employee’s fate.
The story mentions no Human Resources department until almost the final scene, when a manager appears, and it never explains why the boss can get away with this.
There is also no mention of a union, which is common in factory work.
Furthermore, Sandra and Manu never mention consulting an attorney- yes, they are poor, but surely a conversation might have occurred.
The title also does not make sense- Two Days, One Night- the film begins on a Friday and ends on a Monday morning. What does the title mean?
Two Days, One Night (2014) is a film featuring an honest performance from a talented actress (Cotillard), but it is a tad bit slow and tedious at times, and repeats similar scenes over again.
The film is a nice, simple, quiet story, but nothing spectacular.
Oscar Nominations: Best Actress-Marion Cotillard
