Two Days One Night (2014)

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Two Days One Night (2014) – J.-P. & L. Dardenne

When I saw that the latest Dardenne Brothers film had arrived in the mail, I thought “uh-oh”.  Not because I expected the film to be bad but rather because their films are so morally complex and heart-wrenching (often dealing with blue-collar or disadvantaged people in tough situations or at the end of their tether) that I thought it would be a tough watch.  Once again, the Dardennes have come up with a simple moral dilemma and then appear to have sat back and allowed their characters to deal with it.  Specifically, Marion Cotillard’s boss has told the 16 employees at her workplace that they have to have a vote to decide whether to keep Marion at work or to sack her and take 1000 Euros each as a bonus.  So, the movie follows poor Marion as she visits each of her co-workers in turn over the course of a weekend to try to influence them to let her stay. Of course, each person visited has their own issues and a different relationship to Marion.  It also emerges that Marion herself has had a period away from work due to depression and that the foreman has been trying to influence others to vote against her. Yet, somehow the Dardennes find a way to make the story both realistic and uplifting and Cotillard holds her own in a tough part. If you haven’t seen any films by these Belgian masters, you really are missing out -- but you might find that they come too close to depicting the stresses of real life!