Continuing with their strength in making spare, emotionally riveting dramas, the Belgian Dardenne brothers have created Two Days, One Night, another remarkable film which they wrote and directed. Set in a Belgian town, the film focusses on a woman’s fight to save her job by convincing her work colleagues to give up their sizable annual bonus. The film’s simple, honest storytelling places the focus squarely on the compelling performances and moral quandaries, and at the core of the film’s success is Marion Cotillard’s brilliant lead performance – a richly layered and textured portrayal of a woman battling to prove her own worth to others and to herself.
When Sandra (Cotillard) finds out that she has lost her job at a solar panel factory she immediately breaks down in tears and retreats to the seclusion of her bedroom. The company is facing tough financial times, and her work colleagues have voted to keep their annual bonuses at the expense of her job. Subsequent emotional breakdowns help us learn that Sandra has recently suffered a bout of depression, and that she needs the job to help her family keep their home. After convincing her boss to hold a re-vote, and with the support and encouragement of her husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione), she devotes the weekend to tracking down each of her work colleagues to present her case. What follows is an increasingly tense series of awkward interactions that are at times difficult to watch, but even more difficult to look away form.
In Two Days, One Night the Dardenne duo continue with the realism that defines their accomplished brand of storytelling. The complete lack of any background score or music only directs the focus more closely on film’s central moral conflict – each of Sandra’s colleagues harbours their own reasons for the voting the way that they do, and no one is vilified. Ultimately though, it is Cotillard’s fiercely committed performance that provides the emotional heft of the film. Wearing plain clothes, she is under the scrutiny of the camera’s gaze for the entirety of the film. She has nowhere to hide. But she completely immerses herself in the role, a deftly executed combination of deeply felt desperation, insecurity and anxiety. Underlying her fight to save her job is her own struggle against her pervasive doubts of self-worth, and Cotillard conveys this internal turmoil with heart-breaking authenticity. The ending is a perhaps a little too hopeful given the film’s generally sombre mood, but nevertheless this latest addition to the Dardennes’ filmography only affirms their unparalleled skill in tracking the plights of ordinary people.
Two Days, One Night screened at the 2014 Melbourne International Film Festival.
Great review, but what “realism”? It seems that the main character here lives on another planet where there are no human rights, no employment law, no state benefits for unemployed, no state benefits for children and cynicism rules. It is completely unrealistic regarding the bonus situation. I lived in Belgium for 2 years, and unemployed people I knew were paid 1000 euros a month just because they were searching for a job.