In Two Days, One Night, the new film from the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Marion Cotillard gives a complex, tough performance as a wife and mother scrambling to keep her job.
On a Friday, Cotillard's Sandra learns that sixteen of her co-workers at a solar panel factory have voted to take a bonus of 1,000 euros rather than keep her on the payroll. Devastated yet not defeated, she spends all Saturday and Sunday on a desperate and humble but hopeful campaign to personally convince each colleague to change his or her mind before a Monday-morning vote.
It's no surprise that Sandra’s feelings about visiting the individuals she works with are deeply conflicted. She’s embarrassed and humiliated, but also furious that she has to undertake this ordeal, one that seems to have been prompted by a previous medical leave to deal with depression. At first she’s met with warmth, and it seems she’s tallying favorable votes in her head and figures victory will be a cinch. But soon the mood shifts, and she begins to encounter unyielding hostility. The economy is distressed and some in her group were quick to make plans for that bonus. She tells them she understands their decisions, while managing to maintain her composure and dignity.
Back at home, however, she self-medicates and grows more intent on giving up until her patient husband (Fabrizio Rongione) convinces her otherwise. Because the movie’s last chapter is the Monday-morning vote, the film has the suspense of a courtroom drama, with Cotillard as both the defense attorney and the wronged party. Her performance feels astonishingly true, an emotional whirlwind of fear, fragility, shame, and rage, directed by brothers whose repertoire — which includes The Kid with the Bike and L’enfant — consistently puts audiences into the emotions churning in their characters’ lives.
Two Days, One Night | Dir. by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | 95 min., in French with English subtitles | Tivoli Theatre, 4050 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Mo., 816-561-5222
