Our NYFF coverage continues with Michael Cusumano on Belgium's "Two Days, One Night" starring Marion Cotillard
The experience of watching the Dardenne brothers latest critically adored Cannes hit, Two Days, One Night, brings home just how conditioned we are to expect our protagonists to be active and fearless. We are not used to heroes that need to be pushed and prodded to stand up for themselves. Our heroes tend to plunge into conflict with nary a second thought. Marion Cotillard’s Sandra is not one of those characters. When Sandra awakes one morning to a phone call informing her that she has lost her job at a company that makes solar panels, her first impulse is to take it lying down. Literally. On an upswing after what we gather is a nasty struggle with depression, Sandra crawls back into bed resigned to let her sickness swallow her whole this time.
It becomes clear that management, in a move brilliant in its craven cowardice, had given Sandra’s coworkers the choice of keeping Sandra or keeping their bonuses. On top of which, whispers were spread that Sandra was going to be let go no matter what, so it’s no surprise when the vote is a lopsided 14 to 2 in favor of firing Sandra and keeping bonuses. When Sandra’s husband and friends compel her to protest the underhanded way this was carried out, her boss allows for a second vote after the weekend, comfortable in the expectation that convincing people to sacrifice their bonuses is a fool's errand.
And even if it weren’t, the potential humiliation of having to beg her coworkers to spare her is a thought less appealing than poverty.
Yet reluctantly, gradually, stand up for herself Sandra does. Over the course of the titular days and nights, Sandra goes from coworker to coworker to plead her case in an attempt to eke out a nine-vote majority. It’s an ingenious structure for a movie, allowing the same basic situation to be rotated and examined from a variety of angles. The Dardennes sensitivity for how people behave in these situations is exquisite. Most of her coworkers are apologetic and sheepishly explain how badly they need the money. Some avoid Sandra altogether. One or two are hostile, furious that Sandra would press the issue. Nobody wants to be the one to stick his or her neck out. Everyone’s first question is how everyone else is voting.
The knock against the Dardenne brothers is that they lack visual flair, relying on the same flat approach in every film, all long takes and medium shots. There is some truth to this charge. Yet even as the Dardennes’s visuals verge on the monotonous they reward the viewer by using that simplicity of style to build an absorbing realism. When the Dardennes are on target, as they are here, one doesn’t miss the visual panache. The effect of this unadorned technique is well worth the tradeoff.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that this time out the Dardennes have a bona fide movie star brightening up their bleak landscape. As Sandra, Cotillard marks another triumph in a career that is nothing but recently. Glammed down without making a stunt out of it, she makes us feel the weight pulling on Sandra as she more or less fights for her life. This is not a character marching around like Erin Brokovich, giving speeches and telling everyone where they can stick it. For her, simply summoning the strength to get out of bed and face the situation is a victory. There is a moment where Sandra teeters on the brink of abject surrender when a bit of luck goes unexpectedly her way and she can’t fight a smile breaking out over her face for the first time in the film. Cotillard makes the scene more moving than any canned "inspirational" moment.
Anger at the bosses for creating this poisonous situation hums quietly underneath of the movie before rising to the surface in the closing moments. The story generates genuine suspense over the outcome of the vote and it reaches a conclusion for Sandra without cheating or lapsing into schmaltz. Two Days, One Night is not Earth-shaking cinema, but it accumulates a real power as goes along, and by the film's final, perfect grace notes the Dardennes deliver a catharsis that is as well-earned as it is satisfying. B+
Two Days One Night screens Sunday Oct 5th (3 PM - Marion Cotillard will attend the Q&A) and Monday Oct 6th (9 PM). It is Belgium's Oscar Submission for this year's Foreign Film Oscar race and opens December 24th. Previous NYFF Reviews here.