Four stars. Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.20.15
This one’s brutal.
Writer/directors Jean-Pierre and
Luc Dardenne have uncorked an absorbing splash of cinema verité that is no less
gripping for its low-budget origins: a working-class calamity that feels like
it could happen to a friend, a neighbor ... or even you.
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| Having just learned that she has been voted out of a job by most of her own co-workers, Sandra (Marion Cotillard, center) persuades the company owner (Baptiste Sornin) to hold a second ballot. She now has two days, with the help of best friend Juliette (Catherine Salée), to persuade a majority of their colleagues to change their minds. |
The disturbing script is a sly
update of classic psychological short stories such as Shirley Jackson’s “The
Lottery,” or Richard Matheson’s “Button, Button.” Both explore the
superficiality of morality and personal integrity: the point at which seemingly
good people will cave, their ethics forgotten in the face of temptation, reward
... or fear.
The Belgian Dardenne brothers’ Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night) revolves around a similarly
ghastly quandary, in this case as it affects the victim.
We meet Sandra (Marion
Cotillard), a working-class Belgian mother, just as she has completed a medical
leave of absence. The cause remains unspecified, but clues point to a nervous
breakdown of some sort; she’s clearly fragile, emotionally shattered. She’s
resting at home, regaining her strength after (perhaps) her first day back at
work on the production floor at Solwal, a small company that manufactures solar
panels.
The phone rings, with grim news
from her co-worker and best friend, Juliette (Catherine Salée). The company
owner, Mr. Dumont (Baptiste Sornin), has decided that things have been almost
as efficient during Sandra’s absence. Wanting to be “fair,” he has put the
matter to a vote among Sandra’s blue-collar colleagues: If they agree to work
harder in her continued — permanent — absence, each will receive a bonus of
1,000 Euros.
In other words, if they vote for
the bonus, Sandra will be fired.
The vote goes 14 to 2, against.
This is the news that Juliette — one of Sandra’s lone supporters — has just
called to share, this late Friday afternoon.
Sandra is frantic; she and her
husband, Manu (Fabrizio Rongione), need their combined incomes to meet mortgage
payments on the home they’ve recently purchased, in a triumphant step up from
public housing. It’s impossible to chart the profusion of emotions that cross
Sandra’s face, as she tries to absorb what has happened, and the implications
behind this catastrophe.
Cotillard earned a well-deserved
Academy Award nomination for this role, and it’s easy to see why; she slips
persuasively into Sandra’s skin. Because of both her performance and the script’s
real-world honesty, we quickly forget that we’re watching a drama; it feels
much more like a documentary. An awful one, at that.
