Butler's Cinema Scene

Marion Cotillard…facing her coworkers

“TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT”  My rating: A 

95 minutes  | MPAA rating: PG-13

Belgium’s Dardenne Brothers –Jean-Pierre and Luc — make small, sometimes mournful films about average individuals caught in the gears of larger institutions.

They’ve never done anything as powerful as “Two Days, One Night,” featuring Oscar-nominated Marion Cotillard in what some day may be recalled as her greatest performance (and she already has a best actress statuette for “La Vie en Rose”).

The setup is simple.

After several months of sick leave, blue-collar worker Sandra (Cotillard) is ready to get back to her job. She, her husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) and their two kids can’t last much longer on one income.

Then, on the Friday before she is to resume her duties, she learns that her co-workers have voted not to bring her back. The plant’s managers have proposed dividing up Sandra’s work load — and her paycheck — among the remaining employees. It is, say the bosses, the only way the staff will get a bonus this year.

A desperate Sandra pleads for and is given a second vote so that she can make her case. She has the weekend — two days and one night — to visit all 16 of her co-workers to change minds.

The bulk of “Two Days, One Night” consists of these conversations, which are as tense, angry and sad as you’d expect.

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