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The heart of this film does not lie in the simple plot, but in the portrayal of a woman, and her family, struggling with depression and the prospect of losing everything.

After coming out the other side of an apparently lengthy battle with depression, Sandra (Cotillard) faces the prospect of losing her job if she cannot convince the majority of her colleagues to forgo a €1,000 bonus in favour of her staying with the company. One by one, she reaches out the her co-workers in the hope that she can convince them to vote for her to stay. On the whole, it is not these interactions that steal the show, but Sandra's own personal struggles with having to ask. The guilt she feels, pleading with people to give up money that most of them desperately need in order for her to keep a job she's not been at for months, coupled with her on-going struggles with depression and her own demons. Cotillard's performance is exceptional throughout, her frustration and upset so believable that it's easy to forget that this an actress playing a role. Anyone who has been affected by depression, either personally or indirectly, will find large portions of the film relatable and harrowing.

A strong supporting cast and a truly moving script complete this understated gem of a movie.

This is my first Dardenne Bros film and at the end of this film I was like "I need to explore more of their films". This is a hard hitting slow story. It could be described as monotonous, but I would describe it as very very real. Following Marion's character, Sandra (la performance c'est très magnifique), we see the hardship of how a series of simple tasks turns into the hardest thing she has to do over the Two days and one night.

The Dardenne Bros and the Cinematographer Alain Marcoen used long shots, with very little cuts in certain scenes. At times whole scenes were just one shot. This left Sandra and Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) to hold the screen and make us believe what is going on and they did a great job with this. It allowed me to get into their emotions and into their lives of what they were going through. The lack of soundtrack also added that extra realism into the story.

I found this a heart wrenching and at times victorious film - a very good balance. The flow was great. It is slow, but just like Sofia Coppolo's Lost in Translation the slow-moving pace is necessary to tell the story.

I was able to get a ticket to this film at Festival de Cannes and it was received very well by the audience around us.

I'm off, now, to watch some more Dardenne Bros films!

It's as low key and quiet as a film can get. It's not enhanced for comedy, action, or drama. Just a realistic human story of the basic struggle to make ends meet in this world.

It's the type of movie that separates the movie geeks from the film geeks.

As a film geek, I can appreciate how the filmmakers did so much with so little, especially actress,Marion Cotillard.

The movie counts on her being realistic, all the way down to the weight it looks like she lost in order to play a woman who just got over an illness, and in order to get her job back spends a weekend visiting her coworkers in order to convenience them to vote for her to get her job back in a secret ballet on Monday, over a big bonus they would all get if she stays laid-off. She had to be believable as a proud woman who did not want to ask her coworkers of this, she did not want their pity, but she needed to support her family, a situation all of her coworkers are also in. It's a truly unbalanced and unfair situation for everyone and Marion did an excellent job portraying how uncomfortable that is.

As a movie geek, though the movie was watered down with absolutely no sugar, I'm glad it was not boring. It helps that the subject is something almost everyone who has a job in this economy can relate to, no matter which side of the equation you're on.

Definitely the type of picture we'll all be discussing long after the film is over. '

I've never been a fan of Darwinian theory: why interfere when mother nature will straighten out the weak? Not especially after watching this simple, yet powerful film.

The Dardennes do not make make morality tales. Even though their characters navigate practical dilemmas that challenge their moral stance. This moral stance in turn, corresponds with realities in which these characters exist — it is a ramification of larger economic forces that govern the poor and working-class.

It is with that in mind, that the Dardenne's narrative strategy reflects neorealist tradition and normative ethics. The main point has always been for us, the audience, to observe the conditions in these characters' daily lives, how they conduct themselves or negotiate problems and resolve dilemmas. In a Dardenne film, we're allowed to engage unobtrusively, without passing judgements on what they choose and how they arrive at those choices eventually.

Two Days, One Night is set against the backdrop of an industrial town in Liège, Belgium. Sandra Bya (Marion Cotillard) is a working-class wife and mother who earns her living in a solar panel factory. After a nervous breakdown, she is forced to take a break from work. The duration of her absence isn't known to viewers, but sufficient for supervisor Mr. Dumont to notice it was possible to cover Sandra's work if all 16 workers pulled an extra 3-hours per shift.

Soon, the factory's management proposes €1,000 bonus to each staff if they agree to make Sandra redundant. By the time Sandra returns to work and knows what happened, majority of her co-workers had opted for the bonus. Factory foreman Jean-Marc influenced their votes by saying if Sandra wasn't laid off, maybe they (her co- workers) would be. Regardless, her fate has been sealed via democratic means.

Concerned friend and colleague Juliette appeals to Mr. Dumont and negotiates a secret snap ballot. Everyone will vote first thing Monday morning — will they choose the €1,000 bonus or Sandra? Because the factory's management surely could not afford both.

Two Days, One Night refers to the weekend: rest days where hard workers retreat in comfort to the sanctuary of their homes and private lives. When Sandra is forced to intrude people's lives on a precious weekend, visit each and every one of her 16 co-workers in a bid to change their minds before Monday (I use the word "forced" because clearly, Sandra was embarrassed and reluctant to do it), at one point she laments in self-disgust saying "I can't stand it. Every time I feel like a beggar, a thief coming to take their money. They look at me ready to hit me. I feel like hitting them too." But kitchen worker and husband Manu urges with maturity and understanding, "You have to fight for your job." Both knew Sandra cannot quite walk away and abandon work at the small factory. The family of four has just recently moved out of public housing. Sandra needs the minimum wage job to keep their heads above the water, to keep from going back to welfare assistance.

Much of the film has Manu drive Sandra around the small town of Liège, as the 48-hours clock goes ticking down with growing intensity. The first dilemma is presented as she goes knocking door- to-door, trying to convince fellow employees to give up a salary bonus that they too, badly need. Times are hard and money is tight, her interactions with each co-worker and their subsequent response to her plea is compelling to watch. Lesser film-makers will settle with a cookie cutter protagonist in need of sympathy, but this isn't the case with Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.

There is a real sense here that the space and reality of this film has the relevance of modern social-political commentary. "Will you vote for me?" — the same question when asked repeatedly, becomes illuminated by varying personal realities. Thus allowing the audience to consider the same situation with changing arguments and evolving perspectives. Every step of the way, the audience absorbs a broad spectrum of humanity as reactions toward Sandra ricochet between doubt and certainty: selfish and cruel, unapologetic and indifferent, defensive and guilt-ridden, conflicted and hesitant, kind and compassionate. At one point, it had me wondering if Sandra, for the sake of some colleagues so dangerously close to the margins of poverty, probably shouldn't be appealing at all — after all, their knapsacks are so much tinier and more fragile than the sling bag draped across her hunched, bony shoulders.

All the above reflects just one, out of several more thought experiments found in the plot design. One particular sub-plot examines Sandra's level of resilience as a recovering depressive, and culminates in an episode involving a box of Xanax. Here, Marion Cotillard turns in her role with master class technique — she applies subdued, matter-of-fact emotional tone with the kind of authenticity and resignation made possible only by an exhausted, dehumanized, defeated soul. Less is accurately more.

When I saw L'Infant at the Alliance Française de Singapour back in 2005; I was a young adult in her early twenties with the intellectual capital and moral patience of a fish. Coming out of my first experience with the Dardennes, my opinion towards main character Bruno, was straight forward and quite simply, disapproving — what kind of person sells his own newborn child for a meagre sum of money? I left the small theatre with obvious answers and a snap conclusion, partially dissatisfied and disappointed with the film's ridiculous premise.

Nearly a decade has passed and now having watched Two Days, One Night; I find myself weighing all variables in the complex social totality embodied by one simple observation: "Some people are so rich they don't know what it means to live with so little." I no longer believe in moral absolutes with the reckless naiveté of a youth. What an honest, complex and thought provoking film. How wide-ranging and realistic.

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I heard nothing about Two Days, One night before I decided to check it out on Netflix, and I must say that this is one of the best foreign films I have seen in a while. Actually it's just one of the best films I've seen in a while.

Two Days, One night tells us a story of a woman's desperate attempts to persuade her co-workers into making a very important decision that determines her future. The story focuses on human nature and our ability to give something up for someone we barely know. It feels incredibly intimate and human throughout and there were times where the emotions were so raw that I kept forgetting that I'm just watching a film. It felt so real and I really wanted to see this character succeed, mainly because her character was so well acted. The plot is very simple but there is a wavering sense of unpredictability and even tension as we watch this desperation-fueled journey unfold. The main plot line sets off many little strings of other interactions that I would never have saw coming, making this a unique and highly enjoyable first viewing.

The acting all around was fantastic. Our main character, played by Marion Cotillard, was emotionally broken and this actress did an amazing job showing it. She covered so much range in her performance that I simply could not keep my eyes off her, for more than just the obvious reason. She was excellently formed as we constantly see her entire demeanor and mannerism change after every character interaction. She reacted realistically in a way that made me feel very immersed within the film's story and narrative. I greatly wanted to see this character succeed at her goal, and if she had not been as well acted, I definitely would not have cared as much. Another great thing about Two Days, One Night, besides the excellent acting, is that we can all relate to it's personal and socially accurate storytelling.

Our character is seen asking many individuals to make quite a large sacrifice. The great thing is that we all know what this feels like. So we can place ourselves in the shoes of either character and feel incredibly attached to the story. This constant feeling of immersion and realism felt absolutely perfect and there was not one second where I felt like the film dragged or included an unnecessary scene. I enjoyed every second of it and I really didn't want it to end. But when that time did come, it felt extremely satisfying and understandable. There was no complex enigmatic riddle to solve or deep metaphor with infinite possible meanings to interpret. The ending was just as meaningful without any of these things.

I thoroughly enjoyed Two Days, One Night. It tells an interesting story that could very well happen to anyone. It was involving, emotionally raw, and just fantastically human.

This French-language film is both written and directed by brothers Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne and set in their native Wallonia part of Belgium, poorer than the Flemish north of the country and hard hit by the post-2008 recession. It is the complete antithesis of the Hollywood movie: slow and deliberate with no special effects or action sequences.

A small company has a vote of its workforce which decides that it would rather all the staff receive a bonus than take back a female colleague who wishes to return to work after a bout of depression. The woman at the heart of this moral dilemma is Sandra, played by the talented French actress Marion Cotillard, who has just a weekend to persuade her colleagues to change their mind. Essentially this is a film about solidarity - or lack of it - not just in the workplace but also at home and shows how different factors influence our decisions and how those decisions have consequences for ourselves and for others.

Marion Cotillard plays so well in this movie. Very simple movie but very well played with low tones.

The movie deals with two themes

1. Ethical. Do you prefer a bonus 1000 euro instead of your coworker to keep hers job?

What you will do in a such dilemma ?

Do you vote for the bonus?

2. The psychology of a person that is recovering from depression. The feeling of low self esteem. The feeling of worthlessness. The despair that multiplies in the mind with the first difficulty. The difficulty and shame to ask from someone to not take a bonus 1000 euro and vote for you to keep your position.

A film is not about it's ending alone, especially not this one. The film is extra ordinarily realistic and simple. Marion Cotillard's acting just blew me away. If it was any other actress, I doubt that it would be interesting to stare at the same person for the entire length of the film. Loved every moment of it.

Use of natural light, long takes, lose head camera are all supposed to give you a boring film if you are used to the Hollywood style. But, just having a great script and Marion is enough to make any film special. Thanks for making this film. Short and sweet, That's this film. A story I could totally relate to. She made me cry.

This film is about the economics of the economy, the impact on its workers and the inhuman decisions one has to make to survive. It is also kind of an exploration about recovering from mental illness, but not completely. Ultimately its about overcoming.

Other than its insane premise, unbelievable in its all too mundane believability, it is a mostly pat story arch told with "realism" and a splendid performance from Marion Cotillard and not much more. It feels like the premise was concocted first and the characters (and by extension the mental illness) and ending tacked on to make it workable.

There is a clear and vibrant simplicity to The Dardenne Brothers' newest and affecting effort Two Days, One Night starring the hauntingly rich and powerful Marion Cotillard. Intimate and honest, the selection for Belgium for the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony makes a compelling case in showcasing a tragic story of family, despair, and sacrifice.

Starting this off with a cinematic (likely horrible) confession, I've never seen a Dardenne Brothers film in its entirety. Growing up in an American household, and only learning of them over the past few years, the two acclaimed filmmakers remained on my bucket list for a cinematic weekend but never fully got around to it. Does that make me less qualified to review the new film distributed by Sundance Selects? I'd like to think not. Every new generation of film critics, both new and beyond, will learn the ways of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and the Dardenne Brothers in some new capacity.

The film tells the story of Sandra, a young mother who learns that her co-workers have opted for a large cash bonus, and as a result, will leave her without a job. She spends the next two days and one night, visiting all sixteen co-workers to convince them to give up their money in order for her to keep her job and help her support her family.

From the premise alone, you can only assume that you're going to be pulled through the ringer. What the writer/directors exercise brilliantly is the feeling of desperation. A supportive husband Manu, played magnificently by Fabrizio Rongione, and a friend Juliette (Catherine Salée) offer balance to a dark tale but you can't help but just feel for our lovely Sandra. It's a social and economical look at the working class. What it can make you do and how you can lose your humanity as a result.

The pinnacle and most profound element of the picture is the towering achievement of Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard. She observes Sandra in her fragile state and avoids any typical tropes and clichés. Cotillard searches for Sandra's purpose, almost as convincingly as Sandra searches for her own. She yearns for more, but most of all, she seeks simple clarity. She's drowning in her own sadness, something that some of us might know too well. She's dying for a breath of air. This is just another prime example of Cotillard's stunning abilities to transform herself in any role. Rust & Bone and La Vie en Rose are just the tip of the iceberg, and this may not even be the full extent of her talents. I think we're looking at a legendary actress emerging before our eyes. There's a role coming, if you haven't experienced it already, that is going to knock all of us on our asses. This could be it for many.

The major flaw I found is in the way the brothers decide to tell the story. At 95 minutes, the film tends to move at a snail's pace from time to time. As soon as the film reveals its premise, I wondered how we were going through sixteen individuals without feeling repetitive. While some of them definitely make their marks (a scene involving Timur Magomedgadzhiev rings profoundly genuine), others feel like victims of circumstance and even a little bland. By the movie's end, I felt like I had sat for over two hours.

Two Days, One Night is a contender for Best Foreign Language Film and a dark horse for Oscar-winner Cotillard to score a nomination. If you are familiar with the Dardenne Brothers previous efforts, this film should feel just as satisfying. If anything, this is a kind and seamless introduction to the directors' past efforts.

Sandra, a young Belgian mother, discovers that her workmates have opted for a significant pay bonus, in exchange for her dismissal. She has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job.

This is not the sort of film that has amazing direction or incredible special effects. It is a straightforward plot driven by one of the best actresses in the business. Would you fire a co-worker if it meant that all your other co-workers would get a raise? And if you were the one being fired, would you fight to change their minds? Though not necessarily intentional, it is an interesting exploration of utilitarianism. On the face of it, it sure seems like a "greater good" for 9 out of 10 people to get a raise. But what of that one person? Do their feelings matter if statistically everything is better?

You absolutely will be disappointed if you are looking for a "robot fighting robot" movie or anything superficial, or beautiful woman. (Well no one can say Cottilard is not beautiful, but she deliberately gives up her beauty to fit the character.)

This movie shows us what real emotions is. It reveals life in such a vivid and convincing way that you'll think about your own life, although you may be a lot better off than the characters.

After all this movie is a feast of fine acting, a reason that movies are still called art, and a spirit lifting experience that is going to linger on for a long time after you finish it.

If you are curious to check this movie out and see what all the fuss at Cannes and of the critics is about, just like me, I would recommend you to save the money. "Two days, One Night" is a more than decent film, but nothing else. The problem is the fact that it thinks too highly of itself.

Why do I say that? Many critics have praised the movie for its honesty, the pureness of its message and the delicacy. Well I really disagree. There certainly is an extent of honesty in the staging of the family everyday life, but with all its intrusive long takes, its high number of aimless long scenes, some key dialogue lines that feel out of nowhere, a couple too many cringe moments and, most importantly, its disappointing ending, I found the film to be much more manipulative and convenient, than honest. The ending did not make a point to me and was a total 180 from where the whole movie was going, it felt very convenient and in no way ended the movie, There had to be ten minutes more or ten minutes less for it to stamp something.

That is not to say that there aren't many thinks to like. Marion Cotilliard, first and foremost alongside the widely interesting look at humanity, offered by the movie. This isn't your general black and white statement offered-in-the-last-five-minutes type of reflection, under which many dramas fall. This is a profound analysis of what does it mean to be thrust into an impossible situation and how would each of us deal with it if put in the same place. This combined with the premise of the movie is enough to keep the 95 minutes going fluently without ever boring things down, but never during the movie did I feel profound emotional connection with any of the characters. I wanted it to be slightly more nastier and dramatic.

The storyline of this film is a bit like the Sidney Lumet classic '12 Angry Men'. One person needs to convince a group of others. In '12 Angry Men', Henry Fonda convinced his fellow jurors that the accused must be innocent. In 'Deux Jours, Une Nuit', factory worker Sandra tries to convince her fellow workers to give up their bonuses, so she won't be fired. Their employer doesn't have enough money to pay Sandra and the bonuses, so he lets the staff decide what they want. But whereas Henry Fonda persuaded the jurors with arguments, Sandra tries to do it with emotion. 'I want to stay with you', she tells her colleagues, 'and not become unemployed and alone'.

The film follows Sandra during the weekend preceding the vote, planned for the next Monday morning. We see her going from door tot door, ringing every bell and asking her colleagues literally the same question: can you vote for me, so I can stay? The reactions vary. Some say they are sorry, but they need the money. Others promise to talk about it with their husbands. Some promise their support immediately. One turns to violence.

The Dardenne brothers, who directed this film, usually work with little-known actors. This time, they chose a big star for the lead: Marillon Cotillard, who worked with directors like Christopher Nolan on big budget productions. For the film, it doesn't make much difference. Cotillard totally immersed herself in the Dardenne-method (she calls it her 'Dardennisation'). The camera follows her closely during her weekend-long quest, and shows her as a vulnerable woman, who constantly seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, repeatedly starts crying and constantly doubts her own capabilities.

The Dardenne brothers are famous for their own film making style, which consists of very intense scenes, filmed without any glamour, showing the raw reality of working class life in their own city, the Belgian industrial centre Liège. This style worked very well in some of their films, notably the unemployment drama 'Rosetta' and the coming of age-film 'Le fils'.

I think in 'Deux Jours, Une Nuit', it works not so well. After a while, the door-ringing starts to get a bit tedious, partly because Sandra asks exactly the same question every time, and partly because the reactions of her co-workers are mostly rather predictable. The plot could have been worked out better this time: it offers lots of possibilities the Dardennes haven't used. This is probably a deliberate choice: the plot is never the strong point in their films because they focus on the emotions of their characters.

What drives the movie forward, is the suspense: will she get enough voters to keep her job, or will all her efforts turn out to be futile? After such a build-up, you expect something special: not a simple yes or no. I will not give any spoilers, but I was a bit disappointed, also by the almost emotionless way Sandra handles the outcome.

'Deux Jours, Une Nuit', is a good film, showing the raw reality of an economic downturn. But in my opinion, the Dardennes have made better films.

Imagine trying to recover from depression only to discover that your illness was in danger of costing you your job; or worse, that in your absence your boss had asked your colleagues to vote for retaining you, or receiving their annual bonus. Imagine then having to visit those colleagues and beg them not to vote for you to lose your livelihood. This is the grim scenario for the Dardenne brothers' film 'Two Days, One Night', whose strength lies in the fact that nothing is presented in an overly melodramatic fashion: it's a simple, hard story of people doing what they have to do, as best as they are able. In a a way, it's also the film's weakness: in a moment of inner despair, the lead character overdoses, but it's so internalised that the incident is strangely quiet and unremarkable. But overall, the film is a telling exploration of the scope, and limits, of human solidarity; and the ending is a nice mixture of the positive and the realistic.

Two Days; One Night

A working-class French woman struggles with depression and unemployment in 'Two Days, One Night' (Deux jours, une nuit). A stellar performance by Marion Cotillard playing the lead, Sandra Bya, makes this film work. She plays an unusual protagonist during the movie as her character is exposed with each encounter she has with her co-workers. The film's hidden antagonist is an economic system, global capitalism, that pits workers against one another while they grasp for a middle class life-style as it slips slowly through their fingers. Few of the workers seem content with what they have though none of them are destitute, yet. Some of the workers are sympathetic to Sandra's plight, others are hostile. Her responses to their reactions further exposes her character.

Filmed in Belgian suburbs, "Two Days, One Night" follows Sandra as she travels by bus, car and on foot to meet her co-workers from the solar power assembly plant in an effort to keep her job. Each worker has their situation that dictates if they support her or not. That's the film. "Two Days, One Night" is not complicated in its technique. The editing and filming are simple and don't interfere with the action, and they are appropriate to the subject.

Sandra's back story is slowly revealed during the film. However, it doesn't give enough detail. What is missing is what the triggers were that brought her to the hospital for medical attention. Perhaps the writers thought that her post hospital struggle was what was important, not the causes of her suffering. Perhaps they are correct.

The film ends on a note of hope and dignity, but we are not left with pat answers. The ending doesn't give us obvious answers light many films do. 'Two Days, One Night' leaves us wondering if humanity is worth fighting for, and the protagonist answers: "oui!" Well, sort of. Rating: Pay full price.

This film is hard to rank. On one hand, it's not the most entertaining film I have seen in the last year. On the other hand, its stark realism and development of character along with excellent acting brings a realism to the film that is lacking in today's cinema. If you want a laugh a minute, then rent this movie. You will still find parts worth watching such as the acting and dialogue. If you like good acting and character development, if you want to think about humanity's role on this planet and consider your place in the world, pay full price to see it in the theater.

Peace, Tex Shelters

Sometimes when I watch a film, I have practically no choice but to look at what is between the lines (or, as I sometimes tell my students in the English writing class I teach, *beyond* the lines). This is a case in point with Two Days, One Night, another film by the Dardenne brothers. If you've seen at least one film you might get a handle on how their style is, and don't mistake how "simple" (if that's even a word to use here) their approach to storytelling is for having a lack of style.

If as a filmmaker you're ostentatious or really out there it's often called 'stylish' direction (i.e. Wes Anderson, Brian De Palma), but the Dardennes' approach is to execute their own method as well, just as calculated as the filmmakers who dress their editing and camera-work to impress but in a different way; seeing L'Enfant I got that, and even more so with The Kid on a Bike (the former very good, the latter excellent), and what it comes out to is that they look head on at the human beings that make up this Earth. We know these people, and even if there's a Maron Cotillard on screen it doesn't mean we get that distance like if she was in Inception or Dark Knight Rises or something. Her character is us, or someone we know, and just as much are the other characters that she interacts with who, in reality, may be actors acting in a film but could as likely to be those same people: working class, trying to get by, thinking that if a $1,000 bonus is floated their way it's time to take it even if it means, well, a certain someone can't stay around on the job.

(On a side note, this film hit me on a personal level: a member of my close family had a situation almost exactly similar to the one that Sandra's is here, where severe depression, which is sometimes, though not always, is looked upon by society as a "eh, get over it" kind of deal, made it so that this family member could barely get out of bed much less go to work every day, and just as in the same way it put the family's job in jeopardy. I could see much of the same struggle, almost to the letter emotionally speaking, and even the moments where the film takes its biggest dramatic turns, one you'll know when you see it, felt familiar in that way that made the film staggering to experience - it treats it as a disease that can't be fought, only managed and as a thing to or not to succumb to).

So it's not some abstract concept that the Dardennes' are dealing with; in a very real way Two Days, One Night is a political film, and of all things I was reminded of Spielberg's Lincoln from a few years ago. If you recall in that story, Lincoln has to get his people to try and flip enough potential 'Yes' votes for the 13th amendment to pass and end slavery. Of course the stakes aren't quite so high, but on a micro level (if that's the thing to say as opposed to maco) it's still crucial, as people have to look inside themselves but also look at what's going on in their lives and how empathy plays in to it: can these men look past the bonus so she can stay, or will they vote with their immediate futures in mind (and as another note, and I don't think insignificant to see while watching as I'm sure Dardennes were clear in their casting, it's practically all men who work with Sandra at this company)?

As a slight nitpick to what is otherwise a powerhouse of a film experience, also with Cotillard who I'll expound further momentarily, it's one slight contrivance is that the last person that Sandra sees is black and it's clear, much more than the others, about his more tentative place at the company (and there's a decision to be made in the 2nd to last scene that will affect this character as well). I thought it might have been stronger had this come earlier in the story, that it wasn't this last minute piece of drama, and if anything if they had to make it this distinct as a point of ideological conflict and struggle (black man, white woman, both not seen as fully part of the system in a way, though I could be wrong not being in France).

But this is the smallest thing to pick a nit with; so much of this story is rich with problems that reach beyond what is shown in the film, and in that sense its remarkable that the directors cast a major star in the same way as Rossellini did with Bergman: the neo-realist aspect is still there (another thing that comes to mind as I write this review is Bicycle Thieves, this 'mission' narrative driving things forward as it's all down to survival). Its style is deceptively simple, and for all of the shots that last a long time and as few cuts as there are and as much as the filmmakers wait for actors to enter into the focus of the frame (the soccer coach is my favorite scene of the film with this technique), Cotillard sells every minute emotional detail and nuance, every breakdown, every time she has one of her pills in hand or is staring off seemingly into nothing.

Two time Palme d'Or winners and brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have had an almost overwhelming critical success with their back catalogue, scooping up enough awards to fill their living room and receiving enough nominations to make them major players in European cinema. Their films tend to focus on the everyday struggles of existence, telling low-key stories against the backdrop of their native Belgium, making some kind of sociological or political commentary at the same time. Yet despite their success, the Dardenne's have remained in the shadows without the seemingly inevitable emigration to Hollywood. Although they have finally bagged an A-lister in Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night is much of the same, a simple yet heart-wrenching tale that paints a picture of life in our economically unbalanced times.

Young mother Sandra (Cotillard) is preparing to re-enter the workplace after battling with depression following an unspoken trauma, when she receives a phone call from her boss who informs her that her workmates have voted to receive their bonus, rather than Sandra being allowed to keep her job. Along with a friend, Sandra convinces her boss to have another vote when she suspects that her colleague may have been influenced, and along with her devoted husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione), must spend the weekend trying to convince her sixteen co-workers that they should forgo their promised bonus so she can go on supporting her family.

This is undoubtedly Cotillard's film. Despite her superstar status and unworldly beauty, her portrayal of a depressive is entirely convincing. Constantly popping pills, she begins the film in bed, lacking the motivation to even answer her phone. Her most human moment comes in the scene where she turns up the car radio and sings along, much to Manu's surprise and delight as he savours this brief moment of elation. It's a scene that could have seemed like something from a Hollywood rom- com, but thanks to Cotillard's performance and the Dardennes unfussy direction, it manages to deliver an emotional wallop. As Sandra drags herself from one worker to the next, the film becomes slightly repetitive, but achieves feelings of discomfort and sadness in the viewer as we witness Sandra's dignity slipping away. Slightly depressing but oddly optimistic, Two Days, One Night packs an emotional punch and will leave you questioning how Cotillard didn't run away with the Oscar.

I've read review after review and cannot believe that essentially the only issues/complaints about this film are with regard to the (slow) pace. It isn't the fastest moving film, but I don't think that detracts from it, nor do I take issue with the acting (which I think is very good overall). The story itself is certainly unique.....

Here are my problems with the film --- I have a hard time with the story itself. Is it from living in the US? The idea that a company would let it's employees decide the fate of another worker is absurd to me. It's not fair to anyone and serves as a morale killer (as witnessed in the film). It sets employee against employee and certainly does not necessarily benefit the company. It made the film a bit difficult to watch. Yes, Sandra needs her job...but so does everyone else! Why, as the viewer, should we be pulling for her? I just didn't "feel it".

When, at the end of the film, Sandra says "we put up a good fight", I wanted to scream. What fight??!! You didn't go up against a huge corrupt union or a multi-billion dollar company, you went door to door making your co-workers feel uncomfortable and trying to guilt them into losing their bonuses. And her husband. Some reviews refer to his "support" of Sandra. In my mind, he comes off as a non-participant at best and reckless at worst. He doesn't do anything but drive her around and push her when she wants to stop....even after she tries to kill herself! After that (and based on her shaky mental history), he should have said "no more".

I guess the assumption is that finding another job is not easy in this small town (?), but it's certainly an option...but it is not even mentioned until the very end. It might have made the film less frustrating had the viewer thought "well, finding another job is next to impossible". Maybe if you live in Belgium, this is more obvious? Perhaps.

As much as I appreciated it on certain levels, the film ultimately frustrated me.