Two Days, One Night
Composite Score: 83.57
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salée, Baptiste Sornin, Simon Caudry, Philippe Jeusette, Timur Magomedgadzhiev, and Christelle Cornil
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Writers: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some mature thematic elements
Box Office: $9.02 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Two Days, One Night is a Dardenne brothers film about a working-class Belgian woman who learns that her coworkers have voted to lay her off in order to receive EUR1000 bonuses and her efforts to persuade each of them to change their votes. The film stars Marion Cotillard as its protagonist Sandra in an Oscar-nominated performance. Her heartbreaking characterization of a mother and wife desperate for empathy and sympathy from her fellow human beings carries the Dardennes’ characteristically simple and optimistic story from open to close. As you might expect, the Belgian duo manage to put together a touching narrative about our need for human connection against the injustices of society that leaves the audience deeply impacted.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
If you tire of films about fighting the system where the system inevitably wins, this is not necessarily the biggest deviation from the norm. Optimistic though it may be, I wish there was more optimism about our ability to change the system. The theme of “at least some people care” only goes so far when your other theme is how unjust and corrupt a system that values capital over humans inevitably ends up. The film does a great job of pacifying its audience’s frustration with their situations but offers them no real solution to the systemic injustices that they face on a daily basis in late stage capitalism.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
There is something to be said for the truth that the Dardenne brothers present in Two Days, One Night – the undeniably positive impact of human encouragement and empathy. Through Sandra’s interactions with her coworkers, she experiences the highs and lows of humanity, seeing the reasons each of them have for needing the extra money and also how each of them understands and even feels for her situation. The incredibly real interactions with each person drive home the film’s optimistic outlook on humanity, even if society works against us. Not everyone ends up siding with Sandra by the end, but the positivity that she receives from the ones who do uplift her to a point well beyond where she was at the start of the film, reminding the audience that kindness goes a long way in helping us make it in the day to day of our lives.
Not lost amid the human interactions of the film is Marion Cotillard’s award-worthy performance. She plays desperation and despair brilliantly, drawing empathy and sympathy in equal parts from the audience as she copes with her coworkers’ implied rejection and her own recovery from sick leave for a depressive episode. Her performance does not just stay in the dumps, though. Renewed vigor and zest for life come convincingly in the film’s final act as she nears her destination and receives the results of the new vote. The way that she sells the character’s shift from despair to optimism helps bring home the film’s overall message and is the main reason that it remains so successful despite some shortcomings.
Marion Cotillard leads the Dardenne brothers’ film through its range of emotion, delivering one of her better performances as she helps sell the film’s message of our need for human interaction in the unjust world that we live and operate in, earning it a spot among the Greatest Films of All Time. Its hesitancy to address the injustice at its center with any true solution will certainly leave some fans a bit disappointed, but its optimistic message helps make it easy to overlook. This film is currently available to stream via AMC+ subscription or on Tubi with ads or to rent on most other streaming platforms if you’d like to give it a watch.
