Two Days, One Night (2014)

Definitely good, though only thanks to Marion Cotillard's excellent performance. The premise is intriguing and features some emotional scenes, there's one with Timur (Timur Magomedgadzhiev) that particularly hit me in the feels out of nowhere; it's not even the most gut-wrenching part of the film, yet it made me feel something the most. The camera work et al. isn't all that great, the dialogue is especially underwhelming. Perhaps I was noticing it more due to viewing with subtitles, but there's a lot of moments where we see Sandra (Cotillard) retrace the same steps with each individual - it gets repetitive. Cotillard, though, is top notch. She brings so much emotion and realness with her, nailing every single scene to deserve notable props. Away from the Parisian, there aren't any others to note; they are all fine but I would've loved a more meaty cast. I'd be rating it a level lower if it wasn't for the lead, who is easily the best thing to come out of 'Two Days, One Night'.

I really wasn't sure of the premiss at first here, but a strong effort from a Marion Cotillard-led cast of natural acting talent does actually bring it off well. We learn that there's been a sort of a referendum at her workplace where the boss has given them a choice. The staff can keep their €1,000 bonus or they can forgo that and "Sandra" gets to keep her job. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she's lost that ballot but when she discovers that one of her colleagues was briefing against her and doing some scaremongering, she manages to get "Dumont" (Baptiste Sornin) to agree to allow another vote. Now she, and her husband "Manu" (Fabrizio Rongione) have to embark on some whistle-stop diplomacy as she must try to convince her workmates that she is a price worth paying. This film is told very much from her perspective, so we are aware of just how strenuous this is for her and her family. She needs the work - for the money, yes, but also for her sanity. The others, however, well we only really encounter them in brief soundbite form as she tries to pitch to them. We don't really learn about their own predicaments nor are we really given much understanding of just how crucial this sum of money might be to them and their own families. It's that developing scenario that didn't quite work for me here, but there's no denying the almost visceral effort delivered by Cotillard as an increasingly frustrated "Sandra" who finds herself more and more emotionally drained as the weekend takes it's toll on everyone. The writing and the direction are potent and taut and it does invite us to ask what we might do in similar circumstances as colleagues or as one struggling with the psychology this dilemma poses.