Do
you know who Marion Cotillard is? Do you know she won an Oscar for Best
Actress? Do you know what movie she won for?* In any case she
deservedly won the Oscar and I have been waiting for her to make another picture worthy of her.
In
“2 Days, 1 Night”  she plays Sandra a factory worker who recently
fought her way back from a bout with depression only to find that her
job no longer waited for her. Her co-workers had a choice between her
getting her job back or their each getting a 1,000 euro bonuses in the
time of a global economic break. Her husband, played by Fabrizio
Rongione, who obviously loves her, is a cook and without Sandra’s income
they and their two children would have to go on welfare and live in
government housing. He and a co-worker Juliette (Catherine Salee)
convince Sandra to approach her 16 co-workers individually when they are
given a chance on Monday morning to vote again on whether she should be
given her job back or they should get their bonuses.

Refusing to
beg or approach her co-workers with self pity we follow Sandra as meets
with reach person to simply ask them to vote for her. The reasons in
most cases for whatever they decide are sound and when some change their
minds it makes sense. In one scene Timur Magomedgadzhiev, a young
father, breaks down over the guilt he feels because he voted for the
bonus when Sandra had helped him when he first started work there by
taking the blame for something he has done. All sixteen actors she faces
are true to their characters.

“2 Days, 1 Night” looks at the
lack of loyalty faced by employees from their employers and the game of
having to play one against the other in order to keep a job they
desperately need. Job security seems to be nonexistent  in our modern
world and the director/screenwriters, brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc
Dardenne look at all angles.

Marion Cortillard does a super job
showing a lot in her face and handles 2-3 minute scenes of fleeting joy,
or going into the webs of depression, conveying what is happening. She
does a lot of walking which in a way expands the film to an hour and
forty minutes but she holds you interest to discover how all will vote.

An
aside: the film takes place in the industrial town of Seraing,
Brussels, and I am wondering if all door bells are high up and if so,
why?

“2 Days, 1 Night” is held together by Cortillard’s performance but I really can’t recommend the film itself.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI24ldfQNpc

*She won in 2007 for “Le Vie en Rose” portraying Edith Piaf.