Review of Two Days, One Night (2014) by Joel M — 23 Sep 2015

It seemed like it took me around two days and one night to complete viewing the import foreign flick "Two Days, One Night". Kidding! Please don't days off with my corny puns, but I found this film to be a bit too monotonous. Acclaimed actress Marion Cotillard stars as Sandra, a young Belgium mother who is caught up in a labor pickle. She gets news that there is a grand possibility that she will be laid off from her job, because her supervisor proposed a bonus to his employees; but for them to get their bonus, Sandra must be laid off. So it's all up to a vote for the employees, it's either "Bonus Siera" or "Axing Sandra". Sandra, fully committed to keep her job, confronts each of her colleagues and pleads for them to vote for her to keep her job. Writer-Director Jean-Pierre Dardenne overworked this process of Sandra confronting her colleagues to vote for her way too much; it did not need the overtime. Nevertheless, Cotillard's thespian labor effort was very commendable, but I do not think it warranted the Best Actress Oscar nomination it received. So I did like Marion's work, but I would vote "no" for the Oscar nom bonus as one of the top 5 female performances of 2014. In all, due to Cotillar'd effort here, it wouldn't kill you to check out "Two Days, One Night" on one of these days or one of these nights.

*** Average.