Review of Two Days, One Night (2014) by Viet Phuong N — 03 Jan 2015

The film has a seemingly simple plot, simple to the point of procedural - a fragile woman trying to fight back her job by persuading her co-workers to sacrifice their huge bonus for her to stay in the factory.

But such simplicity actually paved the way for a colourful illustration of the working class in modern Belgian society, of which good people, bad people, happy families, divorced and on-the-verge-of-divorcing couple, immigrants co-exist with different destinies, sorrows, and reactions to others' misery (in the case of this film, the doomed job of Sandra, the film's protagonist).

Although having a minimal settings, which mostly consist of Sandra's trips to her colleagues, in a very short period of time (two days, one night - literally), the film still brought out a huge character development from Sandra - from a fragile and defeatist woman who blames everyone, herself and her husband include, for her failure, to a brave woman going to her "battle" (the vote for her job) with her head held high and an extraordinary courage that had been built up through her eventful trips.

Of course the star of this wonderful character development is Marion Cotillard, who once more proves that Hollywood has indeed no idea on how to maximize her talent and instead has given her again and again insipid supporting roles, but due appreciation should be given to the Dardenne brothers, who have always been able to use simple cinematography and editing, coupled with subtle stories and settings, to draw the most humanist pictures of the modern society.

Yes, simply put, we can call this film "a film to give us hope".