The storyline of this film is a bit like the Sidney Lumet classic '12 Angry Men'. One person needs to convince a group of others. In '12 Angry Men', Henry Fonda convinced his fellow jurors that the accused must be innocent. In 'Deux Jours, Une Nuit', factory worker Sandra tries to convince her fellow workers to give up their bonuses, so she won't be fired. Their employer doesn't have enough money to pay Sandra and the bonuses, so he lets the staff decide what they want. But whereas Henry Fonda persuaded the jurors with arguments, Sandra tries to do it with emotion. 'I want to stay with you', she tells her colleagues, 'and not become unemployed and alone'.
The film follows Sandra during the weekend preceding the vote, planned for the next Monday morning. We see her going from door tot door, ringing every bell and asking her colleagues literally the same question: can you vote for me, so I can stay? The reactions vary. Some say they are sorry, but they need the money. Others promise to talk about it with their husbands. Some promise their support immediately. One turns to violence.
The Dardenne brothers, who directed this film, usually work with little-known actors. This time, they chose a big star for the lead: Marillon Cotillard, who worked with directors like Christopher Nolan on big budget productions. For the film, it doesn't make much difference. Cotillard totally immersed herself in the Dardenne-method (she calls it her 'Dardennisation'). The camera follows her closely during her weekend-long quest, and shows her as a vulnerable woman, who constantly seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, repeatedly starts crying and constantly doubts her own capabilities.
The Dardenne brothers are famous for their own film making style, which consists of very intense scenes, filmed without any glamour, showing the raw reality of working class life in their own city, the Belgian industrial centre Liège. This style worked very well in some of their films, notably the unemployment drama 'Rosetta' and the coming of age-film 'Le fils'.
I think in 'Deux Jours, Une Nuit', it works not so well. After a while, the door-ringing starts to get a bit tedious, partly because Sandra asks exactly the same question every time, and partly because the reactions of her co-workers are mostly rather predictable. The plot could have been worked out better this time: it offers lots of possibilities the Dardennes haven't used. This is probably a deliberate choice: the plot is never the strong point in their films because they focus on the emotions of their characters.
What drives the movie forward, is the suspense: will she get enough voters to keep her job, or will all her efforts turn out to be futile? After such a build-up, you expect something special: not a simple yes or no. I will not give any spoilers, but I was a bit disappointed, also by the almost emotionless way Sandra handles the outcome.
'Deux Jours, Une Nuit', is a good film, showing the raw reality of an economic downturn. But in my opinion, the Dardennes have made better films.
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