Two days, one night, a master class in acting

After a short run at AMC River Park Square, the Dardenne brothers film “Two Days, One Night” has moved to the Magic Lantern . It’s well worth a watch, even if just to enjoy a super performance by one of the Oscar-nominated actresses, Marion Cotillard. Following is a transcription of the film review that I wrote for Spokane Public Radio :

Imagine you’ve been ill. Maybe it’s been a physical illness. Maybe emotional. Either way, you’ve had to take time off from work. Then one Friday afternoon you receive a phone call from a coworker, a friend, telling you that the owner of the company you work for has given her and the other 15 employees an option: to vote for a thousand-dollar bonus OR to retain your position.

And just that fast, you discover you’re out of a job.

Or are you? Your friend wants you to fight, to come to the office, talk to the boss and request that he hold another vote Monday morning. And when you ask “What would be the point?” your friend hatches a plan: Over the weekend, you’ll visit as many of your coworkers as you can. If you can convince nine of them to vote in your favor, your job is saved.

And so you face a choice: Stay in bed, down another pill – Xanax, maybe – and sleep away your disappointment. Or get up – and fight.

This, then, is the plot of the Dardenne brothers film “Two Days, One Night.” The Belgian-born brothers – Luc and Jean-Pierre – specialize in making films that explore the struggles associated with European working-class life. 1996’s “La Promesse,” for example, involves a father and son profiting from the exploitation of immigrant workers. 2005’s “L’enfant” introduces us to a barely-making-it couple who are desperate to find a new means of income, even if that involves using their newborn son as a cash cow.

What sets the Dardennes apart is that they focus their movie plots on matters of conscience. In “La Promesse,” the son must confront his own sense of morality. Same with the father in “L’enfant.”

In “Two Days, One Night,” Marion Cotillard , 2008 Oscar winner for “La Vie en Rose” – and an Oscar nominee again this year – portrays Sandra, a wife and mother of two who is barely getting by. With her husband working as a kitchen helper, it’s only been because of her job at a solar-panel business that they’ve been able to get off the dole and out of public housing. Losing her job will mean a big step back.

But as she – and we – discover, Sandra and her family live and work alongside people who have similar problems. People to whom a thousand euros, or just over $1,100, might pay their rent for a year. Or help put their child through school. Or pay medical bills. All of which makes Sandra’s quest – to convince a majority to support her return to work – that much harder.

It isn’t so much Sandra’s conscience that the Dardennes examine; they merely require her to fight through a kind of depression that would drop Buddha to his knees. No, the sense of doing what’s right involves mostly her coworkers, each of whom – either because of necessity or mere greed – must figure out the right path to take.

And deciding what’s right is often not easy. In or out of the movies.