Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard gives perhaps her best-controlled — and maybe most heartbreaking — performance as a solar panel factory worker struggling to keep her job in “Two Days, One Night.”
The film is the latest and one of the best looks at working class desperation from Belgium’s Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (“La Promesse,” “Rosetta”). “Two Days, One Night” follows Cotillard’s depression-prone Sandra over a weekend of lobbying co-workers to vote for her to remain employed, even though that means giving up their yearly bonus.
It sounds like a downer, but the array of ethical/pragmatic responses Sandra gets spotlights the best as well as the understandable worst in people. And Marion’s every subtle, perfectly judged move is exhilarating.
Marion’s performance has won praise, with the BBC observing that she ought to be up for another Oscar nomination.
The film has also been selected as Belgium’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards.
