Dardenne brothers’ latest a study of desperation, human dignity

Would you sell out a co-worker for a 1,000-euro ($1,200) bonus? What if you really needed the money? What if the co-worker had just taken a leave of absence during which the company operated just fine without her? What if you understood that management wanted to lay off someone anyway, and that if this woman's job was saved, then yours might very well be lost?

That's the dilemma facing workers at a small solar panel company in Two Days, One Night, another deft and neo-realistic drama of everyday life from the remarkable Dardenne brothers. The Dardennes, Jean-Pierre and Luc, set their movies among the working class and marginalized of their hometown of Liege in the French-speaking Wallonia area of Belgium. (Liege is a city about the size of Little Rock, with a city population of 198,000, and about 750,000 in its metropolitan area.)

Generally their stories -- which can be uplifting (like 2011's The Kid With the Bike) or bleak (like 1999's Rosetta) -- are straightforward, with characters facing ordinary difficulties. Two Days, One Night is of a piece with their earlier work but for the fact that it features a global star, Marion Cotillard, in its central role. And it is to Cotillard's credit that, despite appearing in nearly every frame of the film, we never marvel at her technical expertise or congratulate her for the way she resists looking glamorous. For 95 minutes, she simply is Sandra, a vulnerable and desperate woman struggling to keep a foothold on a life just a couple of small rungs above poverty.

We meet her on Saturday morning as she receives a phone call informing her that her co-workers have voted her out of a job. She had been preparing to return to work on Monday after a bout of depression, but now it seems as though her services are not needed. Her first instinct is to swallow more Xanax and crawl back into bed.

But her husband, Manu (Fabrizio Rongione, part of the Dardenne's regular company), reminds her that without her salary they can no longer afford their modest but tidy apartment and will have to "move back" into government "social housing." Manu is not willing to give back whatever small stake they're acquired in society, but maybe more importantly he senses that Sandra needs to fight back, even if it means begging for her dignity.

So Sandra accompanies a sympathetic co-worker on a mission to corner the duplicitous union rep (Olivier Gourmet, also a Dardenne regular) who arranged the vote, to try to arrange a second ballot. He reluctantly agrees, giving Sandra the weekend to lobby her co-workers.

At this point the movie becomes a kind of slow-burning thriller as Sandra tracks down and asks each of her co-workers to forgo their 1,000-euro bonus so that she might keep her job. These one-on-one confrontations expose a wide spectrum of human potential -- we see empathy and greed, courage, churlishness and the compensating fury that overtakes a person violating his own conscience. As Sandra trudges, her gait heavy and narcoticized, from apartment and backyard to soccer field, we begin to understand how the drone of poverty has numbed these folks. Most are sympathetic, but the money means so much to them. It's a chance to pay off bills, to send their kids to school, to hold onto their own provisional place in the social order. They didn't vote against Sandra, they say; they voted for their bonus.

Some want to help, but just can't do it. Others puff themselves up and lash out at Sandra, pointing out her on-the-job failures and suggesting that if she'd been a good team player neither her job nor the bonuses would be in jeopardy. A soccer coach and recent Russian immigrant (Timur Magomedgadzhiev), breaks down when Sandra shows up at his place, remembering the kindness Sandra showed him when he first arrived. He's ashamed to have voted for the money, he's grateful for an opportunity to redeem himself -- he offers to lobby on Sandra's behalf.

Another co-worker says he can't give up the bonus, but he helps Sandra track down the addresses of others, while his wife offers Sandra orange juice. Another woman finds Sandra's example inspiring. At one point a fistfight breaks out.

Sandra absorbs it all; she understands their pain, guilt and anger. Time after time her co-workers vent to her as she remains calm and carries on. Cotillard is magnificent in the role of an invisible woman whose inner strength is gradually revealed.

And Rongione is at least as good as Sandra's husband, who works in the kitchen of a chain restaurant and whose love for his wife and family never wavers. He's a good man in a world of gray characters and weaklings, and we sense that no matter how things work out for Sandra, she'll be all right with him.

Despite the Best Actress Oscar nomination Cotillard has secured, it's too much to expect that Two Days, One Night will make any sort of ­real impact beyond the arthouse crowd. That's a pity, because the Dardennes have fashioned their most accessible and relatable drama yet, one that works as a suspense thriller even as it exposes some miserable Machiavellian truths and Darwinian terrors. In its matter-of-fact way it rails at a system that pits working people against one another, while insulating their bosses with cash-stuffed mattresses.

MovieStyle on 02/06/2015