Yeah, we know. It feels like we have been talking about Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne‘s "Two Days, One Night" all year, and in way, we have. It was one of our most anticipated films at Cannes, and that excitement was warranted, with our A-grade review describing it as an "unfeasibly gripping social realist parable that provides a gravitational showcase for one of Marion Cotillard‘s finest performances." After doing festival rounds, and being submitted by Belgium as their Oscar contender for Best Foreign Film, the movie is finally coming to theaters, and it’s guaranteed bruise your heart. Here’s the official synopsis:
For the first time, Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne team up with a major international star, Marion Cotillard, to create a universal story about working-class people living on the edges of society. Sandra (Cotillard) has just returned to work after recovering from a serious bout with depression. Realizing that the company can operate with one fewer employee, management tells Sandra she is to be let go. After learning that her co-workers will vote to decide her fate on Monday morning, Sandra races against time over the course of the weekend, often with the help of her husband, to convince each of her fellow employees to sacrifice their much-needed bonuses so she can keep her job. With each encounter, Sandra is brought into a different world with unexpected results in this powerful statement on community solidarity.
And yes, Cotillard is every bit as good as you’ve heard, and if watching this doesn’t elicit a tear, then your soul is black and your heart made of stone. It’s powerful and humane and one to put on your must-see list before the year is out.
"Two Days, One Night" opens in select theaters on December 24th. Check out the new U.S. trailer below.
Finally IFC released the trailer! Btw, IFC Center is selling tickets for the first week of "Two Days, One Night" in New York, just check their website.
This Oscar race should really be all about Marion Cotillard. I say it with the hand on my heart as both a genuine cinephile and a fan of the Oscars. If Marion Cotillard doesn\’t win the Oscar for Best Actress In A Leading Role at the 87th Academy Awards ceremony, I really don\’t have any reason to watch the Oscars this time at all. If things are hopeless for a talent as groundbreaking as Marion\’s and a performance as towering as hers as the depressed Sandra in Dardennes\’ latest masterpiece (and don\’t even get me started on her tour de force of a performance in James Gray\’s "The Immigrant"), then we\’re screwed. The Best Actess category couldn\’t be considered weak this year with 2 of the 10 greatest performances ever put on screen by an actor or actress in the same year, both of them from the greatest actress actress of all time, the one and only Marion Cotillard. Give her the Oscar already! She has been snubbed so many times since winning for the greatest performance of all time back in 2008 (the one she gave for "La vie en rose"). She\’s just ridiculously overdue for a second Oscar, let alone an Oscar nomination.