Movie Review: "Two Days, One Night"

We all want to believe we are generous and empathetic people, but when truly faced with someone in need, how would we react? Would we put the needs of others over our own needs and wants? This is the primary question raised by Two Days, One Night, a Belgian movie directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

Sandra (Marion Cotillard) is a wife and mother who has recently recovered from a nervous breakdown. She's ready to go back to her factory job, when she learns that the factory owner has given her colleagues two choices: they can let Sandra return to work, or they will each receive a bonus of 1,000 Euros. The 16 workers vote to let Sandra go, but when it is discovered that the factory foreman intimidated several of the workers to vote against Sandra, the factory owner agrees to a new secret ballot on Monday morning, so Sandra has the weekend to shore up the majority of votes she needs.

But Sandra would rather throw in the towel than go begging her coworkers for one more chance. While she must convince everyone that she is strong enough to work and wants nothing more than to have her life together, emotionally she isn't sure she's ready, and finds herself popping Xanax like candy. Yet her husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) convinces her that she is worth fighting for, and they need her salary to avoid going on the dole again.

The movie follows Sandra as she visits each of her colleagues and pleads her case. Some are sympathetic, some are hostile; some make excuses, and some feel that they're entitled to a financial windfall even if it means financial disaster for her and her family. She faces friendliness and violence, experiences happiness and despair, and many times she is convinced she should just give up and let the chips fall where they may. And at one point her will is utterly tested, and she must decide how, or whether, to keep going.

In a number of her English-speaking roles, such as The Dark Knight Rises and Inception, Cotillard displays a steely calm mixed with a bit of barely controlled mania. But in this film, she is more vulnerability than toughness, her sad eyes telegraphing her pain, her fear, and her shame at having to put her colleagues—and herself—through this. She wants to get her life back together again, but she doesn't know if it's worth all the effort.

While I thought the questions the movie raises were intriguing, I found the movie itself kind of flat. Basically, Sandra goes from person to person, asking for their support—sometimes the person is home, and they have virtually the same dialogue she had with the previous person, and other times the person is not home, and their family member/neighbor directs Sandra to find them somewhere else. It's like the cinematic equivalent of Paul McCartney's Let 'Em In—essentially watching Cotillard knock on people's doors or ring their doorbells, and wait for someone to answer.

Cotillard and Rongione give strong performances, but I felt that the movie left more questions than answers. What happened to cause Sandra's condition? Why isn't Sandra willing to get Manu involved in helping make the case to her colleagues? And does she really want to work with people who are willing to throw her over for money? The movie felt incomplete, and never quite gripped me, so I didn't feel invested in Sandra's struggles. Perhaps I'm not as empathetic as I'd like to believe I am, or something got lost in the translation to English.

Movie Review: "Amour"

For the most part, we live in a youth-centric society, particularly where the entertainment world is concerned. Television networks care most about ratings in the cherished 18-49 demographic, classic movies and television shows are remade with stars of today to try and capture new audiences, and it is often difficult for older performers (particularly women) to get strong roles in Hollywood.

With all of those factors in mind, I wonder if Michael Haneke's emotionally powerful Amour would get the green light to be made here in the United States. Luckily, the movie is a joint production of France, Germany, and Austria, so moviegoers all over the world willing to invest their time and emotions in this movie can be richly rewarded.

Legendary French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emanuelle Riva play Georges and Anne, a long-married couple in their 80s who enjoy a peaceful, full life together. Retired music teachers, they enjoy the pleasures of classical music, and one of Anne's former piano students is a rising star. Their daughter, Eva (Isabelle Huppert), is also a musician, although her relationship with her parents is somewhat strained.

One morning during breakfast, Anne suffers some sort of attack which leaves her momentarily unresponsive, nearly catatonic. While it quickly passes, further symptoms lead to her hospitalization and a diagnosis of a blood clot. After surgery fails, she finds herself paralyzed on one side, and the once fiercely independent woman is now wheelchair bound and dependent on her husband and others for assistance with nearly everything.

Both Anne and Georges know where her condition is headed, and Anne wants none of it. She makes Georges promise she won't be hospitalized again, and expresses her desire that her life end before she deteriorates. Georges, however, does all he can to keep her comfortable and happy, even as he knows the end will come more quickly than he'd like. But he is determined to care for Anne his way, despite his physical and mental exhaustion, and the concerns of his daughter.

Amour is utterly unflinching in its portrayal of Anne's physical and emotional deterioration and the toll it takes on her and Georges. Riva gives a phenomenal performance as Anne gets physically weaker, yet her intellect and fighting spirit shine through. A scene where she refuses to yield to Georges' pleading with her to drink some water from a sippy cup is both familiar and shocking. Riva is able to communicate so much with merely looks, small gestures, and murmurs.

While Riva received an Oscar nomination (her first) for her performance, Trintignant was sadly overlooked, but his performance is truly the film's emotional center. Shuffling back and forth down the hallways of their cluttered Paris apartment, he refuses to cede control of Anne's care, even to Anne's wishes, despite the toll it is taking on him. But despite the strain he is feeling, he remains stoic almost entirely, although his emotions get the best of him in certain situations that make you tear up as you can't tear yourself away from watching.

Given the subject matter of this movie, you inherently know the path it will follow. But that doesn't lessen its emotional power or how strongly the film and its performances will resonate. It's a difficult film to watch, but one you should watch, both for Riva and Trintignant's performances, and for Haneke's restrained yet masterful direction.

Movies like this don't get made every day, especially in the U.S. But thanks to the courage of Haneke and his actors, we have the privilege to watch the twilight of Anne and Georges' relationship.

Movie Review: "Rust and Bone"

While the old adage that opposites attract is true, so too is the philosophy that people who are alike are drawn together, whether the characteristics they share are positive or negative. That idea is at the heart of Rust and Bone, a compelling French movie from director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet).

Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), an aimless wanderer with a bit of a violent streak, moves from Belgium to France with his young son, Sam, in tow. He isn't a particularly responsible father, and is more than happy to leave Sam in the care of his sister, Anna, and her husband, while he looks for a job, works out, and chases after women.

One night, while working as a bouncer at a nightclub, he breaks up a fight involving Stephanie (Marion Cotillard of The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and La Vie en Rose), a defiant trainer of killer whales. Ali escorts her home and leaves her his cell phone number in case she ever needs help. Meanwhile, Ali switches jobs to working for a security company, where he helps a friend install secret cameras in many stores so that management can spy on its employees.

A few months later, Stephanie calls on Ali after she is involved in a horrible accident that leaves her a double amputee. His brand of tough love (more tough, less love) helps rescue her out of her depression and isolation, and makes her start to want to engage in life again. Ali, who has boxed previously, has been enlisted by a friend to start fighting for money, no holds barred. The fights are brutal but the money keeps coming in, and Stephanie feels herself drawn to the violence of his fights.

The two are drawn together physically, but Stephanie's stated desire to keep their relationship a physical one belies her feelings. And when a series of incidents cause Ali to leave town one night, leaving Sam behind with his sister, he abandons Stephanie as well. But when Ali hits rock bottom following an unexpected incident, Stephanie returns the favor he paid her months before.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of the movie when it started, but the plot and the performances really drew me in. Neither character is wholly sympathetic but you definitely find yourself invested in their stories, which are told in a very unflinching manner. While it's always interesting to watch a movie with subtitles because you find yourself reading as much as watching the actors express themselves, both Cotillard and Schoenaerts' performances are moving, emotional, and powerful.

This is a story of two people with self-destructive tendencies brought together in times of crisis. It's a well-done movie worth watching, so if you're not put off by subtitles, I definitely recommend it.