I confess I have some kind of hopeless crush for Marion Cotillard, she of the cat-like eyes the color of the sea. Who doesn't?
She is marvellous here; not at her most glamorous - meaning she (appropriately) looks like a pretty 40 years old woman instead of a stunning model - but her performance is the best I've seen her deliver.
Working mum Sandra, struggling with depression, has only a week-end to persuade her colleagues to vote for keeping her instead of having her fired and getting a bonus (strange and horrible as it sounds, it's apparently out of the newslines). It's like a millennial version of Twelve Angry Men, where a blue-collar protagonist fights to save her job. As she tracks down her co-workers in supermarkets, soccer fields and apartment buildings, some are encouraging, others petty, apologetic or bitter.
In a cinematic age of superheroes facing apocalyptic countdowns, it's refreshing to follow a movie where stakes feel so believable and down-to-earth. It could have been ponderous, but the Dardenne brothers keep everything so sober and understated, the result is compelling. No cheesy lines or excessive posturing - just strong performances and real- life stakes as the clock ticks against Sandra and her future, until an affecting epilogue.
7,5/10
She is marvellous here; not at her most glamorous - meaning she (appropriately) looks like a pretty 40 years old woman instead of a stunning model - but her performance is the best I've seen her deliver.
Working mum Sandra, struggling with depression, has only a week-end to persuade her colleagues to vote for keeping her instead of having her fired and getting a bonus (strange and horrible as it sounds, it's apparently out of the newslines). It's like a millennial version of Twelve Angry Men, where a blue-collar protagonist fights to save her job. As she tracks down her co-workers in supermarkets, soccer fields and apartment buildings, some are encouraging, others petty, apologetic or bitter.
In a cinematic age of superheroes facing apocalyptic countdowns, it's refreshing to follow a movie where stakes feel so believable and down-to-earth. It could have been ponderous, but the Dardenne brothers keep everything so sober and understated, the result is compelling. No cheesy lines or excessive posturing - just strong performances and real- life stakes as the clock ticks against Sandra and her future, until an affecting epilogue.
7,5/10