Two Days, One Night, 2014 - ★★★ (contains spoilers)

This review reportedly contains spoilers.

I really wanted to like Two Days, One Night more. Glancing at other reviews and hearing other people on the way out it seems that there are plenty of people for whom the film really worked. I'm not alone in my disappointment, one disgruntled partner on the way out complained that it was basically the same 10 minutes repeated for 90 minutes and whilst that is an exaggeration it's based on a truth. The problem when a film doesn't grab you is that all the bad points seem to bubble up to the surface. I was completely prepared to overlook what seemed like an improbable (and illegal?) set up to serve up a central conceit to tell a story. I hoped the film would offer an interesting yet mundane look at weekend life (something the Twitter account @satscenes does really well) but each visit does end up being essentially the same. Sandra arrives at the house, all the women are at home but then men are out doing something else. Despite looking up most of the addresses in the phone book, no one thinks to ring to either check anyone's at home or just do the conversation over the phone. There's little conflict, most people are in the same situation and so we move onto the next.

One of my problems isn't with the film but how the term "bonus" has become completely misused by society; it's supposed to be something extra not something to rely on and so everybody's dilemma feels less real.

Disappointing then because I ended up being annoyed by both Sandra and the film in many small ways which all added up. The ending is really well done and it would make an excellent short film.

* spoilers follow*

How is what Sandra doing any different from the foreman rigging the first vote? Half the film she tells others how people are going to vote and then suddenly it's a secret ballot but at the end the two groups visibly split and identify themselves. Despite facing redundancy, they eat out in a restaurant, stop for ice cream, buy small bottles of water from a corner shop on a hot day spent in a car. Even the title is confusing, it's supposed to be Saturday, Sunday and Sunday evening when she's talking to people but it doesn't feel like those are full days and Sandra spends most of the time sleeping, which I know is related to her depression which is handled quite well but not really integrated into the story well enough.

September 06, 2014 at 03:55PM