Several years ago, I was furloughed. In order to save the jobs of all 53 employees, my now-extinct company cut everybody’s hours and salaries by 20%. These are the moments when your personal politics are on trial; I knew darn well that the company could lose 20% of its non-me employees and get the same amount of work done. So what would you prefer? You lose 20% of your take-home or say, “goodbye” to 10 or 11 co-workers who spent most of their days playing Tetris? No brainer, right? Yeah, well, you might be surprised.
Following a bout of time off for depression, Sandra (Marion Cotillard) is suddenly out of a job. The story picks up on Friday after work with her buddy Juliette (Catherine Salée) dragging Sandra back to the plant to fight for a re-vote. The bosses, you see, gave everybody a choice: €1,000 bonus or Sandra, you get to pick! Oh, and by the way, if you vote Sandra, you’ll probably be sacked. So the film is, essentially, Two Days, One Night before the Monday vote of Sandra trying to plead her case to co-workers.
Sandra wants her job back, but needs to be pushed to fight for it; if desperate hubby (Fabrizio Rongione) weren’t willing to go to the mat himself over this paycheck, you get the impression that she’d rather be taking a nap. Two Days is a small film with small characters and small virtues; it is both a reminder that personal battles are important and also a reminder that personal battles are often insignificant. Sandra petitions over a dozen people to vote for her. The conversations are invariably:
“Hi”
“Hi”
“So I want my job back. Would you please vote for me?”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want you to get fired, but I really want €1,000.”
“I can understand that.”
“Yes, you see my point.”
“I really want my job.”
“Yeah, it’s unfair. Whatchagonnado?”
“Oh well. See ya.”
I’m a little put off by how small the existing relationship between Sandra and any of her sixteen random co-workers seemed to matter. Sure, one or 
two could pick out a specific way in which Sandra was a great/lousy teammate, but most treat her as if Sandra hasn’t actually shared any time or space with them whatsoever. Perhaps this is an asset to Two Days rather than fault – being a co-worker often means little more than “we were both hired by the same people.” Sometimes it doesn’t even mean that. It’s cynical but true that the moment you leave a place of employment, you will probably never again see many of the people you shared smiles with; they feel no more debt to you than you to them.
Sandra might have substance dependency issues, which becomes a sub-plot, as does management’s dickery. It’s easy to sympathize with her even so; it isn’t fair to her that management didn’t have the balls to can her outright and instead left it to her coworkers. Still, I think I needed a little more here to get behind this one; the battle is small. There isn’t good reason to believe Sandra is truly fighting for something bigger as evidenced by a resolution that doesn’t quite match the previous action: six votes = potential suicide, but seven = happyland ?! If I were an omniscient co-worker, I can’t say I’d necessarily want somebody so fragile working besides me, especially if they never tell us what her actual job is. You might want to include that little tidbit in Two Days, One Night II: Three Days, Two Nights.
♪When I find co-workers
I plead a sec or two
My old man has the nerve to say
I just want to let it be
And when I go up to their house
I haven’t got a plan
Wishy and a washy
Say won’t you vote for me
(To) keep my job
Sha na na na, sha na na na na
Sha na na na, sha na na na na
Sha na na na, sha na na na na
Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
Mum mum mum mum mum mum
Keep my job♫
Rated PG-13, 95 Minutes
D: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
W: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Genre: The struggles of common folk
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: The laid off
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Upper management
♪ Parody inspired by “Get a Job”
