The Dardennes do it again, taking a simple, human story, and delivering a fiercely honest and compassionate film, with Marion Cotillard delivering one of, or maybe even the best performance of her career. She is absolutely brilliant, making us feel exactly what her character is feeling, going through this terrible turn of events. The Dardennes create a very intimate and sensitive narrative, that avoids becoming repetitive or trite. The ending is especially fitting and it really moved me like no other film this year has. A

it's worth it just to see marion in a tank top and skinny jeans for ninety minutes

^ your best review yet

A quiet, subtle story that's a 90-minute quest of one woman who fights to save her job. She needs to convince at least nine of sixteen co-workers to vote in her favor rather than a bonus offered by their boss to encourage them to eliminate Marion's character's job (which has been deemed redundant after she takes a leave of absence). Simple. As simple as a story can get. And at times, it feels too sparse, but it works in its favor. To add anything for unnecessary excitement would be cheap, although the film veers dangerously close when she reaches the end of her rope and swallows a bunch of pills.

Marion is essentially perfect in the role. It would be easy to forget her against flashier performances like Julianne Moore and Reese Witherspoon, but it's also easy to forget that sometimes it's the more-subtle performances that are more difficult to pull off.

Unfortunately, I don't imagine this will stick with me. It's poignant, but not urgently important. It's just a good story with a strong lead performance.

B

^^

Nailed it.

trixster nailed it even more.

I watched this finally a few weeks ago. Really well done and Marion is just fantastic as usual.