Two Days, One Night
Sundance Selects | Release Date: December 24, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonFeb 12, 2015
Cotillard gets so persuasively inside Sandra’s skin that it’s not at all surprising that this performance has earned her another Oscar nomination. And she does so without resorting to shameless, award-baiting grandstanding. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 22, 2015
This is a small, compassionate gem of a movie, one that’s rooted in details of people and place but that keeps opening up onto the universal. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 15, 2015
As a parable on karma, capitalism and Darwinian corporate politics, Two Days, One Night can often feel brutal. As a testament to connection, service, sacrifice and self-worth, it’s a soaring, heart-rending hymn. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJan 8, 2015
That Two Days, One Night retains such an organic sensibility, even with a major star in the lead, is credit to both filmmakers and actress. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 8, 2015
The story demanded — and deserves — the services of a singular actress. Ms. Cotillard’s international stardom doesn’t hurt, of course, but the invaluable gift she brings to the production is her ability to play a working woman in naturalistic style while giving a transcendent performance. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 23, 2014
Her shoulders slumped, her eyes weary, her gait heavy, Ms. Cotillard moves past naturalism into something impossible to doubt and hard to describe. Sandra is an ordinary person in mundane circumstances, but her story, plainly and deliberately told, is suspenseful, sobering and, in the original, fear-of-God sense of the word, tremendous. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Dec 22, 2014
Two Days, One Night is a small miracle of a movie, a drama so purely humane that it makes most attempts at audience uplift look crass and calculated by comparison. Read full review
100
EmpireKim NewmanAug 18, 2014
Even if you’ve skipped the Dardennes’ work until now, this is a talking-point movie — and an outstanding lead performance — you need to see. It’s a rare film of unforced simplicity that will stick with you for a long time. And it’s honest right to its perfectly judged ending. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 25, 2014
A tense dramatic situation and a subtly magnificent central performance from Marion Cotillard add up to an outstanding new movie from the Dardenne brothers. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 25, 2014
perhaps the greatest achievement is in how brilliantly the film balances the trademark Dardennes social conscience with a conceit that plays out almost like a ticking-clock thriller, as well as being a deeply felt character study. Read full review
100
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 25, 2014
Most importantly, the film involves us: it draws us into the debate, makes us complicit, demands that we have an opinion, and then upends that same opinion a few minutes later. It's engaging and rousing. Read full review
100
VarietyScott FoundasMay 25, 2014
The Dardennes once again find a richness of human experience that dwarfs most movies made on an epic canvas. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 19, 2015
Two Days, One Night is deceptively slight of drama; it's simply a procession of real moments encountered by a simple character deserving more happiness than life allows, fleshed out by an extraordinary actor. Read full review
91
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 7, 2015
The Dardennes know how to tell low-key stories effectively, and Cotillard’s Academy Award-nominated performance builds toward the unexpected ending. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 9, 2015
In a series of deft vignettes, the Dardennes offer up a microcosm of an entire working-class contingent, and each vignette is a universe all to itself. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJan 3, 2015
With her wide, sad eyes and quiet air of embarrassment tinged with pride, Cotillard's Sandra is asking a question not only of her colleagues but of the audience, too: Are we willing to put aside our own self-interest for the sake of empathy? Are we cowardly or brave? Cotillard's exquisite performance makes you feel every ounce of the weight of that dilemma. Read full review
91
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJan 1, 2015
The chasm of the wealth gap and the slow destruction of the middle class should matter to us all, and films like Two Days, One Night remind us of the human faces affected by corporate greed. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMay 25, 2014
Much of the movie relies on Cotillard's jittery expressions as she veers from tentatively hopeful to despondent and back again, sometimes within a matter of minutes, reflecting the ever-changing stability of job security among the lower class. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 29, 2015
There is strength in simplicity, something the Dardenne brothers' Two Days, One Night and its brilliant star, Marion Cotillard, prove emphatically. Read full review
90
NPRBob MondelloJan 2, 2015
The awkwardness, the humiliation and the central unfairness of the position these folks have been put in is what filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are exploring in Two Days, One Night — a slice of pressurized middle-class life they've made so real, it feels a bit like a documentary. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMichelle OrangeDec 23, 2014
What anchors Two Days, One Night, and eases its gaps, is Cotillard's extraordinary performance. Read full review
90
The DissolveMike D'AngeloDec 22, 2014
It’s a film that captures humanity at its best and its worst, sometimes simultaneously. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 25, 2014
It's enriched by signature qualities – the humanistic, nonjudgmental gaze, the absence of sentimentality, the ultra-naturalistic style – that have always distinguished the Belgian brothers' fine body of work. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiFeb 4, 2015
The resulting film is an exceptionally crafted drama, anchored by the brothers’ mastery of their skills and Cotillard’s breathtaking performance. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 2, 2015
The Dardennes are aces at these small-scale human dramas, and Two Days, One Night is almost without flaw. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJan 22, 2015
Cotillard, who earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, plays the character as a woman hanging on by the barest of threads. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 15, 2015
As is, Cotillard (nominated for best actress) scrupulously avoids melodrama. There's enough without it, in watching a story of an ordinary woman argue for her dignity, her colleagues' better instincts and her own livelihood. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 30, 2014
From the theme of global downsizing, the filmmakers wring humor, heartbreak, suspense and stirring social drama. Cotillard, a consummate actress, fits like a natural into the workaday world of the Dardennes (Rosetta, The Son, The Kid With a Bike). Read full review
88
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeDec 23, 2014
The cast is excellent, particularly Timur Magomedgadzhiev as a conscience-stricken co-worker, but it’s Cotillard who’s in nearly every scene. Desperate, downtrodden, but grasping at each shred of hope, Cotillard — who won an Oscar playing Edith Piaf in 2007’s “La Vie en Rose” — carries the whole film. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 14, 2015
Two Days, One Night is timely and timeless, a social statement about current economic conditions and a parable about individual and community. Cotillard's performance is revelatory, one to be admired and studied for generations. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 30, 2014
She (Cotillard) is the center of attention throughout, yet what matters is her willingness to conspire in the Dardennes’ plea for justice. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 25, 2014
This is another hugely admirable entry in the Dardenne canon: nothing all that new, perhaps, but as thoughtful, humane and superbly composed as we have, very fortunately, come to expect from them. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 21, 2014
The Dardennes believe in human value and social order being rooted in a sense of solidarity, a staggering consciousness of community that brims with a sensitivity to place, movement, and emotion. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 3, 2015
If you see it and wonder what the fuss was about, look no further than its star, the face that ate up another awards season. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireDec 24, 2014
Cotillard can be an exquisitely subtle actress, with expressive eyes and a face that are made for quiet suffering. Even when Two Days, One Night drags a bit, Cotillard’s performance remains compelling. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 25, 2014
Two Days, One Night is well made, and Cotillard and the rest of the cast give assured performances, but its optimism is desperate. By no means the Dardennes' best work, one wonders if they shouldn't perhaps stray outside of their comfort zone. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 22, 2015
It’s sincere and intelligent — but it’s weak as a social statement and even weaker as drama. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 20, 2015
Two Days, One Night offers a look into the lives of the everyday workers of the world -- the ones for whom a thousand-euro bonus (about $1,100 U.S.) can solve a heck of a lot of problems. Read full review
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