December 3, 2014 -- This family drama is about an emotionally unstable woman given a very tough choice which almost destroys her. She must persuade a majority of her fellow workers to vote for her to keep her job, even though doing so will cost them a big bonus. One worker yells at her that he earned that bonus and she is trying to steal it from him. What fun. Vote? What Vote, you ask. Well this is Belgium, and I guess they vote on things like this, not in America, unless maybe you are in a union or some civil service job, or something like that.

Marion Cotillard of “The Dark Knight Rises” plays the main character, Sandra, whose time off from work due to an emotional breakdown has put her job in jeopardy. While she was gone, the remaining 16 employees in the factory were able to get along without her, meaning the boss can afford to fire one employee and keep the factory running, hence the vote. Sandra needs nine of her fellow workers to vote for her to return to work. If the majority votes for her to return, then they lose their bonus money, so the deck is stacked against her.

Sandra's husband wants her to visit all 16 employees over the weekend and plead her case to them, but Sandra's depression and self-medication on psychoactive drugs makes that a big problem for her. She hates to go begging for people to give her back her job. She tells one of her fellow workers that if she were in their shoes she would have a hard time giving up the bonus money (up to 1,000 Euros). It means even more to Sandra and her family (she has two children). Without the job, her family would have to go on welfare.

We see Sandra and her family struggle with the unsavory job of visiting all 16 fellow workers over the course of a weekend, asking for them to vote for her on Monday morning. For Sandra, this is mentally exhausting. She meets with a variety of responses, from indifference to hostility to strong support. This all seems pretty realistic, except for one thing, most of her fellow employees give her an immediate yes or no answer on how they are going to vote. I would expect a lot more “I'll think about it” type answers, but there are some of those, too.

The pace of this film is pretty slow, and I could have done without the scene showing Sandra making a bed. The thing I like best about this is the way it ends, very unexpected, but very appropriate. The story is well-written, except for the obligatory suicide theme (see spoiler notes below), which didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the plot. Most all, this film serves as a vehicle for Marion Cotillard, who is just terrific in this role. It's really a great performance.

This movie shines a light on a couple of competing impulses in social behavior, the idea of self-sacrifice for the common good, and the opposing impulse of “what's in it for me?” Basic self-interest is thought to be a key ingredient in capitalist economics, while the idea of shared sacrifice for the common good is associated more with socialism, but this is very simplistic. Evolutionary anthropologists argue that the communal good, the idea that we are all in this together and we should help each other out, is hard-wired into human beings, at least dating back to the ancient hunter-gatherer times. This communal vision is also a key component in the world's great religions.

We see these two competing notions at work clearly in this film. It is like a parable in that respect. It is very clear which side the film comes down on. This film rates a B.

I just wanted to talk about the suicide thing. There is no suicide in the film, thank God, but there is an attempted suicide. Sandra swallows a fatal dose of pills, then changes her mind, throws up and goes to the hospital. Instead of being depressed by this, she gets out of her hospital bed, re-energized and ready to fight for her job again. So the message here is if you are depressed, just try to commit suicide and things will get better. There was this same message in another film, “The Girl on the Bridge.” This makes no sense to me, but there it is.

There seems to be a lot of suicides and attempted suicides in films these days. Does this lead to more actual suicides? Somebody should do a study on this.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2014 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at .