Two Days, One Night (15)

Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

5/5

RENOWNED for their remarkable films Rosetta, The Son and The Kid With A Bike, the Dardenne brothers return with this powerful story.

Marion Cotillard plays Sandra, a woman who returns to work after suffering from depression to find out that her colleagues have chosen to take a bonus at the expense of her job.

She has just one weekend to persuade the majority of them to change their minds and choose unity and compassion over personal advantage. 

But these are struggling workers with families, not rich executives and CEOs, and the outcome is never certain even in the tense moments before the secret ballot.

It’s an allegory showing how solidarity can change people and the fact that some of her co-workers are persuaded because Sandra is prepared to put up a principled fight for her job. 

Very few films focus on the world of work, more precarious than ever in an era of widespread unemployment which is universal but affects women in particular.

That’s why Two Days, One Night is so satisfying. Confident and with the courage to match its convictions, the film is arguably the best from the brothers yet.

Rita Di Santo

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For (18)

Directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

3/5

ALMOST 10 years on, Sin City returns in all its gritty, sinister and violent glory but with an added cinematic edge in 3D.

Shot in signature black and white with a splash of colour, it focuses on the greed and corruption of power in a world where the men are real men and the women are either whores, angels or the devil incarnate.

Some of the stories are prequels to those in the first film, which explains the return of characters killed off there like Marv (Mickey Rourke) and Goldie (Jaime King).

There’s a star-studded cast but it is Eva Green who steals the film with her statuesque performance as the deliciously evil and grand manipulator Ava Lord. The epitome of the ’40s femme fatale, she uses all her wily assets and Green shows them off in all their glory.

If you enjoyed Sin City then this seamless extension will hit the mark.

Maria Duarte

Lucy (15)

Directed by Luc Besson

3/5

IF THERE is one thing Luc Besson knows how to do well it’s to write strong, powerful, kick-ass female characters.

Lucy, played superbly by Scarlett Johansson, rates up there with La Femme Nikita and Leeloo from The Fifth Element.

Initially, Lucy’s a carefree student living in Taiwan who is duped into becoming a drug mule for the merciless Mr Jang (Choi Min Sik of Oldboy). 

When the bag of a new and powerful synthetic drug inside her starts leaking it slowly increases her brain capacity from 10 to 100 per cent, giving her superhuman powers.

It transforms her into a warrior hell-bent on vengeance who heads to Paris to enlist the help of the leading expert on brain function, played as convincingly as ever by Morgan Freeman.

The science maybe flawed but Besson delivers one of his most bonkers action thrillers to date.

Don’t overthink it — just enjoy the ride.

Maria Duarte

The Police Officer’s Wife (15)

Directed by Philip Groning

2/5

IF YOU can withstand this drama’s pretentious structure then the end result is a novel exploration of domestic violence.

Yet writer-director Philip Groning’s penchant for dividing the narrative into chapters, some just seconds long, makes for an overly sluggish film which, at almost three hours long, is the last thing you need.

Each chapter depicts a snapshot in the lives of police officer Ewe Perkinger (David Zimmerschied), his wife Christina (Alexandra Finder) and their young daughter (Pia and Chiara Kleemann).

They appear a loving and happy family and there’s no hint of anything untoward until Christina starts appearing with the odd bruise which goes unexplained until the last hour of the film. Then  her husband becomes ever more violent, leaving her covered in massive bruises from head to toe.

There’s no explanation as to what triggers his violent outbursts or why she refuses to leave him — or who the elderly man that keeps popping up is.

The odd bursts of tension are ruined by the pointless chapters which give you no sense of time or date.

It spoils what should have been a thought-provoking look at a serious issue.

Maria Duarte