The Gentle, Understated Young Mothers Is Among the Best of the Dardenne Brothers’ Work

The Belgian filmmaking duo Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have been making observant, low-key films for so long now that it’s easy to take them for granted. Their trademark is simple: they take an interest in anyone society may have forgotten, in people who struggle harder than most of us to get through an average week, yet often show it less. The factory worker in Two Days, One Night (played, with flickering urgency, by Marion Cotillard) who’s laid off as the result of a deal her co-workers have...