‘Between Two Worlds’ Review: Juliette Binoche Goes Undercover

In “Between Two Worlds,” Juliette Binoche performs Marianne Winckler, a girl struggling to make ends meet within the Normandy area of France. When she arrives at an unemployment heart firstly of the movie, she’s sheepish and bewildered, promoting herself as a “team player” to safe a minimal wage gig.

In a voice-over, the small print of her quest for regular work are articulated in a matter-of-fact tone. Subtly, the director Emmanuel Carrère reveals this social-justice drama’s actual stakes: Marianne, an investigative journalist, has gone undercover. Her mission? To reveal the methods through which low-income employees are exploited — particularly girls working graveyard shifts whereas underneath contract to non-public sanitation corporations.

The movie is a unfastened adaptation of “The Night Cleaner” (2010), the nonfiction finest vendor by Florence Aubenas, a French journalist who went underground and lived a double life as a cleaner for an English Channel ferry.

“Between Two Worlds,” written by Carrère and Hélène Devynck, departs from its supply materials with a fictional arc: Marianne, a savior determine pushed to reveal the system’s injustices, can also be guilt-ridden about retaining her true id a secret from her co-workers like Christèle (Hélène Lambert), an edgy single mom. This rift is echoed within the casting, with the often glamorous Binoche performing alongside nonprofessional actors.

Carrère — recognized primarily in Europe as a author of nonfiction books with a literary twist — applies a temper of cool journalistic sobriety to Marianne’s scandalous discoveries. At her worst job, as an example, she’s compelled to arrange over 100 beds in lower than two hours. Less compelling is the sentimental disaster that performs out due to Marianne’s deception. It does little else past remind us that advocacy work is simply too typically in a tango with a foul case of main-character syndrome.

Between Two Worlds
Not rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.