A LITTLE CHAOS

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2.5 stars
It has been some time between drinks for director Alan Rickman. He's probably best known to younger audiences as the conniving wizard Snape from Harry Potter, and to older audiences as the unexpected ghost in 1990's Truly Madly Deeply.
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The last (and first) time Rickman was behind the camera was with with mother-and-daughter team Phylida Law and Emma Thompson in 1997's The Winter Guest, a piercing drama about family disruption. He's taken similar themes (the consequence of disorder) onto a much larger canvas in the court of Louis XIV. He's also placed himself in front of the camera as the troubled French King who has embarked on building his crowning achievement, the sumptuous palace grounds at Versailles.

Rickman's story centres on unorthodox landscape-gardener Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet - Contagion) who dares apply for a position building one of the garden's key water features. Against conventional wisdom, chief designer André Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts – Rust & Bone) takes a chance on the forceful woman whose methods challenge conventional wisdom. It's a decision that thrusts De Barra squarely into the centre of court life, and, unexpectedly, into the ear of the King himself.

A Little Chaos is an interesting film if only for the window it opens on gender relationships in the work place, circa 1650. Likewise the construction of the gardens at Versailles – what was formerly a swamp is today one of the country's most celebrated attractions and the energies of Le Notre and the visionary thinking of De Barra is central to that. Yet against against expectation, the film holds a peculiar sense of loss, of sadness and melancholy that binds the tale, one that seems at odds with the vibrant, energised times in which it's set. There are reasons for this emotional pallor, but they feel rigged and seldom genuine.

Furthermore, A Little Chaos is a surprisingly calm affair. Much of the trouble seems to lie in a lack of chemistry between Winslet and Schoenaerts who simply fail to set the story alight. He wanders through the film with a look that seldom gets past hang-dog and never to the lusty brigand or broad-shouldered hero such costume drama requires. Although Winslet is, as always, compelling and Rickman lends a stately presence, coy looks from the leads won't keep a story about gardening alive for terribly long. At least Stanley Tucci is on hand to inject a touch of camp as one of the King's advisors.

Whilst there's enough to enjoy by dipping into postcard France as Versailles come to life, the uneven tone and sense of haunted melodrama that pervades the story is its eventual undoing. In trying too hard to avoid creating a wig-and-powder production, Dangerous Gardens if you will, A Little Chaos doesn't convince as earthy drama either. In failing to rise to its full potential, this is a watchable but forgettable footnote in the careers and history of all concerned.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Paramount Theatre, Sydney, on 15 January 2015

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STARRING
Kate Winslet
Matthias Schoenaerts
Alan Rickman
Stanley Tucci

DIRECTOR
Alan Rickman

SCREENWRITER
Alan Rickman
COUNTRY
UK

CLASSIFICATION
M

RUNTIME
117 minutes

AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
March 26, 2015
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A Little Chaos (2014) on IMDb
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