{"id":1860,"date":"2015-08-22T15:52:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T19:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2024-10-14T09:17:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T13:17:59","slug":"a-little-chaos-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1860","title":{"rendered":"A Little Chaos-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Little Chaos-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Alan Rickman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #269<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"80017099\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed August 22, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Little Chaos (2014) is a difficult film to review. The film does not kick into high gear, or much of gear until the final thirty minutes or so as the drama hits a crescendo and past events are suddenly explained.<\/p>\n

At this point, it becomes a very entertaining film.<\/p>\n

Until then, it is largely a bore and slow-paced.<\/p>\n

Starring Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman, who also directs the film, A Little Chaos is a good film with beautiful period piece costumes to marvel over, and feels great, but misses the mark with a lack of balancing the momentum throughout the length of the film.<\/p>\n

It is also largely fictionalized, making the viewing less enjoyable.<\/p>\n

A period drama set at the gorgeous Versailles in France, the period in the late 1600s when King Louis XIV of France is in power and lives on the illustrious estate.<\/p>\n

Landscaper, Andre Le Notre, hires unconventional gardener Sabine (Winslet) to create one of the gardens.<\/p>\n

Sabine is progressive and does not live in the past. Rather, she has ideas for creating a unique pattern. Sabine is instructed to incorporate a wonderful fountain within the garden. She faces hostility from staff members for simply being a woman and they refuse to work for her.<\/p>\n

Others admire her creativity.<\/p>\n

As the plot unfolds, Sabine has romantic feelings for Andre, a man trapped in a loveless marriage with Francoise, and they begin a tender courtship.<\/p>\n

Sabine is haunted by the past and frequently hears cries in her dreams. The audience does not know what her past life was, only that she is widowed.<\/p>\n

The final act of the film brings everything together nicely. We learn about Sabine’s past and her suggested dalliance with Andre comes to fruition.<\/p>\n

After the film, I was left thinking how exceptional it was, but then remembered the majority of it had dragged.<\/p>\n

The themes of A Little Chaos are class systems, feminism, and societal views. At first, snubbed by some for being a commoner, Sabine slowly is accepted by the royal figures, including the King himself, whom Sabrine humorously mistakes for the gardener at one point.<\/p>\n

Ideally, it would have been lovely if a woman had been hired to create the garden.<\/p>\n

Sadly, events do not happen this way but is someone’s fantasy.<\/p>\n

A Little Chaos (2014) has great potential and looks beautiful- my main complaint is for most of the film nothing happens.<\/p>\n

Also disappointing is that the film was not filmed at the historical Versailles, nor was it even shot in France. Every exterior scene was filmed in England.<\/p>\n

This is not a deal-breaker, but some genuineness would have been nice. Another major detraction is that Sabine De Barra is not even a real-life figure, but rather is fictionalized- sort of how the past should have been but wasn’t really.<\/p>\n

Having been a real person would have made the film more interesting. What is the investment?<\/p>\n

From an acting standpoint, the film succeeds. Winslet, a highly talented actress, is well cast and the chemistry between her and Matthias Schoenaerts is palpable. Both actors are believable in their roles.<\/p>\n

Stanley Tucci, typically great in whatever he appears in, plays Phillippe, a silly, slightly effeminate Duke who does more to annoy than to amuse and is a trivial character.<\/p>\n

Throughout my viewing of the film, I kept thinking of it as the type of film that should be liked because it looks great, but something was missing.<\/p>\n

The royal drama, sexual dalliances, and antics were fun, but I felt like the film could have been much more than it ended up being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Little Chaos-2014 Director Alan Rickman Starring Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts Scott’s Review #269 Reviewed August 22, 2015 Grade: B- A Little Chaos (2014) is a difficult film to review. The film does not kick into high gear, or much of gear until the final thirty minutes or so as the drama hits a crescendo … Continue reading A Little Chaos-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4143,440,192,5741,1974,3646,261,222,1918],"tags":[78,4146,441,193,5744,1978,3647,262,221,1922],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-alan-rickman","category-british-films","category-dramas","category-jennifer-ehle","category-kate-winslet","category-matthias-schoenaerts","category-period-dramas","category-romantic-dramas","category-stanley-tucci","tag-2014-movie-reviews","tag-alan-rickman","tag-british-films","tag-dramas-2","tag-jennifer-ehle","tag-kate-winslet","tag-matthias-schoenaerts","tag-period-dramas","tag-romantic-dramas","tag-stanley-tucci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20224,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/20224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}