A Little Chaos

This review may contain spoilers!

I'm not a big fan of period dramas but this film was quite a joy to watch. I would give A Little Chaos a 6.5/10.

I think what I need to start off with is that this is a great story, a really engaging piece about a woman with brilliantly original ideas creating a garden for people far above her social status while coping with personal loss. Excellently done. I should also add that the cinematography was great, there were some very powerful shots used to convey setting or theme. So that showed a lot of good decision making by Rickman in his directing.

Stanley Tucci, who played Philippe d'Orleans, didn't have a lot of screen time but really owned his moments onscreen; his aloof but sincere nature was quite whimsical and refreshing to the plot. Alan Rickman, who played King Louis XIV, was jaw droppingly good in this film; his smooth grace meant that he was always a show stealer in every scene he was in. Matthias Schoenaerts, who played Andre Le Notre, gave a brilliant performance of character growth; we saw the range of his performance from somber master through to passionately in love. Steve Waddington, who played Duras, was a really enjoyable character; the scene in which he connects and gets along with Winslet is one of the better scenes in the film.

 However the best performance of the film came from Kate Winslet, who played Sabine De Barra. I'm not usually a big fan of Winslet, especially after Divergent, but she owned as the lead for A Little Chaos. She stepped up as a leader but also we could see that balanced with the uncertainty and doubt of achieving her task. The romance plot between her and Schoenaerts didn't feel forced at all; the pair shared some great onscreen chemistry. I think the best thing about her performance was her portrayal of grief, there was a major backstory of people who had died that were close to Winslet's chaarcter and she showed this grief incredibly.

One thing that made this film feel like a basic amateur film was the editing; the cuts came very quickly and really pulled you out of the film. I also thought they could have had a bit more range in their music, each piece of the score sounded the same and there was nothing impressive about it. The pacing lets the film down a bit, there are moments where scenes dragged longer than they needed to. I also thought the end rushed to tie up several plot points, it took away from some big moments that we had been waiting for.

Helen McCrory, who played Madame Le Notre, was a very tough actress to watch onscreen; she was over the top and her character seemed to just be an antagonist for the sake of necessity.