Disorder (2015)

Vincent is an ex-soldier with PTSD who is hired to protect the wife and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman while he's out of town. Despite the apparent tranquility in Maryland, Vincent perceives an external threat.

Director:

Alice Winocour

Writers:

Alice Winocour, Jean-Stéphane Bron (in collaboration with)

Stars:

Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger, Paul Hamy

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matthias Schoenaerts	...	Vincent
Diane Kruger	...	Jessie
Paul Hamy	...	Denis
Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant	...	Ali
Percy Kemp	...	Imad Whalid
Victor Pontecorvo	...	Tom
Michaël Dauber	...	Kevin (as Michaël Daubert)
Franck Torrecillas	...	Franck
Chems Eddine	...	Tarik
Philippe Haddad	...	Pierre Duroy
Jean-Louis Coulloc'h	...	Le médecin militaire
Hubert Rollet	...	Examinateur test auditif
Rachid Hafassa	...	Hassin
David Léotard	...	Dimitri (as David Colombo)
Rabia Elatache	...	Souad

Storyline

Vincent Loreau (Matthias Schoenaerts), a French Special Forces soldier just back from Afghanistan, is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is hired to ensure the safety of Jessie, the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businessman in his "Maryland" property in the South of France. While he feels a strange fascination for the woman he must protect, Vincent is prone to anxiety and hallucinations. Despite the apparent tranquility on "Maryland", Vincent perceives an external threat...

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Plot Keywords:

maryland | afghanistan | france | anxiety | hallucination | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Alice Winocour wrote the film for Matthias Schoenaerts. They worked on this project together for two years. Winocour told that Schoenaerts has an animalistic side that felt perfect for the character, she wanted to film him like men film women, like an object of desire, even though his character has more depth than that. He also had to play a character with a fragile state.

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Connections

Referenced in Good Morning America: Episode dated 29 April 2015 (2015)

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Soundtracks

Mental Montage
Written by G. Hatfield, J. Cocozza
(p) K Music
© Editions Music House

User Reviews

A missed opportunity. But still a solid thriller with some interesting ideas.

I was not sure what to expect with this. But I was definitely intrigued with the two leads, Matthias Schnoenarts and Diane Kruger.

I like a lot of the films that they star in. So it will be interesting to see what their chemistry is on screen.

The premise was definitely one I do not see that often. Also, the story that director and writer Alice Winocaur had put onto screen got me invested. But despite me still finding it reasonably enjoyable, I felt that we have a missed opportunity here.

One thing is for sure, Schoenaerts was great as our main character. A bit like Tom Hardy, most of his success comes from the physical part of the performance. You can really see the killer instinct in his character and his charisma definitely carries this film well. I was feeling his characters problems and I was rooting for him to overcome them. I think without Schoenarts, this could have been something quite boring. The rest of the cast were not that memorable, even Kruger.

For the few action scenes that were on screen, they were really well constructed. You could really feel the hits being taken. The score was fascinating and surprisingly atmospheric. The style felt different, but managed to fit in well with the film. However, there were some moments where I felt the moment to use that score felt unnecessary or badly timed.

Like I said before, there are problems with it. While it may feel slow for the most part, you can feel the tension throughout. You do feel that something does not feel right and we get some well executed action scenes. But I think in the end, the lack of drama and thrills may make people impatient as they know this could go down more interesting routes. I don't get a lot of the slow no-dialogue moments that we seem to see with most of European cinema. It's not often that style gets me totally invested. I was not a fan of the camera-work as well. There was a lot of shaky moments that I felt were unnecessary, and it made me struggle to see what was going on. This negative is a bit of nit pick. But I felt there were too many times when they were reminding us of our main characters anxiety problems. That just seemed to signal to me that they have little more to show and just lingered on that particular part.

For what looked like an interesting premise, for me it did not manage to make the most of it. But don't worry, it still remains to be a solidly delivered thriller with an amazing lead by Schoenarts. The way they portrayed his characters problems on screen was quite clever. I also liked it did not have that cliché feeling at all, and that might be the reason that I remained interested. Despite its problems, I will still recommend this. Winocour should be proud of this. I will definitely check out the rest of her work.

Rating: 7/10

Details

Official Sites:

Mars Distribution [France] Soda Pictures [UK]

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French

Release Date:

19 August 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Disorder

Filming Locations:

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,699, 14 August 2016

Gross USA:

$51,879

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$460,997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dharamsala, Darius Films, Mars Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1