Review of A Little Chaos (2015) by David H — 07 Apr 2015

A rather lovable kind of film, like a peaceful afternoon watching a group of people whom you happen to like, putting on a relaxed, thoroughly familiar, provincial play. Everything is low key and slightly implausible- story, script, characters; even the feted garden is mundane and a bit ugly.

The costumes look like costumes; the sets like sets. Yet somehow, all of this is as it should be; it renders the fourth wall slightly transparent. The pleasure lies in seeing these very good actors relax (Ehle, though, radiates).

This is an anti-stress film; you will not be challenged for one moment. Where the romance is concerned, Winslet projects desire like few actors can - just one such regard from her is enough to fire the arrow.

Yet the sex scene is reassuring, with its low-rise climax instead of the typical filmic dramatics. In his career, Rickman has given us many fine characters, with perhaps Hans Gruber the most charismatic; he retains something risky and impenetrable despite his avuncular style.

His film is unselfconsciously feminist, with Mme de Barra's ambitions a given; it also suggests a careful concern with the appreciation of people as they are; and so it provides us on the one hand with encouragement to do better, and on the other with a bit of salve for our frayed, collective psyche.