A GRITTY, DARK DRAMA
Paranoia-filled Disorder
DISORDER
★★★★ Starring: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger Directed by: Alice Winocour Running time: 98 minutes
The term “gritty” gets thrown around a lot in criticism — heck, it’s been just two months since last I pulled the term from my word-hoard.
But this second feature from French writer/director Alice Winocour (Augustine) certainly deserves the adjective; you could pave your driveway with this dark, effective thriller.
Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) stars as Vincent, an ex-soldier with a bad case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Told he’s on an indefinite medical leave, Vincent signs up with a private security firm and gets a job minding a fancy party at the home of Franco-Lebanese businessman Imad Whalid (Percy Kemp).
It’s a plush assignment; one of the guests mistakes him for a waiter, and his most tense moment is being insulted by a snooty bigwig who’s not on the list. But Vincent is skittish and irritable, and the camera follows suit, weaving and bobbing in and out of focus.
After the party ends, Vincent’s boss asks if he’d like to stay on for a few extra days of “babysitting.” Imad is going on a business trip and wants someone to keep an eye on his wife, Jessie (Diane Kruger), and young son. Vincent is suspicious (his go-to emotional state), but agrees.
Let us say right now that the bodyguard and his sexy assignment do not form a romantic connection, although Vincent clearly wouldn’t mind, given the lingering glances that he (and the camera) bestows on her.
This is a film in which the cinematography puts us clearly in the headspace of the main character.
But how reliable is that perception? The film is called Disorder, after all, although it went by Maryland (the name of the sprawling French estate where Jessie lives) when it premiered a year ago at the Cannes Film Festival.
When Vincent drives Jessie and her son to the beach, he becomes distracted with a car in the rear-view mirror: Is it merely following them or, you know, FOLLOWING them?
Later events suggest that Jessie is the target of some nasty people. But Winocour films this house-under-siege story like a house-haunted tale, leaving open the possibility — right down to a final, enigmatic image — that the whole thing might be taking place in Victor’s fractured psyche.
Either way, Kruger turns in a fantastic performance and Schoenaerts does her one better. The actor has said he got into character by sleeping for only a couple of hours each night during the shoot, and it’s believable; he looks positively haggard.
The score, by French techno artist Mike Lévy (a.k.a. Gesaffelstein) adds a perfect paranoid beat to the proceedings — it sounds like it was ripped from an early ’80s science-fiction film.
Is it merely part of the movie, or is Victor hearing it in his head too?
Either way, it’s the perfect accompaniment to the story’s super slow build. It’s like waiting for an ever-inflating balloon ... to ... pop.