A LITTLE CHAOS
Director: Alan Rickman
Cast: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory, Steven Waddington, Morgan Watkins, Paula Paul, Danny Webb, Jennifer Ehle
Rating: (M)
Three and a half stars (out of five)
It is directed by Alan Rickman, who does double duty as Louis XIV, the Sun King.
A Little Chaos is about the creation of the king's masterpiece, Versailles.
Andre Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts), the king's master gardener, would prefer to do all the gardens himself except the job is so vast he must subcontract.
Plucky widow Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet) is making her way in the world through her gardening skills. She is not the fan of garden regimentation that Andre is but she needs a job.
When Andre picks her to construct a tiered water feature everyone including Sabine is astonished.
In double-quick time Andre and Sabine find they have more in common than first seemed likely.
Sabine charms the king's brother (Stanley Tucci), his wife (Paula Paul) and finally the king himself, but will anyone like her garden feature?
She has friends in court but also enemies, namely Andre's estranged wife (Helen McCrory) and the male gardeners she beat out for the job.
While the plot is weak and the historical time-line wobbly A Little Chaos has scene after scene of lovely acting.
For most of the time we care little that the storyline is not being served because the skills on show are so delicious until finally we run out of patience but the movie rolls on.
- Christine Powley
