The King of France, Louis XIV (Alan Rickman) is making extensive changes to the Palace of Versailles, including a huge landscaping plan to vastly improve the palace gardens. Louis has put André Le Nôtre (Matthias Schoenaerts), a man that is very much following in his father's footsteps, in charge of the project, with several other designers competing to supplement his designs. One such landscaper is Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet), who dismisses the structured approach of Nôtre in favour of a more chaotic design. Nôtre rejects her plans at first, but soon he decides that a little chaos could be exactly what the palace gardens require.
There have been a lot of period pieces set in both pre and post-revolutionary France, often large in scale and covering years, if not decades of history. A Little Chaos on the other hand is about a relatively insignificant, yet still beautiful construction in the gardens of Versailles, and its narrow scope is refreshing. The world is a microcosm of the era, with not only the male-led hierarchy an indictment of its time but a subtle dichotomy between the beauty of the garden projects and the diseases and suffering that was occurring at the time. A point which is hardly touched upon until the final stages of the film, where it's laboured just a bit too much in one scene. There's also a back story for Sabine which is revealed slowly in flashbacks throughout the film, a structure which I found a bit irritating with ultimately, not much of a pay off.
The plot is well rounded, with a good balance of character development and well..uh landscaping. I have no real idea how historically accurate it is, I know that the outdoor ballroom exists at Versailles but nothing about its construction. However I personally found it very interesting and liked the specificity of the story. For those who like the sweeping historical epics though, this may not appeal. Sitting at just under two hours, I did feel that it could probably have been cut down to ninety minutes. It's not excessively slow but I did find myself looking at the time at a couple of points. It develops at quite a good pace but towards the end it felt like it was trying to tie-up a whole lot of loose ends from diverging plot structures that probably didn't need to exist in the first place.
The acting all round is fantastic. Kate Winslet is always able to draw empathy from the audience and playing Sabine is no exception. The trauma that Sabine's experienced in her past may not work very well in furthering the plot, but she's clearly a passionate and driven woman. Also it's nice not to see Winslet bare all on the screen again...well sort of...there is a very PG-13 sex scene. Matthias Schoenaerts, as the only character with anything resembling a French accent, brings some mystery to André Le Nôtre, and Alan Rickman proves his worth as a character actor, bringing out the eccentricities of Louis XIV whether they were historically there or not, that's right, he Rickmanizes (If it's not a word, it should be) Louis XIV. One scene in particular, a conversation in an enclosed garden between Sabine and Louis, elevates Louis' personality immensely.
The visuals are very impressive, especially the sweeping landscape shots, and the set design and costuming has the flare of such a powerful aristocracy. There's a sway towards simplistic montages in A Little Chaos but they don't ever become too tedious. A Little Chaos has flaws, but it's charming nonetheless. It's well written and has great performances. Also, don't forget Alan Rickman.
The visuals are very impressive, especially the sweeping landscape shots, and the set design and costuming has the flare of such a powerful aristocracy. There's a sway towards simplistic montages in A Little Chaos but they don't ever become too tedious. A Little Chaos has flaws, but it's charming nonetheless. It's well written and has great performances. Also, don't forget Alan Rickman.
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