Diane Kruger and Matthias Schoenaerts will now be familiar faces to English-speaking audiences. Kruger for the likes of Troy, National Treasure and The Bridge and Schoenaerts for A Bigger Splash, Suite Française and The Danish Girl. However, their best work has come in French language films, notably Schoenaerts in Rust and Bone and Bullhead. They both come together in Alice Winocour’s paranoid thriller Disorder.
Whilst awaiting the decision as to whether he can go back on active duty, Vincent (Schoenaerts), a solider suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, is hired to provide the security for a rich family. Inside their luxury villa, Maryland, on the French Riviera he becomes distracted by Jessie (Kruger) and increasingly suspicious about the business interests of her rich Lebanese Husband.
Schoenaerts is superb as the agitated, distracted and live-wire Vincent, struggling to keep his mental state in one piece. It starts out as a psychological drama concentrating on the side-effects of war before switching to more of a tense thriller. Winocour keeps the film on a tight leach and never allows proceedings to boil over. Disorder is an entertaining film with good performances from the leads. It feels like a ball of energy simply waiting for a chance to erupt.
Disorder is released on Blu-ray and DVD by Soda Pictures on Monday.
