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Chaos (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 50
Fresh: 44
Rotten:6
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Consensus: Anything but chaotic, Chaos makes a high-energy and award-worthy stab at bourgeois apathy and racial tensions in France, while musing on chance.
Theatrical Release:Jan 29, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $204,274
Synopsis:
Hélène and Paul are a bourgeois French couple who are constantly racing through the day to keep up with all of their obligations, barely taking the time to look at each other. As they are rushing...
Hélène and Paul are a bourgeois French couple who are constantly racing through the day to keep up with all of their obligations, barely taking the time to look at each other. As they are rushing off to an engagement, Paul and Hélène witness Malika, a young prostitute, being violently attacked by a group of men just outside of their car. As Malika is beaten and left for dead, Paul locks the doors and speeds off. Malika ends up hospitalized and in a coma.
The following morning, Hélène is overwhelmed by guilt and decides to locate the woman she saw victimized. She finds Malika in the hospital and becomes determined to care for the young woman. Helene puts all of her obligations aside to be with Malika and help her recover.
While caring for her, Hélène becomes aware that the pimps who attacked Malika refuse to leave her alone. So, she makes herself responsible, not only for restoring Malika's health, but also maintaining her safety. As she nurses Malika through her recovery, Hélène realizes that her life has been changed forever. She can never return to her selfish husband and son. She belongs with Malika, who desperately needs her, as the criminals who beat her have no intention of letting her live.
With Hélène gone, her husband Paul is revealed as being totally helpless, unable to complete even the simplest of household tasks. Their hypocritical teenage son Fabrice is a mirror image of his Dad, and soon gets into hot water with both his fiancée and his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Malika tells Hélène her shocking history. She ran away from her family after her father sold her to an Algerian businessman. Homeless, living on the streets, she was turned into a sex slave by a vicious criminal organization, using the name Noémie. But Malika has worked out an elaborate plot to get both her freedom and her revenge, and she enlists Hélène to aid her… -- © New Yorker Films
Starring: Rachida Brakni, Catherine Frot, Vincent Lindon, Line Renaud
Starring: Rachida Brakni, Catherine Frot, Vincent Lindon, Line Renaud, Aurelien Wiik, Chloe Lambert, Ivan Franek
Director: Coline Serreau
Director: Coline Serreau
Screenwriter: Coline Serreau
Producer: Alain Sarde
Composer: Ludovic Navarre
Studio: New Yorker Films
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Reviews for Chaos
A sort of female action/revenge fantasy whose knives are sheathed in amusement.
Coline Serreau's "Chaos" defies categorization. It is an exciting film--part thriller, comedy, revenge tale, and feminist drama, blended together with compelling finesse.
Most of the film is devoted to the central character, and thanks to Frot, she's a most likable heroine.
The plot twists, sneaky humor and Brakni's strong debut bring intriguing order from this Chaos.
What is surprising about “Chaos,” given the sometimes raw subject matter, is how broadly funny it often is.
There's a core of anger running throughout Chaos, particularly in the steely performances by its two female leads, that gives this satisfying feminist revenge drama/satire its soul.
Wild, sometimes sickening but surprisingly hilarious ride that never lets up even if it does stack the deck and is overly obvious in its implications and sexual politics.
At once a brilliant strike for feminism and a condemnation of a backwards culture, this controversial thriller is darkly amusing and disturbing cinema.
Writer-director Coline Serreau moves from stark drama to laughter with a tightrope walker's unerring balance.
Despite some odd pacing and a longish, off-putting flashback, Chaos succeeds more than it fails.
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