Maryland (2015) Reviews

• A missed opportunity. But still a solid thriller with some interesting ideas.

  gricey_sandgrounder2016-03-08

  I was not sure what to expect with this. But I was definitely intrigued with the two leads, Matthias Schnoenarts and Diane Kruger. I like a lot of the films that they star in. So it will be interesting to see what their chemistry is on screen. The premise was definitely one I do not see that often. Also, the story that director and writer Alice Winocaur had put onto screen got me invested. But despite me still finding it reasonably enjoyable, I felt that we have a missed opportunity here. One thing is for sure, Schoenaerts was great as our main character. A bit like Tom Hardy, most of his success comes from the physical part of the performance. You can really see the killer instinct in his character and his charisma definitely carries this film well. I was feeling his characters problems and I was rooting for him to overcome them. I think without Schoenarts, this could have been something quite boring. The rest of the cast were not that memorable, even Kruger. For the few action scenes that were on screen, they were really well constructed. You could really feel the hits being taken. The score was fascinating and surprisingly atmospheric. The style felt different, but managed to fit in well with the film. However, there were some moments where I felt the moment to use that score felt unnecessary or badly timed. Like I said before, there are problems with it. While it may feel slow for the most part, you can feel the tension throughout. You do feel that something does not feel right and we get some well executed action scenes. But I think in the end, the lack of drama and thrills may make people impatient as they know this could go down more interesting routes. I don't get a lot of the slow no-dialogue moments that we seem to see with most of European cinema. It's not often that style gets me totally invested. I was not a fan of the camera-work as well. There was a lot of shaky moments that I felt were unnecessary, and it made me struggle to see what was going on. This negative is a bit of nit pick. But I felt there were too many times when they were reminding us of our main characters anxiety problems. That just seemed to signal to me that they have little more to show and just lingered on that particular part. For what looked like an interesting premise, for me it did not manage to make the most of it. But don't worry, it still remains to be a solidly delivered thriller with an amazing lead by Schoenarts. The way they portrayed his characters problems on screen was quite clever. I also liked it did not have that cliché feeling at all, and that might be the reason that I remained interested. Despite its problems, I will still recommend this. Winocour should be proud of this. I will definitely check out the rest of her work. Rating: 7/10

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• Winocour directs beautifully, Schoenaerts acts and acts, and only the writing pulls this down

  secondtake2016-12-31

  Disorder (2015) Alice Winocour's thriller set in upper class France is filled with anxiety, and is filmed very smartly to increase that stress without resorting to pyrotechnics. Quietly, especially because of the edgy psychological performance by Matthias Schoenaerts, we feel the anxiety of an ex-soldier fighting PTSD and still doing private high brow security work. The setting is interesting but the plot is thin. This can work for the film, which depends on lots of quiet moments to punch up the drama when it occurs. The direction is really good, with some simple strategies at play. Example—when our main character, who is guarding someone off in the distance, is sensing danger, his eyes flit around, he stiffens up and walks and look, but the one thing the camera doesn't do is show us the person he's protecting. In the dark, we worry, and we don't know if the danger is real or if he's just too high strung. Seeing the inside of a high level security detail is nice, and it's handled with good realism. The whole movie, in fact, depends on a simple believability that typical Hollywood versions would ramp up, and it works. The big downside here is the writing. There isn't enough to the overall plot after all (and Schoenaerts can't do everything). And some of the dialog is unlikely or a big out off kilter. Sucked into the mis-en-scene, you can go with it, at least until the long stretch at the end in the house, when you do wish it hadn't trapped itself into a series of well worn ideas. The last several seconds of the movie do show that the director/writer is capable of more than you'll find here. It might be unexplained, but it leaves at least still immersed as you leave the film's finely rendered world.

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• Mystery and suspense as it should be done!

  lneil-51-1065022017-01-06

  I was very surprised at this movie. The IMDb precis led me to think it was going to be an average action thriller so I watched it to fill in a dull couple of hours, but what a treat it turned out to be. Definitely not for the Hollywood action fan, this movie is an incredibly well-paced (read: slow burn) psychological study and suspense builder. I found a lot of it reminiscent of a great Hitchcock, who was, after all, the master of building true suspense out of the ominously suggested but mainly unseen. Matthias Schoenaerts is absolutely brilliant. His portrayal of a damaged, sometimes paranoid, drug-dependent, PTSD-suffering soldier trying to carry out a fill-in assignment on a private security detail is a masterpiece of characterisation. The directing is superb and had me watching in delight throughout the film's entirety. The whole recipe is topped off by cinematography that is so ideally matched to the mood(s) of the film, perfectly complimenting the atmospheric, slow-building story. No, we don't get to know the whole of Vincent's character during this movie, but when have you ever got to know someone well after spending a mere two hours with them? We learn what we need to to engage in the movie and that is just the right amount. Some reviewers will bemoan the lack of a full background story, dearth of explosions and other typically Hollywood special effects, the dark settings and minimal dialogue. In my opinion that only illustrates that they entirely miss the point and magic of this beautifully made film and I suggest they go and rent a brash, loud, brain-dead, exaggerated Hollywood action explosion-fest.

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• Lent

  danielharden2016-03-09

  Disorder is a one man protection mission slash home invasion film. This has been done many times before and this is definitely not the best and is probably not the worst either. As a whole the acting was good. Matthias Schoenaerts was pretty good in this film and literally gives my rating 2 of its 4 stars. Plus the dedication to the role he gave was impressive literally sacrificing his own health for the film has to earn some respect in my books. The other 2 of my 4/10 rating come from the musical soundtrack. The sound is reminiscent of the horror film It Follows which I loved. The soundtrack is perfect at creating tension and was the real front running micro element to create the films suspense. If all else its also just nice to listen to. Now my problems with the film... First of all the film confused me, as in I wasn't sure what it wanted to be. There is a large section of the film near the end that aims for a horror kind of feel which the films climax at night. But when it actually came to the pay off it was underwhelming. No music, no tension, rather weak as the film has literally been 1 hour and a half build up. Another thing was the pacing. I know this films aim was to build tension, but this film felt painfully long. I think this was down to the lack of action in general. Not just violent fighting action, but just literally anything of interest happening. I felt so bored at times I just wanted to smash my face against a glass table multiple times (#references). This film felt rather repetitive, and to me, that really took away from some of the tension. If you use the same techniques over and over to create tension in s film that feels longer than it is, then it may get old pretty quick. The film consisted of and relied on its soundtrack, walking shots, walking shots at night, slo mo for ptsd struggling and silence. There is so much walking in this film, and if you do it at night with a suspenseful soundtrack its bound to build tension. Sadly to me, that formula felt a tad too easy and basic to create the tension and thus did not impress me. Overall the acting and soundtrack were good but the film was repetitive, painfully slow and overall unsatisfied me. I was not left unsatisfied purely because of the ambiguousness of its ending, but because the film builds and builds and builds to its ending, to which the pay off was literally non existent.

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• Matthias Schoenaerts is once again phenomenal

  MariaLoathesDTWig2015-10-07

  This is not your usual "home invasion" film.It's above all an incredible sensory experience.Alice Winocur (who directed 2 years ago the magnificent "Augustine") creates a great combo between drama & paranoid thriller.And don't expect a love story ala Bodyguard. Matthias Schoenaerts is phenomenal as usual.It's quite an intense performance.You're truly seeing things through the eyes of his emotionally damaged character. Diane Kruger is also solid but the movie truly belongs to King Matthias.The ending could have been slightly better but it doesn't take anything away from the quality of the film. The soundtrack is also very catchy : Gaffelstein is a genius ! He creates a very atmospheric environment. A must see !

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