Disorder (2015) – A schizophrenic thriller

My initial reaction after watching Alice Wincour’s Disorder (2015)  [Original title Maryland], now showing in the U.S., was that it was a great suspense thriller.  That reaction did not withstand later thought and analysis.  The acting by the two main characters was stellar, the soundscape (which includes the music) was exceptional, cinematography had its flashes, but the script and directing were just fair.

One of my favorite films is the 2006 thriller, Tell No One.  In his Hollywood Reporter review at that time, Kirk Honeycutt, stated. “Hardly anyone can make a good old American suspense thriller like the French.”   Unfortunately that assessment would not apply to Disorder.  The title, Disorder, is very appropriate.  The viewer is made to feel suspense even though many of the answers are given away.  Other times the viewer is left to build their own narrative and fill in the holes.  The star of the film is indeed the sound.  Alternating between the fantastic expressionist soundtrack by Mike Lévy (aka Gesaffelstein), which does most of the work and disquieting periods of silence the viewer is bought deep into the scene.  Add to this the hallucinatory  sounds occurring in the head of Mathias Schoenaerts, playing a former soldier suffering from PTSD which at times temporary mislead the viewer and add to the suspense.

The dialogue is similarly schizophrenic.  Schoenaerts and Kruger barely speak to each other in the entire first half of the film, yet their silence conveys messages both to the audience and each other.  Yet there is little character relationship building during this time. Wincour asks the audience for some solid suspension of disbelief a number of times and at the finale one is still left wondering about so much.

Did I enjoy the film? – Definitely.  Was it artistically sound? – Not so much