kosmasp Main actor is all the money as a saying goes. His portrayal of a war veteran who tries to make a living, but even more tries to live kind of normal (if the bodyguard job can be described as normal), is amazing to watch. It's not fireworks all the time, though it does have some decent stunts and action scenes.But this is more about dealing with you past, the ghosts of things that you have seen and heard. Also falling in love with probably the wrong person. But then again, how does it manifest, if someone with war issues loves someone? And can he be loved back? Especially by someone who already has someone in their life? Will you get all the answers to your questions? The last one I can answer with a no. I do think though that the end is pretty clear, even if some may disagree ...

gradyharp Writer/Director Alice Winocour has created one of the finer films of the past year – a film that unveils the degree of tension and fear and terror of various odd sounds that affects soldiers returning form the various wars in the Middle East: a change that has been labeled Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Working closely with her main character played by the astonishingly fine Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, Winocour finally puts a face on the 'disorder'. The result is one of the more tense psychological thrillers of the recent past. The story opens with a quiet but moving moment as Vincent Loreau (Matthias Schoenaerts), a French Special Forces soldier just back from Afghanistan, is informed he will not be returning to battle – he is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, manifested by his hearing noises in his ears accompanied by nausea and vomiting, among other things. He and his military buddies take on a side job as a security team to provide security for a mansion party. Later, as a favor to his buddy, Vincent is hired to ensure the safety of Jessie (Diane Kruger), the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businessman (Percy Kemp) in his "Maryland" property in the South of France. While he feels a strange fascination for the woman he must protect, Vincent is prone to anxiety and hallucinations. Despite the apparent tranquility on "Maryland", Vincent perceives an external threat. When Jessie is targeted for kidnapping, the Vincent and Jessie must draw upon not just Vincent's military training, but upon their basic qualities as human beings. Because each of them has moved in different spheres until then, this may not work so well.The first hour of the film is a vivid depiction of the psychological stress and disorder Vincent endures, but in the last thirty minutes the tension is almost unbearable as Vincent physically protects Jessie and her son from potential kidnappers. The manner in which Schoenaerts plays this difficult role is brilliant and together with Kruger they offer some of the most realistic acting on the screen today.This is very finely written and acted psychological thriller. Highly Recommended. In French with English subtitles.

maurice yacowar This tense roller-coaster of suspense encapsulates the current international corruption in politics. In the pre-title sequence two lines of charging, hooting soldiers converge on a tufted plain. The ensuing narrative will trace the central soldier's disintegration — an emblem of the disintegration of our global politics. A broken time breaks its defenders — and requires broken men to save it. Hero Vincent is initially shot in intense close-up, which with the throbbing soundtrack suggests the wounded man's heightened sensitivity. His visit to a crippled veterans' rehab centre provides physical equivalents to his mental damage. There he buys blackmarket drugs, a dangerous alternative to the psychological help he refuses The political backdrop coheres with Vincent's presentation as — from his tattoo — a figure of Chaos and the global disorder evoked by the title. The Lebanese mogul is an international arms dealer, himself a figure of chaos and world disorder, feeding the violence which ultimately creeps from the Middle East into his luxurious French estate. The posh party Vincent is hired to guard ripples with sinister disorder, from the belligerent unlisted visitor to the suspicious negotiations in the back rooms and rolling lawns. The ominous scheming undercuts the bucolic atmosphere of the estate's name, Maryland.Vincent's eagerness to return to the war in Afghanistan shows him crippled not just by the violence of war but by his addiction to it. While friend Dennis explains that Vincent's head is still in the battlefield, his anxiety makes him a questionable but excellent "security guard." The term is paradoxical for a man of such violence, paranoia and danger. When he appears to have over- reacted to the car possibly following Vincent and his charges to the seashore, his paranoia is justified by the violent attack upon them later. The arms-dealer's family are a telling extension. Little Ali is the privileged son whose parents refrain from denying anything or discipline. The German Jessie begins as the standard issue blonde trophy wife, but softens when she leaves the party to feed the dog. Though Vincent is initially hired to secure them for the arms dealer's two days away, ultimately the arms-dealer abandons them, as the police will too. They are left to the shaky Vincent to protect. The polished serene Jessie and the damaged Vincent may seem antithetical but ultimately both prove isolated, enclosed in their respective psychological bubbles, unable to make any meaningful connection beyond themselves — except for the family dog, Ghost, an emblem of commitments now dead.As Vincent grows increasingly enchanted by Jessie, he remains more removed and sombre than his friend Dennis's later play with her. Vincent reads an invitation into her fantasy of him killing bears when she will escape to a friend in Canada. His delusion that they might have a relationship is harshly ended when he sees her look of fear and revulsion at his repeatedly smashing an invader's face into the glass coffee table. The willfully uninformed Jessie is appalled at what her protection requires. Yet the last shot has Jessie returning to embrace Vincent. Whether she actually does that or he imagines her doing it we can't firmly say. The film tacitly allows both readings. If she does it, she has realized her escape to Canada was impossible and she needs this powerful man to provide the security for which she initially married the arms dealer. If she doesn't, then Vincent has taken another pathetic step into madness, bolstering his illegal painkillers with an implausible romantic fantasy. Either reading confirms the antithetical characters' essential similarity as isolates awakened to a brutish disorder. That theme grows out of writer/director Alice Winocour's earlier Mustang. The woman's hand is also evident in the film's concern for how men are weakened by their strength. Her beefcake shots of Matthias Schoenaerts parodies the familiar male fetishizing of the female lead.

gricey_sandgrounder 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