Helene (Catherine Frot) rushes around her apartment putting on her face and dinner wear. Paul (Vincent Lindon) rushes around his apartment looking for the right tie and his shoes. Both are late. For what? - a date with each other? The scene is funny and familiar to anyone who has ever had to get somewhere fast and can’t leave until they find their wallet or keys. Helene and Paul turn out to be husband and wife circumnavigating each other in different sections of the same apartment until they finally unite on their way out the door for the evening. This separation from frame to frame is the filmmaker’s way of letting the audience know the couple may move around in the same space but there is a chasm between them. The distance between them broadens, both figuratively and emotionally after Paul refuses to help a hooker, beaten within an inch of her life, while he and his wife watch in horror from inside their car later that evening. His only concern is the blood on his windshield.

"Chaos" is not exactly a comedy - there are no jokes or visual puns - but it is funny. Humor is derived by the contrasting actions and attitudes of chauvinistic males - domestic and criminal - and the women they see as useful appendages to their lives. The source of drama comes from the women’s decision to become masters of their own destiny. Helene takes her first step towards emancipation when her compassion leads her to the bedside of Noemi - aka Malika (Rachida Brakni), the hooker left for dead. Noemi’s flight from the traditions of her Algerian family and her eventual slavery by an international crime syndicate are revealed in riveting flashbacks. Helene sees some parallels in their lives and decides to become an active participant in Noemi’s bid for freedom.

To talk at any length about "Chaos" poses a dilemma. The movie is so full of surprises with its off the cuff humor, and side long glances at the world of drugs, prostitution, and money laundering - plot elements that wend their way through the movie - that to go into any detail can only ruin anyone else’s sense of enjoyment. We’ve seen these many of theses things before in pictures like "Mona Lisa" (1986) but never with the elan demonstrated by writer/director Coline Serreau. "Chaos" moves with the breakneck speed of "Go" (1999) with one subplot piled on top of the next but it has a much more thought provoking subtext: the role of women in western and Islamic Societies and the threat that emancipation poses for the men who have either taken them for granted or used them as chattel in the name of tradition. The role of women in Arabic societies is a very hot topic in light of today’s world events. "Chaos" addresses this topic in the guise of a comedic thriller that works on every level. Some may see it as just another plot device, but when the laughs die out - there are many - and the thrill of the caper, an integral part of the plot, subsides - and long after the end credits role, "Chaos" leaves plenty of food for thought.

Copyright 2003

"Three Men and a Cradle" (1985) (Fr. with Eng. Subtitles) - If the title seems familiar, it’s because this one was the basis for "Three Men and a Baby" two years later. Three bachelors find themselves looking after a baby that one of them sired. This won three Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscar.

"Mona Lisa" (1986) - Dir. Neil Jordan: Bob Hoskins is an ex-con hired by Crime Lord Michael Caine to keep am eye out on a prostitute who he falls in love with. Cathy Tyson plays the hooker. The depiction of London’s seamy underworld makes "Mona Lisa" look like a primer for many of the vignettes in "Chaos."

"Go" (1999) - Dir. Doug Liman - A bunch of teens go off in different directions in search of drugs and adventure over a twenty four hour period. Not much plot, but a frenetic mind bending journey through the mind of today’s - at least 1999’s - youth culture. There’s plenty of sight gags, Saturday Night Live style vignettes, and overlapping situations that take you from one character to the next as if you were playing leap frog. With Scott Wolf, Sarah Polley, William Fichtner, Taye Diggs, Katie Holmes, and Jay Mohr. I thought this was the fastest paved film I had seen in ages, but "Chaos" beats it by a mile.