Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger, Paul Hamy, Percy Kemp, Zaid Errougui-Demonsant, Victor Pontecorvo, Michael Dauber, Franck Torrecillas, Chem Eddine, Phillipe Haddad, Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, Hubert Rollet, Rachid Hafassa, David Colombo, Rabia Elatache, Arthur Vercken, Serge Michel, Anais Couette, Christian Bianchi.

All films have potential, by their very nature they are there to entertain or even inform; some though are baffling to the point of unpleasantness, they do nothing but argue with themselves about their role and like a pair of lovers quarrelling over who last paid for a night out, the position of what could be beautiful is replaced by a dark intrusion and one that brings the film into the arena of the fundamentally objectionable.

One of the problems with Disorder is that it has no idea what it wants to be, whether it desires to be a psychological drama, a heroic masterpiece or just plain protect and serve, in all counts it fails, it bruises the viewer with moments of unlikeable machismo, punishes them with voyeurism and acts almost like a petulant child in the face of having its favourite toy removed. It is a shame for in Matthias Schoenaerts the film has an actor who can really stand out in the crowd and in turn he could have been much better served if the script was not more concerned with painting him to be a pale pastiche of any of the action heroes of the 90s.

When the objectionable becomes the order of the day, when a film relies too heavily on making the lead character out to be someone who is quite obviously suffering from P.T.S.D., from burn out and the after effects of a different kind of war, then it is surely time to wonder just exactly how far we have come as a society when a film can present itself in such a way, when it can calmly assert that something trying to resemble The Bodyguard but with more repulsion can ever be considered a good afternoon out.

Disorder ends a fine run of films starring Matthias Schoenaerts which will not be good for his credibility, a shame but legends, even those at the beginning of their career must eventually fall.

Ian D. Hall