‘A Little Chaos’ Escapes into the Enchanting World of the Sun King

Sandra Miska

Few actresses can wear a corset as well as Kate Winslet, the Oscar-winner has played a great lady in films like “Titanic” and “Finding Neverland,” but this week she’ll be getting her hands dirty as a landscape architect in the court of Louis XIV in “A Little Chaos.”

“A Little Chaos” takes place in 1682 France when the Sun King Louis XIV (played brilliantly by Alan Rickman, who is also the film’s director) is the midst of building the wondrous palace of Versailles, and helping him realize his vision is André Le Nôtre (Matthias Schoenaerts), a real-life historical figure who has been appointed to design an outdoor garden venue for entertainment.  Winslet plays the fictional Sabine de Barra, a landscape designer and independent woman who interviews to be André’s assistant.  After a rough first meeting and being intimidated by entitled male candidates, Sabine is surprised to learn she got the job.  Turns out the orderly André was impressed by Sabine’s spontaneous decision to rearrange a shrub and decided he needs a little chaos.

Not surprisingly, Sabine and André soon find themselves developing feelings for each other, but there are obstacles in the way of their budding love.   Madame Le Nôtre (Helen McCroy), André’s wife, becomes suspicious and sets out to ruin their relationship before it even starts, despite her having several lovers of her own and having insisted on an open marriage years earlier, something that has caused her husband much pain.

Sabine has also experienced much pain and heartache in life, herself having been in a bad marriage that ended in tragedy.  The development of her relationship with André is subtle, not cheesy, and chemistry between Winslet and Schoenaerts is off the charts.

The other man Sabine enchants is none other than the Sun King himself, who finds himself at a crossroad after the sudden death of his wife, and Sabine counsels him in a particularly charming scene during which she stumbles upon him alone in the royal gardens and mistakes him for the head gardener.

Sabine soon finds herself invited to court, and naturally a “lowborn” woman who’s admitted to such a grand world is an object of interest.  She is introduced to the King’s flamboyant brother Philippe (played by Stanley Tucci, whose few scenes leave the audience wanting more) and soon finds herself the confident of his German wife, the unassuming Princess Palatine (Paula Paul).

Once is she accepted by the great court ladies, including the King’s longtime mistress, Madame de Montespan (Jennifer Ehle), Sabine learns that their lives are not that much different from her own.  Like her, many of these women have experience much pain and loss, even Montespan, who finds herself on the brink of being discarded by her royal love.  In one of the film’s most powerful scenes, Sabine sticks up for her new friend to Louis, using roses as a metaphor.

Overall, audience will enjoy escaping into the marvelous world that was France a hundred years before the Revolution.

“A Little Chaos” opens nationwide June 26.