MOVIE REVIEW

This darkly amusing satire offers bitter criticism.

By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer

A pair of deftly staged identical incidents prove pivotal in Coline Serreau's audacious and original "Chaos," which mixes satire and suspense in unexpected ways in a film that is as darkly amusing as it is bitterly critical of bourgeois society's indifference to suffering.

In the first incident, the elderly, widowed Mamie (Line Renaud, the great cabaret star and now character actress) makes her annual trip from her home in the country, checking in at a small Paris hotel and dropping by the elegant apartment of her son Paul (Vincent Lindon), a hard-driving businessman who instructs his wife, Hélène (Catherine Frot), to tell his mother he's already left for work. In the foyer, Mamie hides alongside the elevator and, sure enough, her son steps out. When Hélène subsequently receives an identical brushoff from her own son Fabrice (Aurélien Wiik), via his girlfriend, she snaps.

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An evening or so earlier, a young woman, running for her life down a dark street near Pigalle with several thugs in pursuit, begs Paul to open his car door and let her in. He instead locks her out and must watch as the woman is all but beaten to death by her pursuers. At this point, he agrees with his wife that they should at least call the police before taking off.

Upset by her husband's don't-get-involved attitude and their son's insolence, Hélène suddenly recognizes them as the selfish, spoiled louts they are.

In an instant, Hélène sets off to track down the badly beaten young woman, Noémie (Rachida Brakni), finds her in a coma and devotes all her energies to her long and difficult rehabilitation. Because Noémie's pursuers have scarcely called it a day, Hélène finds herself caught up in high adventure with the recovered young woman, who eventually entrusts Hélène with her astonishingly brutal life story.

Serreau, whose "Three Men and a Cradle" and "Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed" were far gentler, skewers men across the board, applying a lighter touch to Paul and Fabrice, but annihilating the array of savages who drove Noémie to run for her life down that dark street. Serreau takes too long in settling Noémie's scores, but the filmmaker's wit and ingenuity never fail, and beneath all of her heroines' escapades are blistering feminist attacks.

"Chaos" is the work of a commanding, risk-taking filmmaker adept at delivering a serious indictment in the form of a literally bruising comedy. Serreau gives her actors a terrific workout, demanding drastic shifts in expressiveness, mood and physicality, and they more than rise to the occasion, with the beautiful and fiery Brakni winning a most promising actress César. "Chaos" is an apt title for a film with such an encompassing and critical view of hectic modern life in its cruel self-absorption. But as a work of skilled screen craftsmanship, it is, in its construction and execution, anything but chaotic.

'Chaos'

MPAA rating: Unrated.

Times guidelines: Some scenes of extreme brutality directed toward women.

Catherine Frot ... Hélène
Vincent Lindon ... Paul
Rachida Brakni ... Noémie/Malika
Line Renaud ... Mamie
Aurélien Wiik ... Fabrice

A New Yorker Films release of a Les Films Alain Sarde-France 2 Cinema-Eniloc co-production with the participation of Canal Plus. Writer-director Coline Serreau. Producer Alain Sarde. Cinematographer Jean-François Robin. Editor Catherine Renault. Music Ludovic Navarre. Costumes Karen Serreau. Art director Marc Sausset. In French with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.

Exclusively at the Laemmle Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869, and the Laemmle Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 844-6500.