‘Order of Chaos’ doesn’t have many surprises

When upstanding yet browbeaten tax attorney John Pulliti (Rhys Coiro) learns that his aggressively macho, personal-space-intruding neighbor Rick (Milo Ventimiglia of “Heroes”) is his new competition at work, “Order of Chaos” writer-director Vince Vieluf turns what could have been an enjoyable business-thriller face-off into a tired playground for arty pretentiousness.

Combining the most facile elements of Neil LaBute’s disintegrating-male morality sagas with the distracting camera work, flash-edit bursts and club-music scoring of a hotshot first-timer with something to prove, Vieluf aims to make soul-crushing, angry and eventually violent points about the American competitive mind-set. (Close-ups of the word “America” on TV news screens being the first clue.)

Instead, the whole thing feels small, dopey, and -- thanks to female characters who are either cold (Mimi Rogers as the law firm boss), naggy (Samantha Mathis as John’s fiancee), or mindlessly sexual (various club denizens who represent extramarital temptation for John) -- needlessly misogynistic to boot. Ventimiglia at least has a few tricks in his bag in creating the dangerous allure of a play-to-win corporate attack dog, but with Coiro already looking victimized and mean from the outset, there’s little about John’s downfall to be shocked or intrigued by.

-- Robert Abele “Order of Chaos.” MPAA rating: R for sexual content, pervasive language and some violence. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. At Laemmle Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

Mystery set in Denmark

If things aren’t exactly rotten in Denmark, they sure do get complicated for an emotionally fragile Copenhagen cop reassigned to the sticks in this year’s Danish Oscar entry “Terribly Happy,” an enjoyably involving mystery-thriller.

There’s something a bit Lynch-ian about Skarrild, the remote village where the haunted Robert (Jakob Cedergren, think: a Nordic Ben Affleck) arrives to replace the burg’s mysteriously exited marshal. It’s a curious place with its own particular way of doing things -- from hanging laundry to meting out punishment -- that prefers to keep its secrets and lies within the confines of its scraggly populace. And, though at first the by-the-book Robert doesn’t set well with the suspicious locals and vice versa, he slowly starts bending their way as he finds himself caught between town femme fatale Ingelise (Lene Maria Christensen) and her abusive husband Jorgen (Kim Bodnia). What happens next is tense and unpredictable; suffice to say there are no lengths some folks won’t go to preserve their comfort zone.

Director Henrik Ruben Genz, who co-wrote the darkly wry script with Gry Dunja Jensen (based on a book by Erling Jepsen), vividly captures the look and tenor of the gloomily rural Skarrild, a spot Ingelise aptly describes as “all mud, cows and rubber boots” -- even if some are terribly happy to call it home.

-- Gary Goldstein “Terribly Happy.” MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In Danish with English subtitles. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, West Hollywood; and Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, Pasadena.

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