After reading all thirty five reviews posted for this film here on IMDb as I write this, I'm convinced that most movie viewers don't have the attention span necessary to watch a film from beginning to end in order to follow the story line. Far from being a convoluted mess and lacking any coherence, it's actually simple enough to understand what happens here, so in the interest of clearing things up, I'll explain. Rosalind's (Olga Kurylenko) mental breakdown occurred because she stopped taking her medication for schizophrenia, which she thought would harm her pregnancy. Her first experience with the illness occurred at the age of fourteen when she was raped by photographer J.B. Raven, who was already dead when the events in this picture take place. Milton (Bryan Cox) was the business agent for Raven, as well as the agent for Rosalind, an accomplished artist. Raven photographed Rosalind multiple times after raping her in a state of shock and trauma, and blamed the rape on his assistant Pierre Laurent (Assaad Bouab), who went to prison for twenty years after being convicted of the crime.
Milton helped cover up the rape by Raven, just as he covered up the death of baby Amodeo by using his contacts in high places, to make it look like the baby died in a car crash. He did so under the pretense of "We have to protect the ones we love", which he stated to Will (Claes Bang) at one point. What he really meant was that he had to protect his own sources of income and prevent the truth from coming out about his covering up Raven's rape of Ros. Milton felt he could blackmail Will about burying the dead baby, thereby insuring that his involvement in both instances would remain secure.
When Ros went back on her medication and started to get better, she slowly became aware of Milton's complicity in undermining her life. Pierre Laurent was the one who sent the photos taken by Raven to Rosalind at her home, but she never opened the chest to see them. When he found the chest, Will forced it open to see the pictures of his wife when she was traumatized by her rape at a young age. Later, Milton secured the chest and brought it to his home. It wasn't until Will confronted Pierre in the alley that he became aware of Milton's involvement in the original cover up. While attempting to keep Ros sedated at his home, she came across the photos taken by Raven, and began to understand Milton's role in keeping Raven's secret buried, while helping pin the blame on Laurent. She was restrained from killing Milton by Will, though as they left his apartment, the off screen gunshot by Laurent killed Milton, who placed the body on the building's front steps with the scattered photos affirming Raven's crime scattered around him.
There are other nuances in the picture I haven't detailed in the interest of space and time, but they all contribute to the continuity of the story line. An opening sequence in the film of the young Rosalind and her childhood friend Pierre running off to hide the chest in a small cave makes sense when you have the events in the story finally come full circle.
Milton helped cover up the rape by Raven, just as he covered up the death of baby Amodeo by using his contacts in high places, to make it look like the baby died in a car crash. He did so under the pretense of "We have to protect the ones we love", which he stated to Will (Claes Bang) at one point. What he really meant was that he had to protect his own sources of income and prevent the truth from coming out about his covering up Raven's rape of Ros. Milton felt he could blackmail Will about burying the dead baby, thereby insuring that his involvement in both instances would remain secure.
When Ros went back on her medication and started to get better, she slowly became aware of Milton's complicity in undermining her life. Pierre Laurent was the one who sent the photos taken by Raven to Rosalind at her home, but she never opened the chest to see them. When he found the chest, Will forced it open to see the pictures of his wife when she was traumatized by her rape at a young age. Later, Milton secured the chest and brought it to his home. It wasn't until Will confronted Pierre in the alley that he became aware of Milton's involvement in the original cover up. While attempting to keep Ros sedated at his home, she came across the photos taken by Raven, and began to understand Milton's role in keeping Raven's secret buried, while helping pin the blame on Laurent. She was restrained from killing Milton by Will, though as they left his apartment, the off screen gunshot by Laurent killed Milton, who placed the body on the building's front steps with the scattered photos affirming Raven's crime scattered around him.
There are other nuances in the picture I haven't detailed in the interest of space and time, but they all contribute to the continuity of the story line. An opening sequence in the film of the young Rosalind and her childhood friend Pierre running off to hide the chest in a small cave makes sense when you have the events in the story finally come full circle.