Carol
The Weinstein Company
Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Guest Reviewer for Shockya
Grade: B+
Director: Todd Haynes
Screenwriter: Phyllis Nagy; Based on the novel “The Price of Salt” by Patricia Highsmith
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy
Release Date: November 20, 2015
Can two people become attracted to each other though their circumstances are different? Patricia Highsmith says YES, in her 1952 romance novel “The Price of Salt”, describing life in New York City in the 1950’s. In the film version “Carol” we meet Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett), a married woman of leisure in her mid-forties, who is a mother of a young daughter. She resides in an upper-middle class neighborhood “in-the-country”, in a large two-level house, with a private driveway and a housekeeper, while her marriage is falling apart.
We also meet Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), a twenty-something woman who aspires to be a photographer, but works for a large department store in New York City. The two women meet in the toy department, where Carol forgot her gloves, but left a mailing address, thus giving Therese an excuse to form a contact. What follows is a strange friendship that develops into mutual attraction and sexual passion.
One of the men in this story is Harg Aird (Kyle Chandler), Carol’s husband. He is trying to stay married by all means necessary, some of which include: screaming threatening, hiring a detective to bug his soon to be ex-wife’s hotel room and refusing mediation in favor of public divorce trial. The second man is Richard (Jake Lacy), Therese’s boyfriend, who is clueless and decides to take Therese to Paris by sea, get married, and introduce her to his family, while ignoring her lack of interest in him and his plans.
After Harg files for full custody of their daughter, Carol has to seek psychiatric “cure” for her “sexual problem” (e.g. having liaisons with other women) and is forced to sever contact with Therese.
Director Todd Haynes brings us closer to the conservatively conformist world of America during the 1950’s, where proper red-lipsticked ladies with big breasts, small waists, and big hips lunched on Dry Martinis and smoked cigarettes to assert their independence. It was a world where one had to keep up appearances and avoid scandal at all cost, even seek “cure” to non-existent sexual ailments. During one scene of “Carol” Therese asks Richard if he ever heard of a situation where “a boy falls in love with another boy”, to which he replies “never heard of such a situation, ever!” Needless to say this is a world where “psychiatrist” would never be mentioned in a conversation, when “doctor” will suffice.
Cate Blanchett presents Carol with bravado, showing us a woman who has to make a choice between a certain lifestyle and her daughter. Rooney Mara plays Therese in a muted manner, since she is a young woman who is unsure of herself, as her sexual identity and photographic talent are about to burst out. Kyle Chandler and Jake Lacy play Carol’s husband and Therese’s boyfriend in an unremarkable manner, since their roles are not expanded and remain one-dimensional.
Photography director Edward Lachman does a fine job using Downtown Cincinnati to substitute for New York City, and supplementing those with scenes shot in Wyoming and Kentucky. We see the first half of “Carol” in wintery blues, representing the characters’ traditional life in the past, accentuated by Carol’s red garments, switching to glowing yellows, representing Therese’s and Carol’s present happiness.
Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939), a Czech Art Nouveau painter, said: “Blue is the color of the past, yellow is the color of the present but orange is the color of the glorious future to come”. I say: “Amen to that”.
Rated R. 118 minutes. © Tami Smith, Guest Reviewer
Story: B+
Acting: B+
Technical: B+
Overall: B+