Year: 2015
Director Todd Haynes
Screenplay: Phyllis Nagy
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler
Synopsis is here:
After watching Carol, I gave myself a day or two to let the
film linger. It’s a film that likes to
settle within the recesses of the mind. Its story is deceptively simple at the
surface, yet the emotional connections run deep throughout. Much has already been
said about the film main relationship between the elegant Carol (Cate Blanchett
at her most graceful) and Therese (Rooney Mara captures doe eyed innocence in a
bottle). However, director Todd Haynes’ command of the plot and its characters
is so robust that I had felt involved with even the secondary characters. There’s a
texture in the film that runs deeper than the luxurious fashions on
display.
While conversing with a friend, she mentioned that her
mother found such a connection to be lacking. I wonder if this is due to
Carol’s sexual orientation. I don’t say this as a negative. Far from it. The
beauty of Carol with its subtle glances and sly smiles is just how often it
pushes its heterosexual characters to the side. This must be by design. To show
that while many within the film may not understand the connections taking
place, they are still not things to be judged. Carol isn’t a queer text about
gay rights or equality per say, but it does seem to suggest that roses growing
out of the concrete needn’t be plucked. A less pretentious (and clearer)
interpretation would be to say that this is a struggle for these two
individuals rather than a universal one.
Haynes' depiction of this blossoming relationship and their
yearning is dutiful and precise. Once the roots are planted, the branches get
tangled with everyone. The ever dependable Kyle Chandler’s heart bleeds as
Harge; the heterosexual husband who struggles to grasp this new reality through
anger and his own needs. A brief moments from old flame Abby (a wonderfully
understated Sarah Paulson) hints not only at understanding, but heartache.
Smaller supporting roles also excel. Never sounding like soundboards of a
previous era, or knowing totems of this one. Haynes has entertained with this era
before for his beautiful melodrama pastiche Far from Heaven (2002), but this seems far from the more broadly drawn and colourful characters from his
previous venture. For me, Carol often reminded me of the isolated characters
who feature in the painting by Edward Hopper. It’s doubtful that Hopper is an
influence, yet Haynes’ direction and blocking of characters along with cinematographer
Edward Lachman’s framing, makes nearly every person we meet feel like Hopper’s
figures. Almost consumed by the industrial world around them.
It’s no surprise that when the films action shifts from city
to country, the characters seem to feel less suffocated by their surroundings
and in turn, their societal trappings. Carol’s beauty lies in its small subtleties.
Trying on new fragrances. A quiet drive with someone you admire. The small
token gesture of a gift, or an admiration of talent. These moments can seem so
typical of a romantic drama. However, the softness and slightly alien aspect of
an all-female romance within such a bygone era and the shifts of tensions
within the relationship dynamics makes Carol stand apart from more universal
films of a similar nature. Looking back at the film’s final outcome, the final
moments are both heartening and fretful. There’s elements of rejection we
ignore due to what we observe on the screen. Even at that moment the film’s closure
lays a shade of ambiguity that a more universal romance could perhaps ignore
for surface pleasures. I found that the excellence of Carol lies in its ability
to sow such seeds. It’s only after leaving the screen did the film’s deeper resonances
strike me. For that I am thankful.
