Nominations are certain in this classy, alternative love story that's just a bit slow.
Film Reviewed: Carol
Grade: B
Director: Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven)
Screenplay: Phyllis Nagy (Mrs. Harris) from Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Price of Salt.
Cast: Cate Blanchett (Truth), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Rating: R
Runtime: 116 min.
by John DeSando
“I became a lesbian because of women, because women are beautiful, strong, and compassionate.” Rita Mae Brown
“Measured,” “minimalist,” “downtempo,” and “underplayed” are four adjectives among many to be applied to the distinctive indie art film, Carol. Each one is a compliment to director Todd Haynes, who has perfectly evoked the ‘50’s of Patricia Highsmith’s then thought-to-be potboiler, The Price of Salt.
That was then, for now lesbian love stories have to wait in a long line of daring pop cult such as transgender stories. The mature Carol (Cate Blanchett) and shop-girl Therese (Rooney Mara) fall in love through a series of longing looks in the first 20 minutes that seem stretched to infinity.
However the film is a classy allegory about the repressive middle of the last century when a woman could lose her child for loving another woman. Such is the heart of the tension—will Carol lose custody? Will she be able to get visitation? How damaging is a recording of her with her lover? Seems pretty tame by contemporary standards, but Haynes makes each frame carry a gravity that the times would lay on such lawless action.
Will the ladies get the Oscar nod? I think so although it will be a challenge to separate consideration of the vigorous Cate in Truth and the nuanced Cate in Carol. In the former, Cate plays Mary Mapes, the high-profile producer of a disputed 60 minutes segment; in the latter she is an understated society wife whose actions are reminiscent of a spy, who must hold her cards close or be exposed and punished.
I have a working knowledge of the ‘50’s, and this film is spot on from costuming to set design, from the cars to the chatter. Along with that accuracy is the evocation of the prejudice women were subjected to then and a bit even today. The comfort of it all to me is that we no longer smoke in restaurants. Hooray!
“It's a curious, wanting thing.” Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
