Carol – Film Review by Frank L.

Directed by Todd Haynes
Writers: Phyllis Nagy (screenplay), Patricia Highsmith (novel)
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson

Based on the 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel “The Price of Salt” the time is New York in the fifties. Men wore homburgs, ladies wore smart hats. The marriage of Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) is already in tatters when the film begins. At Frankenbergs, a smart department store, the Christmas shopping rush is proceeding at its merry pace. Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is a temporary shop assistant in the toy department. In Frankenbergs, Carol forgets her gloves; the connection with Therese is made.

The film is all about Carol and Therese. Carol has a bit of history with Abby Gerhard (Sarah Paulson) who Harge Aird (Kyle Chandler) cannot stand as he believes she is the immoral woman who has turned Carol against him. Therese has a little bit of history in the form of a predictable boyfriend, Richard, who is entirely out of his depth when Therese becomes friendly with Carol. As there are nasty marital proceedings in play as a result of the break-up of the Aird marriage there are low down tricks at play. However the movie is all about Carol and Therese.

Blanchett’s blond, slightly mature, swathed in mink hauteur stands in stark contrast to Mara’s dark, youthful wide-eyed innocence dressed pertly. It is an impressive visual juxtaposition. Each actor chimes effortlessly with the other. Paulson’s Abby acts as an effective sounding board so that with her conversations with Carol a lot of detail can be told in a gossipy way. Many of the shots take place through windows, sometimes spattered with rain, whether in a car or sitting in a restaurant. It makes the viewer feel intimate with the action… an insider.

Fashionable New York was confident of itself in the fifties. The sheer swishness of the period is delicious … big American cars with white rimmed wheels, ladies’ coats with swaggers, men’s coats with belts and restaurants with generous space between the tables and a hushed calmness. This evocation of a time when social norms were stiffer than today emphasises the brazen course Carol had been pursuing with Abby and now with Therese. The film evokes the then subversive quality in her behaviour. The tension which that behaviour created would not arise to anything like the same degree if the action was set at a later date. Therefore the glamorous surface of a fifties backdrop is a quintessential part of the drama.

Blanchett and Mara combine to make Carol and Therese persons of substance. Haynes has placed their relationship in a visually beautiful, apparently chic urban world which underneath is hide bound in convention. It all combines to make a film of considerable presence.