Skip to footer

'Carol' is carefully appointed outside, chilly inside

( R ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Carol' stars Rooney Mara as a shopgirl who becomes romantically involved with wife and mother Carol (Cate Blanchett).

|
Wilson Webb/The Weinstein Company/AP
Rooney Mara, as Therese Belivet, and Cate Blanchett, as Carol Aird, in a scene from the film, 'Carol.'
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

Todd Haynes’s “Carol,” based on the 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith (written under a pseudonym and titled “The Price of Salt”), is a sort of companion piece to his “Far From Heaven,” which was also about sexual repression in postwar America. Like that movie, I think “Carol” is a repressed movie about repression, carefully appointed on the outside, chilly inside.

Cate Blanchett plays a well-heeled wife and mother who carries out a sort of secret life as a lesbian. Her Carol falls for Therese, played by Rooney Mara, a pretty shopgirl with whom she shares martini lunches and eventually a car trip westward, where their furtive affections finally become passionate before Carol’s husband tracks them down and lawyers up for sole custody of his and Carol's daughter.

This is not one of Highsmith’s creepy Ripleyesque narratives. On the contrary, it’s one of the few lesbian-themed texts from that era that ends on an upbeat, as does the movie. The problem is that there is very little chemistry between the actresses, and Haynes and screenwriter Phyllis Nagy are far too studied in their depiction of passion. The most impressive performance in the movie is given by Blanchett’s elaborately coiffed, cast-iron hairdo. Grade: C+ (Rated R for a scene of sexuality/nudity and brief language.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Carol' is carefully appointed outside, chilly inside
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2015/1120/Carol-is-carefully-appointed-outside-chilly-inside
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe