Carol ★★★
It can’t have been easy expressing one’s sexual identity in 1950s America, particularly if that identity involves being a woman attracted to other women. Carol has many strengths and portrays this daily struggle with identity well, and is a fantastic film. But whilst the acting and character development is superb, the film’s misplaced focus and unremarkable narrative stop it a little short of its potential.
Carol (Cate Blanchett) is getting divorced from her husband, and fighting for custody of their daughter. When shopping for Christmas presents she meets the younger and more timid Therese (Rooney Mara) and the two begin an unexpected romance, only things aren’t as straightforward in 1950s America as one would hope. And if that blurb sounds brief, understand that it’s also a very condensed synopsis — very little actually happens. Much more focussed on character than story, it’s a series of meetings inter-spliced by a travelling montage and little else.
Both Blanchett and Mara are brilliant and believable, and fully deserving of their Best Actress Golden Globe nominations for these roles. Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler are also good as supporting characters. The music is perfectly suited to the tone of the film and the direction and cinematography are great as well. Everything, in fact, feels incredibly polished. The only problem seems to be that the story is barely evident, when issues of sexuality are removed. Boil it all down and it’s a couple running off together, with a light focus on custody issues. There’s not a great deal of depth to anything, past the fact that this is a lesbian relationship during a time when that was considered ‘morally wrong’. View them as just a couple and suddenly the story’s quite light.
Take the road trip part of the film, for example. It consists almost entirely of travelling car shots (with Mara gazing from the window), the two women walking into various hotel rooms, and one twenty-second scene of them turning up to a restaurant they’ve reserved. Along with an intimate scene spliced in, this is the meat of the movie, its middle. And it just isn’t very interesting, nor all that necessary for the plot (without spoilers, the issue the couple have towards their trip’s end could have happened elsewhere, without the trip at all). In a film with — and it pains me to say it — the dynamics of a flatlined heartbeat, it actually borders on boring.
And that’s a real shame, because every other aspect of the film is really good and the chemistry between Carol and Therese feels very genuine. It almost feels like a concept that would work better as an hour long feature rather than a full two hour film. It’s not that I don’t recommend it; it’s a great piece of filmmaking and the performances are all stand-out. But its name is certainly appropriate; the film is much more about Carol than it is Therese. Carol’s relationship with her husband and daughter is the real narrative of the film, yet it’s her relationship with Therese that gets the attention. And when there isn’t all that much story to said relationship, there won’t be enough left over to keep everyone in the audience engaged.
