Carol
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Written by: Phyllis Nagy - Based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy, Sarah Paulson, John Magaro, Cory Michael Smith
Drama/Romance - 118 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 19 Dec 2015
Written by: Phyllis Nagy - Based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy, Sarah Paulson, John Magaro, Cory Michael Smith
Drama/Romance - 118 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 19 Dec 2015
Director Todd Haynes loves the 1950s. Specifically, he seems drawn to relationships and love stories impossible to fulfill due to that decades’ strict social protocols. According to doctrine, the 1950s nuclear family unit contained a father, mother, and 2.3 children. There was no foundation for interracial relationships, gay and lesbian issues, and the bare minimum of toleration for the sin of divorce. Haynes tackles familiar territory in Carol, a story about a jaded and restless upper crust housewife falling apart in her sham marriage and her attraction to a much younger shop girl.
This is an all too familiar realm for Todd Haynes considering his 2002 film, Far From Heaven. There, Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert fall in love crossing racial boundaries after Moore learns her husband, Dennis Quaid, is gay. Phyllis Nagy, adapting Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, shows the audience requited love, yet reaching across unacceptable gender boundaries. The Price of Salt is a loosely autobiographical novel by Highsmith who published it under a pseudonym because Woolworths was not exactly stocking lesbian literature on its shelves back then.
This is an all too familiar realm for Todd Haynes considering his 2002 film, Far From Heaven. There, Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert fall in love crossing racial boundaries after Moore learns her husband, Dennis Quaid, is gay. Phyllis Nagy, adapting Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, shows the audience requited love, yet reaching across unacceptable gender boundaries. The Price of Salt is a loosely autobiographical novel by Highsmith who published it under a pseudonym because Woolworths was not exactly stocking lesbian literature on its shelves back then.
Christmas time in 1952 New York City finds Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett, Truth) in search of a doll for her young daughter. The girl at the counter, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara, Pan) cannot take her eyes off Carol. Their eyes meet and they track each other’s movements across the department store floor. It is up to you if you think Carol accidentally leaves her gloves on the counter in a mistake or in a bit of strategy to see where these stares and nonverbal glances may proceed.
Therese Belivet, perhaps with the most delicious sounding character name in recent memory, is a wide-eyed, insecure being treading water in the big city. She is a hobby photographer in her spare time and carries on an uninterested relationship with boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacy). Carol’s sophistication and confidence are mesmerizing and perhaps turn-ons for the impressionable young lady. The film may be called Carol, but personally, I think Rooney Mara as Therese is the lead character and owns the film. Mara is absolutely stunning with her deer in headlights moments.
The stakes are exponentially higher for Carol. Carol’s husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler, The Wolf of Wall Street), knows what Carol is up to with Therese even before Therese realizes what is going on. Harge carries an ace up his sleeve though. Still in love with Carol and wanting to save their marriage, he holds Carol’s young daughter as a bargaining chip in their divorce proceedings. Should Carol follow her heart and chase happiness with Therese, she will do so without her daughter once the judge declares her morally unfit to be a mother. Harge, perhaps the most WASPish name I’ve ever heard, employs lawyers and investigators targeting Carol which he thinks proves how much he loves her.
Haynes and Director of Photography Ed Lachman, who also shot Far From Heaven, chose to film in Cincinnati, Ohio because it’s pre-war buildings resemble 1950s New York. They even shot current signage because it remains architecturally authentic. Lachman explains he shot Carol using ‘poetic realism’ referencing mid-20th century photographers. He clarifies saying photographs from the era have a certain poetic feel to them which is what Haynes wanted for the film. Costume designer Sandy Powell dresses Carol as posh and cosmopolitan juxtaposed with Therese’s understated plaids and even blue jeans at times. Production designer Judy Becker drapes the interiors in dark green, dark pink, and yellows. This feeling of consistent color saturation reminds me of Far From Heaven with its persistent, bright fall colors.
The soundtrack by Carter Burwell, who scores the Coen Brothers films, is one of the year’s best moving along deliberately with thoughtful piano, deep cellos, and lower woodwinds. Put it all together and Carol is masterfully crafted. Yet, its central love story is not a narrative that exactly nails me to my seat. I sympathize with Carol and Therese navigating a relationship openly frowned upon in society, but the finished product feels more aloof than all encompassing. I walked out of the theater thoroughly enchanted with the ending, which is so well put together it borders on pure cinematic art. It is a stellar cap to put on a somewhat drab love story draped in exceedingly competent filmmaking.
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