Cannes Review: Carol
Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 12:00PM 
Our friend Diana Drumm is in Cannes and will be sending a few reviews our way. First up, Todd Haynes hotly anticipated Carol... (note: this review contains a couple of spoilers for those who haven't read the book)
Within a year of publication, Patricia Highsmith’s first novel “Strangers on a Train” became a seminal Hitchcock thriller. After half a century, her second novel “The Price of Salt” (published under the pseudonym of Claire Morgan) is now a Todd Haynes romantic drama (under the succinct title Carol). Whereas the former concerns two male strangers duplicitous in murder, the latter is about two women finding love in constrictive 1952 New York City. Turning the pulp novel into a palpable parable, Carol is a master stroke in Haynes’s 21st century oeuvre (Far from Heaven, Mildred Pierce, et al.), and harkens back to the pressurized strength of Safe and the sexual fluidity of Velvet Goldmine - both capturing and throwing off the starched restrictiveness of postwar America, and deftly upgrading the melodrama with social relevance.
Inspired by Highsmith’s own stint at Macy’s (and her affair with Philadelphia socialite Virginia Kent Catherwood), 20-something shopgirl Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) waits on and is struck by elegant “blondish woman in a fur coat” Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett). A friendship builds between the two, to the jealousy of Therese’s huffy square boyfriend (Jake Lacy), who dismisses it as schoolgirl crush, and the consternation of Carol’s matinee-handsome, soon-to-be ex-husband (Kyle Chandler), who uses it as ammunition in their ongoing divorce negotiations. [More]
While the men suspect the two of wayward lust, Therese and Carol actually tumble into love, a consuming, spiritual, kindred love. One not so much spoken as revealed through pauses pregnant with heart-wrenching glances. To the outside world, they remain era-appropriate discrete. So inconspicuous in fact that their conversations are constantly interrupted by unknowing meddlesome males, middling sorts ranging from salesmen to acquaintances, entitled to the women’s attention at seemingly all times even while the two are obviously in deep private conversation. As Carol’s longtime friend and former lover (Sarah Paulson) points out, the Aird marriage consisted of ten years of Mr. Aird stomping Carol’s individuality out while forcing himself in as Carol’s identifying point of reference - “your wife” - rather than a mutual partnership.
In Carol, male entitlement is almost as rampant as the Haynes-characteristic smatterings of 1950s cultural cues (President-Elect Eisenhower on both tv screen and radio, Perry Como’s Silver Bells plays, luscious furs on top of full waist-fitted skirts, etc.). While Blanchett’s Carol is styled with a blonde bob and Grace Kelly-esque accoutrements, Mara’s Therese transitions from mousy Jean Simmons into a young Audrey Hepburn-meets-Elizabeth Taylor type as their relationship develops and she comes into her own. But then the third act shifts into something rather extraordinarily timeless as Carol also comes into her own.
In the face of losing both custody of her daughter and the woman she loves, along with a respectable reputation, Carol makes a choice to stand for herself, not just for her or Therese’s sake, but for that of her daughter, movingly stating to her ex and their aghast lawyers, “What use am I to her if I’m living against my own grain?” A courageous coming out by today’s standards, even more remarkable and laudable in the context of 1952 America, two years after the official start of McCarthy’s “lavender scare” and a year before Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 (which allowed federal employees to be fired for “sexual perversion”).
And while Haynes masterfully sets the scenes with sumptuous slow pans, long take close-ups and a sweeping score, it’s Blanchett and Mara’s performances that turn this from a great period drama into a masterpiece. Through subtle looks, glances and physicality, Blanchett’s joie-de-vivre meets Mara’s imploring timidity to blossom into one of the most satisfyingly heart-wrenching, bordering on misery porn, romances in years.
While it’s easy to draw comparisons between this and 2013 Palme D’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Color (lesbian love story performed by incredibly-abled actresses under a debatable male gaze), Carol is just as akin to the “women’s pictures” of George Cukor and Douglas Sirk. As Carol writes to Therese, “I do the only thing I can, I release you,” it’s hard not to think of Marguerite’s self-sacrifice for Armand in Cukor’s Camille. And similarly, with Carol’s custody battles, one is drawn to remembering the pull between motherhood and romance for glamor-stricken Lora Meredith in Sirk’s Imitation of Life. Those pictured ended in tuberculosis-ridden tragedy and fractured mother-daughter relationships, but Carol ends without immediate death or destruction. It stands as a much-needed revitalization of classic melodrama.
Grade: A
Reader Comments (12)
Hey, no need to share spoilers in the review!
I cannot believe this movie will take so long to be released.
My most anticipated in forever. Todd Haynes should work much more than he does.
Are we now unanimous that Cate is in for Best Actress.
Hesitant to call this early in the fest, but Cate is most definitely a frontrunner. Also waiting to see what Marion does with Lady Macbeth.
Blanchett's guaranteed a nomination, no doubt about that. But another win would be very difficult to pull off that soon. They would really have to love the film, it would need to make a lot of money and earn 5+ nominations for the sake of potent noise pollution. Harvey is really good at all of that though, so you never know. I think the tremendous love and support can easily win Mara the supporting actress Oscar. In fact, she might be the film's best bet at an Oscar Win.
The Metacritic average will easily hit 80 if not 85 and above. The film will be a critical darling for sure.
What makes me truly happy is that people are in love with the quality of Blanchett's performance and nothing is more important than that. Nothing! I guess it's best to hold TRUTH for 2016 should Cate turn out to be lead.
Really looking forward to this myself.
Going by all the reviews I can find, it seems like its an immaculate crafted film, but very mannered, slow, subtle, a bit icy in that Todd Haynes way. His art film pedigree has got him a lot of critical respect and a small but passionate audience of followers, but its the same thing that keeps him out of mainstream recognition.
Which, ya know, that’s fine! He’s incredibly talented director with some great films to his name, this being another addition, by all accounts. But people will go into Carol thinking it might be some sweeping melodramatic weepie, and find something very quiet and respectable instead, full of suggestive glances and whispered secrets. The kind of thing that gets nominated in all the major categories, but doesn’t inspire the kind of feverish passion and emotion that drives Best Picture support. Say what you will about Birdman (and LORD knows, the people who hate that movie like I do have said some shit about Birdman), Iñárritu films are loud, fiery things that people really get behind. I imagine the Revenant will be similar, a pulpy thrilling movie, with BIG DICAPRIO EMOTIONS(the only kind he knows nowadays), blunt hammer themes, totally gorgeous thanks to twice-Oscar winning Chivo, with the kind of combination of star power and exciting genre thrills they can produce a box office hit much bigger than Carol’s limited audience.
I can see the thinkpieces now. Women against men. Quiet, contemplative lesbian drama vs big, thunderous manly man movie. Why does the Academy only award stories about men and their problems, the editorials will say. The world is round, Blanchett said. Yes, the Revenent is a worthy film, but Carol was special goddamnit, this was a chance for the Academy to enforce real change, they will cry…
And I’ll be over here, rooting for Mad Max: Fury Road to sweep all categories. Now there’s a film both men AND women can rally around!
I'm a huge fan of Todd Haynes as I so want to see this.
Question Diana?: Are you availing of UberChopper to flit from event to event?
I love Haynes so I'm really looking forward to this. He and Cate work well together so i expect great things. The reviews seem to bear this out.
I have always wanted to attend Cannes. It was the first film festival I became aware of and still has a pull on me. One of these days........................
Does it count as the vilified "male gaze" if the male is gay? It just seems like we are in different territory here than with Kechiche.
Great review but, even though you warned us about spoilers, did you have to give away so much???
Whenever I see a still of Blanchett from this movie, I can't take my eyes off her. Blanchett's inner intelligence seems to burn through her pores, resulting in an unearthly beauty that rivals any classic screen star. It's fitting that the reviewer mentions the evocation of Grace Kelly. Also an intriguing mention of Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor in reference to Blanchett-in-waiting Rooney Mara.
how much is Sarah Paulson featured in this film? I hope she has enough screentime and a good enough performance to snab a Supporting Actress nomination. She's been robbed of an award for years now.