Carol (2015)

Cate Blanchett as Carol convinces us with a love story how great of an actress she is. Cate Blanchett is truly emotionally powerful and helps us give a glimpse of a beautiful character to time travel. Easily emphathizing with her, Cate Blanchett gives yet another great performance that could have been her most toughest and most powerful role yet!

New York City, 1952: Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) is a wealthy, middle-aged woman in the process of divorcing her husband who is resisting her divorce. While Christmas shopping for her young daughter, she shares a mutual attraction with Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), a young store clerk who aspires to be a photographer."Carol" has the right production values (cinematography, set design, music, and costumes) that help director Todd Haynes recreate a time period long gone. The journey is beautiful in a mysterious way.Blanchett is as great as always. She is as suave as suave could possibly get and she can show the inner conflict of someone whose new relationship could jeopardize having equal custody to her daughter once the divorce proceedings begin.Mara, in a subtle way, conveys the innocence of a young woman coming of age in a very unusual way. I have no doubt of her talents but she was difficult to read at times; she could show depth but sometimes seemed too restrained, rarely changing her facial expression. It's hard to tell if this was the choice of Mara, Haynes, or both.For much of the film, it seemed like the main characters were going through the motions but there could have been more chemistry between them even though repression and conformity were 1950s hallmarks. (An aside: it seems this is the season for movies taking place in New York in the 1950s. "Brooklyn" and "Bridge of Spies" are two other examples.) Clearly, the benchmark for forbidden same-sex love stories is "Brokeback Mountain" (2005). In that film, there was more evidence of tension building between the two lovers. The separation anxiety was also more evident including the excitement of reuniting. This is not to say that "Carol" must be similar but it could have used less restraint.It is in the last half-hour that the movie really shines. Blanchett is superb in a scene involving her husband and their lawyers. And later, the film finishes at just the right point leaving only a tiny bit of ambiguity. It left so much subtle emotion that I only wish the rest of the film had been as strong.

Todd Haynes' 'Carol', like much of his output, paints a inch-perfect picture of life as it was the 1950s, at least for the middle and upper-middle classes, the sort of protrayal that emphasises the idea that the past is another country and they do things differently there. My gut reaction is to dislike this approach, to feel that a focus on aesthetic differences or behavioural norms hides the essential truth that underneath, we're the same as we always have been. But I can't help but praise 'Carol', a quietly mesmerising movie about two women who have a very socially-unacceptable affair. The acting is good, the score is excellent, but what's really brilliant is that the film works as a portrait of individuals, motivated by their own mixtures of desire and need. This is less a story about the right to be gay, per se, as one about the more general right just to be yourself; but it doesn't shy away from presenting the innate selfishness of asserting that right. I particularly liked the way Cate Blanchett's eponymous character, older and glamourous, initially appears to be calling all the shots, but in fact it's her mousy companion who turns out to have the firmer idea of what she really wants. A subtle and excellent movie.

Romance blossoms between a wealthy, middle aged woman and an open-minded younger woman in this lusciously filmed drama set during the 1950s. While both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are effective in their respective roles, the most interesting aspect of 'Carol' is the near ignorance of everyone else to the possibility of the pair being in love. More than half an hour passes before Blanchett's husband questions how Mara knows her and director Todd Haynes does wonders keeping the mutual attraction between the pair subtle. Much is communicated simply through looks and stares without the need for explicit romantic moments or obvious dialogue. This subdued approach in turns makes Blanchett's more emotional moments in the second half of the film more powerful as she comes against a "morality clause" in her impending divorce proceedings. Certain aspects of both female protagonists are left uncomfortably murky - most notably, the suggestion that Blanchett might have a history of seducing younger women. Both characters are generally well fleshed out though as they are torn between the hearts' desires and being what everyone else expects them to be. Carter Burwell provides an enchanting music score that perfectly complements the proceedings and the memorable final scene is a testament to the ability of images to convey more than words.