Breaking taboos

Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett star in "Carol." Image courtesy The Weinstein Company.

One of “Carol’s” most interesting aspects is its employment of the holiday season as a backdrop. Like the film, the days leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Day are equal turns cheerful and miserable, and it is the one time of year in which both feelings are equally acceptable. As “Carol” shows, the sense of optimism and hope brought by the season is undercut by a sense of disappointment and even sadness, essentially creating a paradox befitting a film that revels in contrasts and ambiguity.

Funny enough, “Carol” starts off as a meet cute between two women who are very, very different. Shop girl Therese (Rooney Mara) is a mousy girl whose small ambitions match with the tiny, barely furnished New York apartment she calls home and boyfriend (Jake Lacy) constantly pushing the relationship. Contrast that with the life of the eponymous character Carol (Cate Blanchett), a miserable housewife with a loving daughter and a husband (Kyle Chandler) who fights furiously against their impending divorce. Still, Mara and Blanchett see something in each other – a quiet sense of desperation each has – and kick off a strange, mismatched romance. Things soon take a turn for the worse when Blanchett’s divorce proceedings turn ugly due in part to Blanchett’s relationship with long-time friend Abby (Sarah Paulson). She needs to leave town for a while and takes Mara with her on a road trip to the west, stopping by a few small towns along the way. The trip is fun and cute at first, until a dramatic twist curtails the party and results in a major change in the relationship.

“Carol” is a difficult film to get a good read on because director Todd Haynes and screenwriter Phyllis Nagy break a few conventions along the way. The romance between Blanchett and Mara is often quiet, as the two exchange far fewer words with each other than they do with the rest of the cast; the film even makes a point to catch the two toward the end of conversations. Most films would flip that around, but the result shows effectively how extraneous words get in the way of the heart of the romance. Their language consists of devilish smiles and subtle touches that add a hint of intimacy to the film itself.

Also bizarre is a plot point that violates one of Checkhov's most well-known rules of writing. Haynes and Nagy establish the element in an obvious and intentionally cliched fashion, yet the payoff never occurs, and the moment where it could happen reflects the circumstances the characters involved face. It’s a masculine concept, and the women can’t bring themselves to violate their sapphic natures.

Little in “Carol,” essentially, is as it appears to be; rather, it's all just a bit distorted, a little bit off kilter. The sparse dialogue spoken between Mara and Blanchett has an odd cadence to it, the lines delivered with caution and with a comedic timing that wouldn't necessarily fit into such a heavy drama. It's as if the reality within “Carol” is heightened to an extravagant level – not overly surprising considering how the film oscillates between dreams and reality in a manner akin to a David Lynch film that makes everything feel a little surreal. Everything is a little ambiguous, and straightening out what is going on would remove some of the mystique that makes “Carol” so wonderful. There's a lot of mystery to be found in this film, much of which emanates from the terrific performances offered by both Blanchett and Mara; neither says everything on their respective minds, but get just enough across to have an inkling of what they might be thinking and allow silence to fill the holes.

And yet they do get what they want from the other without overly expressing their desires, and their wishes are both rooted in offering honesty. For Blanchett, it's escaping a situation she cannot cope with and being herself; Mara, on the other hand, wants control over her life and to establish something resembling a path through life, The ending suggests both characters might get what they want (arguments are easily made the other way though given “Carol's” inherent ambiguity) but the question Haynes and Nagy offer is whether the journey to that happy-ish ending is worth it. Happiness often has an exorbitant and unfair price, and like the season the film centers on, that joy is tainted by misery and despair.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 118 minute

Genre: Drama

Ask Away

Target audience: Anyone interested in LGBTQ issues and who are down to watch some wicked good performances.

Take the whole family?: The film takes a while to get to it, but it does get quite explicit. In other words, it might be best for the children to stay home.

Theater or Netflix?: “Carol” is definitely worth a theater trip.

Academy Award odds?: Cate Blanchett is close to a lock for a Best Actress nomination. Rooney Mara's status is up in the air – the main question is if she'll qualify for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress according to sites that track these things– and the film is on track for nominations for Todd Haynes for Best Director, Phyllis Nagy for Best Adapted Screenplay, and for Cinematography and Best Picture.

Watch this as well?: Hit up another Todd Haynes film about homosexuality and forbidden desires rooted in 1950s society, “Far From Heaven.” Julianne Moore is terrific as usual, and Haynes evokes great performances from Dennis Haysbert and Dennis Quaid.