Playing at the
Michigan theater in Ann Arbor, MI now, the Golden Globe-nominated Carol tells the story of two women- young shop girl Therese Belivet
(Rooney Mara) and older, soon-to-be devorceé Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) and
the furtive romance the two share in the gender-normative and homophobic early
1950s.
It was wonderfully refreshing to see
a movie featuring lesbians in the 1950s that (spoiler alert?) doesn’t end with
some kind of horrible tragedy or trauma. The treatment of the characters and
the relationships in the film is made even more pleasantly surprising after the
revelation that the film is based on a novel written in 1952. Having not read
the novel, I can’t speak to the film’s fidelity to the source material, but
from comparing the Wikipedia plot synopses of the novel and the film, it seems
that only minor changes have been made.
The film begins in faux-media res as a coworker of Therese spots
her and Carol dining together and interrupts their dinner. Carol graciously
rises from the table and leaves, squeezing Therese’s shoulder in a beautifully
subtle intimate gesture before departing to allow Therese to leave for a party
she had been planning on attending with the man.
In the cab, however, the camera closes
in on Therese’s face before transitioning into a flashback to tell the story of
romance between Carol and Therese. This story-telling decision may seem
superfluous at first, but the scene in the restaurant is revisited later, from
the perspective of the women at the table, of course, to great effect.
The film is understated and elegant
and does a great job at naturally building the tension between the two women.
The tension is there from the beginning. Mara and Blanchett have a perfect
chemistry between them. You can see it from the first moment Therese and Carol
lock eyes in the department store. The desire of the older, more experienced
woman and the shy, schoolgirl crush of the ingénue. The tension only grows as
the movie goes longer and longer without the women consummating their mutual
attraction. When they finally kiss (at more than halfway through the film) I
breathed a huge sigh of relief because the wait was becoming unbearable.
In addition, Mara and Blanchett do
not only shine as a couple. Each actress brings to life a nuanced, well-rounded
character and the movie benefits from showing a fair amount of each character
independent of the other. Blanchett got the better role in the somewhat Mrs.
Robinson-like Carol, who tries to balance her proclivities in a time when they
were considered utterly abhorrent with her genuine love and desire to care for
her daughter. Mara is charming as the mousy Therese. Through the development
arc of Therese’s character Mara captures well the way in which falling in love
can change a person.
There was a supporting cast in the
film, but they were all very secondary. Carol’s soon-to-be ex-husband Harge
(Kyle Chandler) is essential to the plot, but most of the supporting cast are,
on a whole, relatively forgettable. American Horror Story fans may notice Sarah
Paulson, as Carol’s first female love and best friend Abby, once again taking a
role as a vintage lesbian, but the film belongs to Carol and Therese.
On the whole, it was a lovely film.
The only issues that come to mind being some somewhat on-the-nose dialogue
regarding sexuality. Therese’s friend (who is attracted to her) tells her “You
don’t know why you’re attracted to some people and not others, you either are
or you aren’t.” Later, Therese asks her boyfriend fairly randomly if he had
ever been in love with a man. Neither of these conversations feels natural, but
they are the only two that don’t. The rest reads true as a really excellent
story of “forbidden love” without being tawdry.
A-
