Movie Review: 'Carnage'

Carnage Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly Directed by Roman Polanski Rated R

Where would we see the clashes of parenting styles imbued with the particulars of words as weapons? Only in Carnage, a Roman Polanski film.  Based on the play ‘Le Dieu du carnage’ (translated to: The God of Carnage) by Yasmina Reza, who co-wrote the screenplay with Polanski, focuses on the Longstreet’s and the Cowan’s begin a civilized conversation about their children getting into a schoolyard fight and as the threads become loosened, they begin fighting with each other.  No better than what they sought out to resolve, their qualms begin to get the better of them.

The film is focused on the particulars of words, their affect and the way they portray the individual into a certain light or defined characteristic.  Kate Winslet is Nancy Cowan; the seemingly uptight and reserved mother of Zachary whose father, Alan Cowan (Christoph Waltz) is the not-nearly apathetic lawyer who believes his child is monstrous.  Jodie Foster plays indignant Penelope Longstreet, mother to victimized Ethan, who insinuates the nuances of words with Alan, while father Michael Longstreet (John C. Reilly) tries to please everyone until he can no longer hide his true self.

There’s lots of name calling and obsessing over each others interests and careers, one in particular about plumbing between Alan and Michael ; writing and art between Nancy and Penelope, all of which descends into nasty words of brow-beating and flinging blame like petulant children.  Out to top the other, because their particular unhappy life demands, there’s much ado about a situation neither of them truly wanted to become involved with.  

The complexities of niceties soon begin to unravel as Alan is constantly pulled away by phone calls, Penelope’s need to insinuate and control the honesty and integrity of her righteousness begins to chip away at her happiness.  Her husband Michael can barely keep his thoughts to himself by running straight to the scotch, and Nancy’s suppressed indignation about confrontation resurfaces in a truly bile manner, resulting in a wholly wonderful physical performance by Winslet.

Polanski’s direction is nearly without interrupted flaws, as he depicts this very fast deterioration of masked facades in a single location, the Longstreet’s home.  The main and principle set filmed in Paris (due to Polanski’s legal woes in the United States) has many particular subtleties that play wonderfully if noticed.  The brightness of the New York view tracks the progression of the day as it goes on, gives an air of controlled claustrophobia with increasing feeling as the characters themselves begin to display their problems with the help of alcohol and the fundamentals of a home begin to seem like the adult version of playground warfare.  There’s isn’t much space to create great big camera movements, but what’s present is the illustration of pain, anger and involvement clearly reflected in the performances through subtle close-ups and wide shots of the entire cast.

The production design (Dean Tavoularis) and costumes (Milena Canonero) are wonderfully reflected on set, each with their own distinct and deliberate display of where each couple end up on the social hierarchy.  The music by composer Alexandre Desplat is also timid, but ferociously present when the film reaches its climax in its very short running time of 79 minutes, not that it detracts from the film.  

Nearly staged as it were performed on the stage (partly inspired by its origins as a play), many times the camera becomes static or surrogate to the viewer slowly inching closer to the drama.  The actors are also places in the frame together very often and inviting the feel of intimacy (with them and not between each other).  Class, race and gender begin to penetrate the mentality of every individual until it becomes the motivational factor that creates the combustible confrontations.

Carnage is directed by Roman Polanski, based on the play 'Le Dieu du carnage' by Yasmina Reza.  Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly.  The film is in limited release within the US on 16 December 2011.