> REVIEW
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Carnage (2012)
Tempers will rise…
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By Matt Arnoldi | February 2012
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
WRITER(s): Roman Polanski/Yasmina Reza (source)
Based on Yasmina Reza’s award winning play The God of Carnage, Roman Polanski’s deliciously black comedy pits the wits of two sets of middle-class parents in Manhattan, who come together to settle the matter of an altercation in the park that involves both of their offspring.
Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly star as lower class but upwardly ambitious Penelope and Michael Longstreet, while Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz play the cultured Nancy and Alan Cowan who consider themselves far superior in intellectual ability.
This is where things become difficult. The Cowans have their own idea on how their son should be punished for his actions. Penelope, driven by a greater need for justice has a more demonstrable idea of what that punishment should consist of. Her husband Michael is more conciliatory and just wants to get through this awkward meeting with the least amount of trouble.
Over coffee, they try to settle the issue. The Cowans, embarrassed, want to offer words of apology and escape. Alan, a fiercely driven business attorney is conducting a complex company takeover case on his mobile phone, so his son’s misdemeanours are not top of his priority list. Others around the table, including his wife, find the intrusion of his phone ill mannered and want him to concentrate on the issue in hand.
What, of course, should be a fairly simple matter to resolve becomes anything but. Several times when it seems like it has, and the Cowans can make their escape, a throwaway line brings them back together.
The forced civility is undeniably what drives the film. The Longstreets offer rounds of coffee and homemade treats, even the whisky comes out and soon this really is like a car-crash dinner party, echoing the plays of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party or Edward Albee’s Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf ?
And Polanski handles it well. Dialogue is sharp, the confined characters well drawn and the game cast play ‘uncomfortable’ beautifully. Here are four adults who should be behaving responsibly, but their increasingly childish actions show they are no better than the bickering kids they’re here to discuss.
Jodie Foster is a surprise in a gutsy and provocative role, Kate Winslet is afforded some great lines and comedic beats, while Waltz’s role is perhaps the most limited since he is tied to his mobile, leaving John C Reilly as the stand-out performer with a role that enables him to showcase his comedic abilites.
Although by the halfway point you’ll probably feel you’ve twigged where it might be leading, with a runtime of just over 80 minutes Polanski expertly exploits the material without ever exhausting our patience.
Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….
Reza’s play provides a wonderful source for sharp repartee and razor dialogue,
inspiring excellent turns from an A-List cast and leading to some darkly comedic moments. 4
Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..
Polanski uses the tight confines of an apartment to good effect, showing how
claustrophobic conditions can seriously inhibit the personalities of people
bound up with their own self-importance. 3
Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Polanski-light perhaps, but this is still sparkling in its capture of embarrassment
and awkwardness in a comedy of manners. 3
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