Reilly portrays the kind of amusing naif he does best. Foster lets loose with her most heated performance in ages, playing a shrill, fragile woman always on the verge of losing it. Thankfully, “Carnage” avoids complete dismissal thanks to its cast.
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(Considering that it’s Polanski’s first movie since his long period of house arrest in Switzerland, perhaps he drew from personal experience.) On the big screen, the setting is inherently claustrophobic, which works against such high-octane material. As the situation gradually spirals out of control, “Carnage” still feels resolutely one-note, a fundamentally tame exercise made bearable by dialogue and performance.
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However, he can’t free the material from its theatrical roots. Using mirrors, tracking shots and elaborate close-ups, Polanski at least manages to make “Carnage” visually pronounced. Nancy delivers the ultimate judgment call, deeming their debates “superficially fair-minded.” Indeed, each character has their own version of fair, and nobody wins out.īecause “Carnage” contains moments of shifting allegiances, individual monologues and abrupt, comical slapstick, the camera angles tell the story. Punches are thrown resolutions go the way of the dodo. Michael tries to get along with everyone and instead becomes the primary object of scorn. Nancy, confused about which side deserves her sympathies, vomits on the living room table.
“I don’t know what language they speak in,” she mutters to her husband. Penelope, a delicate flower with bleeding-heart liberal sensibilities, frowns on Alan’s apathy. In between taking ill-timed calls on his cell phone, high-powered lawyer Alan rolls his eyes at the Longstreets’ repeated intentions of working things out. Reza’s screenplay (co-written by Polanski) maintains the same enjoyable satiric contrasts of the original. Regardless of its spatial limitations, the material makes sense in Polanski’s domain, because it ultimately transforms into a comic thriller always on the verge exploding into chaos.īut he doesn’t change much. But fragments of conversation lead to the assumption that they have yet to sort out the blame. The other couple, Alan (Christoph Waltz) and Nancy (Kate Winslet) Cowan, head for the door. The couples begin their encounter on rather cordial terms, agreeing on an even-handed statement about the brawl at the apartment of Penelope (Jodie Foster) and Michael (John C. The filmed play wins out over the movie, but that’s not to say Polanski doesn’t try hard for a different outcome. However, “Carnage” repeatedly suffers from an internal tension between the possibilities of two media at odds with each other. Because “Carnage” is restricted by shots and cuts, Polanski struggles to make the material more cinematic, toying with clever mise-en-scene to showcase the mounting tensions. On stage, it’s possible to take a selective approach, focusing on individual behavior while getting the big picture of their collective neuroses. 'Champions' Review: Woody Harrelson Learns to Be a Better Person in Uneasy Sports Comedyįrom 'Nymphomaniac' to 'Little Ashes': Unsimulated Sex Scenes in 38 Films 'Scream VI' Review: Ghostface Takes Manhattan as This Slasher Franchise Finds Its Footing Again What happened before matters less than what happens next.
While it makes for an energetic beginning, this decision ruins the piece’s central ambiguity: Because the parents don’t know what happened, they impose their own biases and allow their distinct feelings of entitlement to manifest over some 90 minutes. Acknowledging as much, the director tacks on an opening shot in the New York park where the kids’ disputed encounter takes place. “Carnage,” Roman Polanski’s faithful adaptation, lacks the immediate justification for the tight setting.
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