Starring: Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Christoph Walz
Director: Roman Polanski
Running Time: 1 hr 19 min
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Billed as a “new comedy with no manners”, Roman Polanski’s “Carnage” casts four Hollywood stars with incredible clout – Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Walz – and lets them go at it with all of the unbridled fury that they can muster. And over the course of a brief yet potent 80 minutes it’s a joy to see each of them contribute to the wild chaos that unfolds.
Based upon Yasmina Reza’s wildly successful play, “God of Carnage”, the premise of the film is a fairly simple one: two sets of parents meet up in a rather small apartment in New York City to discuss a playground altercation between their two sons. Tension is evident from the onset and eventually forced civility and proper manners transform into sharp-tongued rage and physical outbursts that result in decimated coffee table books, smashed tulips and a drowned cell phone. But the overall effect of their verbal carnage runs far deeper than destruction of each character’s prized possessions. The venom that each spits at the other, be it through sarcasm or interrogation, strikes at each other’s core beings and true beliefs. Despite this inherently vicious drama, the film manages to play as a dark comedy because – let’s face it – it’s a guilty pleasure to vicariously watch adults devolve into the sandbox bullies that are just as vicious as the children that they are ostensibly there to protect.
The quick and edgy rhythmic dialog by which the film achieves this is nearly identical to Reza’s script for her stage play – which is not altogether surprising given that she and Polanski collaborated on the screenplay. And because the film takes place almost entirely in the living room of Foster and Reilly’s apartment, the confined space increases the pressure of the volatility of the situation through sheer claustrophobia. While this largely works throughout the majority of the film as each character builds up to detonation, it somewhat neuters the explosions that a more spacious set would have allowed for. As such, Winslet’s final act of floral cruelty plays as more of an anti-climatic coda than a dynamic tantrum and the film ends abruptly and somewhat flat.
As one would expect from such an all-star dream team, the performances are consistently excellent both individually and as a collective. Foster plays the role of the humanitarian Penelope with a more even-keel than Marcia Gay Harden did in the Broadway production (one for which Harden won a Tony Award) but it works well within the ensemble. Reilly once again demonstrates his amazing comedic ability as Michael, the everyman father that, while simplistic in his ways, often delivers some of the film’s most brutal observations. It’s a true testimony to his versatility as an actor that he can pull off both modes seamlessly and believably. Winslet’s ever-expressive face serves her well in the role of the refined yet unsatisfied Nancy. With a twitch of her dark eyebrows, we know exactly which gear she’s shifted into. But as Alan, the conniving and cell phone-encumbered lawyer, it’s Walz who serves as the film’s catalyst by stirring the entire volatile group while maintaining a quiet – albeit sharply sarcastic – composure. The vicious subtlety that won him an Oscar for his portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa in Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” is gloriously on display here and could easily earn him another nod from the Academy and quite possibly another gold statuette. When he states in deliberately soft yet biting tones “I believe in the god of carnage who has ruled the world uninterruptedly since the dawn of time” we’ve come to sense the presence of that chaotic deity and are all the better for watching his disciples exorcize their demons.