Movie Review: ‘Carol’

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in a 1950's period drama “Carol,” directed by Todd Haynes. Time Warner Cable News’ Neil Rosen filed the following review.

The time is 1952 and Mara, who for some inexplicable reason is made up to look like Audrey Hepburn, plays Therese, a department store clerk who winds up having an affair with Carol, a wealthy, older married woman from New Jersey played by Blanchett.

Now I understand that this was taboo subject matter when the Patricia Highsmith novel this is based on came out in the repressed, close-minded 1950's. Now, it is a yawner.

The pacing of the film is so slow and boring as it is basically just a dance of desire for the first three quarters of the movie. The dialogue is sparse and what little there is frequently is delivered with what feels like endless silence between each line. It's all punctuated by an overly melodramatic score that sounds like it is right out of an old B-movie, cueing you in, annoyingly, when something dramatic happens.

There is very little character development, particularly with Carol herself, who's given practically no backstory. We do occasionally see her young daughter as well as husband Kyle Chandler, who wants a divorce as he finds it difficult to accept her sexual orientation.

Director Todd Haynes tackled 1950's same sex, suburban romance before with "Far From Heaven." That movie dealt with a closeted, married man, and in some ways this film could be looked upon as a companion piece.

Haynes once again chooses style over substance here. It is shot beautifully and the meticulous attention to period detail sumptuously captures the era.

But in the words of Leiber and Stoller as sung by Peggy Lee, is that all there is? Apparently so. I did like the performances, even though Blanchett was a bit stagey. However, with this paper thin storyline that is overly drawn out, I did not care about the fate of the two main characters and the whole thing left me emotionally cold.