It’s perhaps with a little embarrassment that I admit to being unfamiliar with the work of director Todd Heynes. While Carol did enough for me to want to explore his earlier features, it did little else for me. Safe to say, it’s supposed best picture snub isn’t something I’ll lose sleep over.
Set in 1952, Carol tells the story of Therese (Rooney Mara), a department store clerk who meets the glamorous Carol (Cate Blanchett). It’s love at first sight, and they decide to pursue a relationship together.
Rooney Mara has consistently failed to disappoint me, and in Carol she offers a quiet, often subtle performance. This works to great effect in contrast to Blanchett’s role – confident and worldly. Blanchett was great of course but by now we all know she can carry these roles with grace and elegance – there’s little to surprise you about her work here. At least in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine her character contended with her own mental stability and challenges to her pride.
What I must say is probably my biggest praise of Carol is the production design. The cold streets, smoky bars, and richly decorated homes capture the fifties to a surprising, yet understated degree. Only on my walk home did I reflect on how seductive its atmosphere was. The same can be said for the costumes and choice of colour. Carol’s long coats and matching lush red lips bloomed with sophistication, while Therese’s comparatively mundane dresses informed her restrained personality.
I must also mention Carter Burwell’s score. The main theme swells, develops, and adds an intensity to many of the films pivotal moments. But this is part of the problem – it’s an intensity that the plot never matches.
It is one of the few romances I’ve watched where I can feel the infatuation and agonising sexual tension between the couple. It’s one of those things I hear spoken about, but rarely actually feel. Carol is a welcome and gripping exception. Unfortunately it’s the only tension we ever feel over the course of the film.
I know the core of Carol is the relationship, but the film never gave me enough reason to be invested in it. A story about a forbidden romance ought to have been rife with will-they-won’t-they intrigue and danger that their love might be exposed. Carol is an interesting character, but she was the only one with any stakes.
Theresa, who was arguably the film’s protagonist, was drastically underdeveloped. The film did nothing to establish why we ought to care about her. This was an enormous problem for me, as it sapped any tension from the relationship and left us with a situation where we don’t care about its outcome. But the most rotten part about it was that she had no notable character traits and her unjustified infatuation with an older, wealthy, confident person was rather irritating.
The film is about how we don’t choose who we love, and I understand that. But how can we invest in a relationship viewed through the eyes of someone whose only trait is her enormous crush? I’m just going to come right out and say it: If Carol had been a man, I feel Theresa’s character would have been heavily criticised.
Some of the writing is also quite jarring and really threw me out of the moment. Can we imagine anyone really saying: “Our daughter is breathtaking”?
I want to end on another positive. The most well-directed and well-acted scenes in Carol are those with little-to-no dialogue, and there are plenty of them. Both actresses excelled at conveying a broad range of emotions without a word. You know when someone sees something delicious? Their eyes light up, they grin, and their face says: “I want that so much!” There’s a difference between that, and: “I’d die without it.” Both leads, and the camera decisions, emphasise this spectrum of desire.
I think it excels as a romance, and the excellent design choices build a rich, compelling atmosphere that I found easy to lose myself in. Its theme is a relevant one that I wanted to see explored. Any fan of the genre ought to have a great time, and should make it their next watch. But sadly, overall I was left feeling very little.
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