Carnage

'CARNAGE': Four Stars (Out of Five) Roman Polanski adapts the popular French play 'God of Carnage', by Yasmina Reza, in to this dark comedy about argument. The film tells the story of two sets of parents trying to 'heal' a conflict started by their kids. It stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly. The entire film is set in real time in one Brooklyn apartment (although filmed in Paris due to director Polanski being a wanted fugitive in the US). Reza co-wrote the screenplay with Polanski and it's about as clever and witty as any film I've seen this year, while still remaining mostly believable! The film revolves around a fight that breaks out between two eleven year old classmates in Brooklyn Bridge Park when one boy refuses to let the other in his gang and calls him a tattle-tail. One boy is struck by the other with a stick and is hurt badly in the mouth, requiring some dental work. The parents of each boy decide to meet in one couple's Brooklyn apartment in order to discuss the fight and try to resolve the conflict between the two boys. The rest of the film (almost it's entirety) plays out in the apartment with the parents discussing their boys' conflict rather aggressively which results in a much bigger conflict between them. Like the recent Iranian film 'A SEPARATION' this is a beautiful and believable film about argument. Of course this is a much more comedic and somewhat lighthearted look at argument than the award winning foreign language film but it's just as realistic and drives home it's point just as clearly. The acting is all top notch with Foster playing against type as the most unlikeable character of the bunch and Waltz impressing yet again by delivering my favorite performance of the film. The dialogue is very smart and funny and the directing is perfectly subtle. Like I said not as hard-hitting as the Iranian masterpiece but nearly as effective in it's own way. A very relatable and enlightening film; one not to be missed!

I would like to start off my review with a little back story. I was off from work on a beautiful Southern California day and just watched Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery last night so this was a nice complimentary movie.

The basic premise of the movie is the interactions of two sets of parents who are getting together for the sole purpose of an altercation between their children. Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly are the parents of the injured child (Ethan). Kate Winslet and Christopher Waltz are the parents of the boy that hit Ethan (Zachery). The movie starts and ends in the confines of the Longstreet's apartment (Reilly & Foster). What ensues is the breakdown of civility between the two parties.

I really enjoyed the movie, especially as it was the right movie for my mood, but also because the casting was great, dialogue was sharp and as usual the directing was spot on. I went in expecting Reilly to be miscast, but he not only held his own but had some real moments. Foster is easy to hate and the one I think an award nomination is due. Winslet had a great metamorphosis as too chic investment banker. Waltz was maybe not fleshed out as much, but easily the most enjoyable. All things considered it was a Thoroughly enjoyable movie.

There is very little not to like but taken in the essence of an old fashioned ensemble And that it's wrapped up nicely with a bow, not many loose ends, it's a great 80 minute Escape from the HD life we live.

Working on a "sense of community," the two couples in Carnage engage in slowly evolving urban warfare, precipitated by violence in the playground between their two sons. This adaptation from the Broadway play, God of Carnage, is a soberer (by a little) version of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Penelope (Jody Foster) and Michael (John C. Reilly) host Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan (Christof Waltz) in their Brooklyn apartment to iron out difficulties coming from their sons' fight, which resulted in Penelope and Michael's son's mangled mouth. What begins civilly escalates to a raw verbal mêlée with all players laying bare their prejudices and weaknesses while the issue of the repentance of Nancy and Alan's child becomes a vehicle for class and culture clash. As in director Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, the action is almost exclusively in the small, one bedroom apartment, resulting in an uncomfortable crowding of bodies and egos. And it doesn't take long for the individual differences to surface as one is conciliatory, another confrontational, another detached, and another bewildered.

Nor does it take long (only an 80 minute production anyway) for alliances to build (and not necessarily in the same couple) with the refrain "Why are we still here?" becoming the battle cry. Yes, it doesn't turn out well, nor would most confrontations except that the civil veneer usually stays intact for most of us.

But when writers Yasmina Reza and Polanski allow the characters to speak their minds, albeit helped by Scotch, the drama gets good and the words become socially lethal. What I like best is the language, not elevated but sassy, smart, and colloquial: "Should we wrap this up?" Yes, it is a film to be wrapped, but there is no real end to the social jousting that goes on in our minds if not our mouths, which are sometimes beaten badly as careless children might do in their play.

By Maurice Jones

Roman Polanski's 'Carnage' starring Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz main seem like an unbalanced superficial casting to some for a low-key movie such as this, but what at first is expectedly unfit and useless is later realized and understood.

From the opening of the film Roman Polanski uses the same intensity of 50's-60's suspense film openings such as 'Compulsion' to distract you from what is happening behind the credits to then lead you to the purpose of the film to the then the plot. The back drop of the credits is filmed and placed in a way that looks especially 70's, which entirely gives a delightfully and brilliantly vintage opening of a treat, as something like this is unfortunately rarely seen in a dramedy as this. A starting such as this lets you know that you're in for the creative dramatically playful telling of Mr. Roman Polanski.

The first few lines of the movie give way to the two head strong characters of the movie who battle it out later on, but before then the movie centers on the societal dealing with a schoolyard attack on the son of a seemingly liberal couple; Penelope and Michael (played by Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) by the son of a seemingly conservative couple; Nancy and Allen (played by Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz). Penelope is an opinionated, passionate writer who leads the reasoning of the incident. Michael is a friendly yet choosy salesman who tries to make light of the whole situation. Nancy is a pseudo-conservative who like Michael tries to keep the whole situation without argument and Allen is a sly yet focused attorney who would rather be working then deal with the incident as long as the whole thing is dealt with fairly. The first half of the movie displays the tight-rope courtesy of the two couples dealing with this unfortunate situation in Penelope and Michael's New York apartment, as little by little the faults of each parent comes out but is especially looked over for the sake of good re pore, which makes for a realistic look out on the stubborn idiosyncrasies of parents in general. As what one would consider to be poorly written, boring, typical or an off-putting part of the film is really a clever set up of what's to come as the first half realistically exports the pointlessness and exhaustiveness of how this situation is handled. As things seep towards the second half of the film the characters become less and less censored and open to be their real selves in the confinement of Penelope and Michael's apartment which leads to the rewarding and interesting part of the film. Nancy and Michael are the soft, mending parts of their relationships but turn out to be more disturbed and Penelope and Allen are the leaders and rightfully duke it out. As the conservative couple Nancy and Allen are nothing without their accessories and as the liberal couple Penelope and Michael just want to be heard and taken seriously.

What's great technically about 'Carnage' is Roman Polanski's eye and directing as he is aware of the subtleties and exaggerations of film and why they can go hand in hand. With that Kate Winslet is great at acting guarded and then letting her guard down and Jodie Foster pushes herself to points that seem brilliantly worrying (she should probably get an Oscar nom). John C. Reilly naturally does great playing the friendly, caring Michael who as much as he is that, he's as well careless and Christoph Waltz plays his usual cocky self who has an answer to everything, which is accurate as the fierce attorney he portrays.

Also written by Roman Polanski 'Carnage' has a lot of insight biased or not about men and women and society which makes it importantly realistic and in part shows view of the accurate thoughts of Roman Polanski. If you're into or not into films about four people dealing with each other in one location, check out 'Carnage' and if not for Roman Polanski, see it for the rare useful form of the actors involved. I started out not sure whether I was going to like 'Carnage' or not but towards the end I saw the big picture and in that my only regret is, that when it ended I wanted more time with these four people.

Size matters, right? even for Roman, after the brilliantly intricacy-crafted THE GHOST WRITER (2010), the scale of CARNAGE shrinks just like a hors d'oeuvre, no wonder its lukewarm feedback is percolating in spite of the lure of 4 Oscar-bounded leading thespians. Actually the response is par for the course, the film hinges on a more stringent time schedule (literally the exact time audience spends in front of the big screen), which is too featherweight to be considered seriously for the Oscar race (referring to other play-adapted Oscar dearest CLOSER 2004 or DOUBT 2008, both at least possess a decent time span), but which doesn't thwart all the fun one could obtain from a feature film.

The disintegration of these two pairs of parents is intrigued bit by bit with derision, insult and disdain, the initial wrangle of two flatly unfamiliar couples are reflecting everyone's customary procedure of dealing with strangers, the approach of eclipsing others in a restrained manner in order not to break a fragile bottom line "our face of respect", and once Nancy (Kate Winslet's character) has lost her face with a hilarious vomit to all the civil pretentiousness, the battle of matrimony, sex, social supremacy and civil wit is officially instigated, the carnage of verbal assaults prevails and within a compact 80 minutes, the dialogues are drolly sharp and incisive, wounds are acute without bleeding,

The grand cast is beyond any accomplishment, Jodie Foster manifests her excellent curb in melodrama in many years though is a shade over-the-top during the end and Kate Winslet never mislead her devotees albeit being self-conscious in sundry scenes, Christoph Waltz fiendishly holds his introvert nature all the time while being socially authentic; arguably the weakest line, john C. Reilly is in his comfort zone to liberate the venom under his goody-goody disguise.

One big plus is the film ends ideally when the fray starts to become stale, so Polanski is still as crafty as any filmmakers could ever wish for.