Alan: My son did not disfigure your son.
(A few minutes later)
Penelope: Their son is a threat to homeland security.
(some minutes pass)
Penelope: The victim and the criminal are not the same.
(a little later)
Nancy: These people are monsters….I want to get drunk
(she picks up more of the hosts’ fine scotch even as she’s abusing them)
Carnage (2011) is one movie we now enormously regret not watching in the theatre.
Unfortunately, it was in limited release in the U.S. and the nearest screening involved a round trip of 130-miles, too far for our creaking bones.
So when we noticed the film yesterday as a new release in the Red Box kiosk outside our local grocery store we immediately whipped out our credit card and made a grab for the DVD.
Just $1.22 for a 24-hour rental.
Why not?
After all, the movie is directed by Roman Polanski, the brilliant, ass-fucking pedophile filmmaker.
Plus Carnage features three Oscar winners, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet, besides the Oscar nominated John C. Reilly. (None of the Oscar honors were for this film, by the way.)
Schmucks, how many Bollywood films are you aware of featuring three Oscar winners.
Four Oscar winners, if you include Polanski, who picked up the Best Director Academy Award for The Pianist (2002).
Carnage – A Gem
We quickly returned home, poured ourselves some a lot of sweet Australian Merlot (Yellow Tail, $11) and sat down to watch Carnage.
By the time, we finished the movie we were not as sloshed as our two girls Penelope or Nancy but in a state of “pleasant serenity,” to borrow a phrase from Carnage.
Polanski’s Carnage is a gorgeous film that movie buffs of any nationality just cannot afford to skip.
Essentially, there are just four characters in the film, two married couples.
And 99% of the movie is filmed in the living room of a New York City apartment.
Alan Cowan (Christoph Waltz) and Nancy Cowan (Kate Winslet) are over at Michael Longstreet (John C. Reilly) and Penelope Longstreet’s (Jodie Foster) place.
We soon learn that Alan is a lawyer, Michael a plumbing equipment seller, Penelope is a writer and Nancy an investment broker.
No, the couples are not old friends getting together for a drink.
The couples have assembled to discuss Zachary’s severe beating of Ethan in the Brooklyn Bridge park.
Zachary is the Cowans’ son and Ethan of the Longstreets.
The two school boys are never seen at close quarters, only at a distance. That too very briefly, at the beginning and at the end.
Then there are a bunch of voices on the phone, Michael’s ailing mother, Walter and one or two others.
Small Setting, Big Emotions
As those exposed to the endless run of crappy Bollywood films well know, it’s very hard to make a good film.
And even harder to make a brilliant one within the close confines of a single room.
Prior to Carnage, the only such movie we’d seen was the old black and white film 12 Angry Men (starring Henry Fonda and directed by Sidney Lumet).
The brilliance of Carnage, like 12 Angry Men before it, lies in coupling a strong screenplay with powerful acting by a peerless cast and topping it off with an ace director.
Polanski and Yasmina Reza wrote the screenplay based on Reza’s acclaimed play Le Dieu du Carnage (God of Carnage).
Like in the jury-room of 12 Angry Men, what happens inside the living room in Carnage is more important than the incident that triggers the meeting. Continue reading »
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