Film Reviews

Carnage

• Rating:
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Starring: Jodie Foster
• Details: France/Germany/Poland/Spain / 80mins (15A).

A tiny cast and a single setting, Roman Polanksi isn't in uncharted waters here - Death And The Maiden and Knife In The Water had similar restraints – but the tone is completely different. A comedy from Polanski, a director known best for thrillers and horror, delivers on the funny front. There is little or no carnage, though.
When 12-year-old Zachary Cowan clobbers classmate Ethan Longstreet with a stick breaking two teeth, Alan (Waltz) and wife Nancy Cowan (Winslet) arrive at Penelope (Foster) and Michael's (Reilly) apartment to discuss. What starts out as a polite chat – both parties are agreeable that this can be settled amicably - soon turns sour. When alcohol is introduced to the conversation, inhibitions are lowered, tensions rise and everyone's true feelings are revealed…
Carnage was going to need four actors at the top of their game and it gets them. Despite strong turns from Winslet, Foster, and Reilly (his thoughts on hamsters are a hoot), Waltz runs away with the movie. With his nose in the air and his blackberry in his hand, it's Waltz's notion that he's above and beyond this petty squabbling, irritation at being forced to stay put and passive-aggressive bullying that keeps the bile circling the room. He's the beating heart of the film and what a rotten heart it is. Playing a busy lawyer in the middle of a big case, Waltz is either on the phone or has one foot out the door; in one of the movie's minor missteps, however, it becomes unbelievable that a man with such a hectic schedule would stay for a piece of pie and, later, a drink.
Great performances, yes, but they had great dialogue to play with, written Yazmin Reza who adapts her from her own Tony Award-winning play, God Of Carnage. The zippy back-and-forth is a delight and doesn't rely on one-liners or zingers to get the laughs - the jokes come from character. At the outset it seems that there are only two kinds of character here - the well-to-do Cowans and the down-to-earth Longstreets - but as Carnage unwinds, and allegiances switch sides, it becomes clear that Reza has written four very distinct characters, who are all pretending to be something they're not out of politeness and 'face' and all have a nasty side.
What begins as a comedy of manners soon branches out to tackle contemporary parenthood techniques, marriage, war of the sexes, individuality, hypocrisy, liberals and more, while Polanski slowly turns the knife and makes it increasingly awkward to sit through. One is thankful that at eighty minutes Carnage is so trim but even at that it was starting to outstay its welcome.

Review by Gavin Burke