A Relationship Built on Love, Wisdom, and Understanding

Rooney Mara (left) and Cate Blanchett in "Carol"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Although there have been some significant steps forward in society’s acceptance of same-sex relationships, the time leading up to it held many difficulties for those in the LGBT community.  Over the past decades, we’ve had films that chronicled the struggles they faced in trying to express themselves, despite them being around people who wouldn’t accept them.  It’s difficult to think “Brokeback Mountain,” one of the most successful films to handle this topic, came out 10 years ago; and after all of these years, there are still stories to be told about same-sex couples who work to transcend the societal norms that try to quell them.

Thanks to director Todd Haynes, we now have the period drama, “Carol,” which focuses on a bond established between two women in 1952.  With two glowing performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, a rich narrative, polished direction, and artful camerawork, Haynes provides a bittersweet love story you won’t soon forget.

Carol Aird (Blanchett) is a socialite who’s in the middle of a divorce with her husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler).  One day, when Christmas shopping in a Manhattan department store, Carol meets a shopgirl and aspiring photographer named Therese Belivet (Mara), and the two soon establish a bond.  Despite having to keep their relationship a secret, the two discover a connection between them that they never would have expected to happen.

Cate Blanchett, one of the most luminous actresses working today, offers a performance that makes you feel like you’re watching a classic Hollywood actress on the screen.  As a woman fighting for joint custody of her daughter and trying to keep her relationship hidden, Blanchett beautifully displays the emotions that come with the difficulties her character faces, while also showing how alive she feels whenever she can be herself around Therese.  The friendliness, warmth, and love with which Carol radiates when she’s with Therese is an absolute pleasure to watch.  Carol is an individual who has an abundance of wisdom she’s willing to part onto Therese in order to help her confidence grow, and Blanchett brings across her character as someone who has experienced much in her life and wants to guide someone younger into defying what society expects her to be.

Rooney Mara offers the film its coming-of-age angle as a young woman who begins to realize who she is once beginning her relationship with Carol.  Her character starts off as someone who doesn’t quite know where she fits in, and then begins to explore the person she is when she’s with Carol.  When we first meet her, Mara draws us in with her rather reserved personality, but then we’re delighted once she begins to open up to Carol and transition into the person she’s meant to be.

The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy, which is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, “The Price of Salt,” offers a richly layered look at how difficult it was for a same-sex couple to live as their true selves during the time period that’s depicted.  We are shown the risks they have to take in order to keep their relationship hidden, but the immense sense of freedom we see them experience when they’re together allows the viewer to see the deep love Carol and Therese have for each other.  Besides providing us with scenes between Carol and Therese, we are also given enough scenes with the two of them on their own as they deal with their separate problems that are keeping them from living the lives they want.    

Director Haynes has brought an important love story that, despite taking place in the ‘50s, still has considerable relevance for today.  With the help of cinematographer Edward Lachman, Haynes depicts Carol and Therese’s relationship by framing them in intimate close-ups and within frames in the set designs, switching between their sense of freedom when they’re together and the limitations of what their society deems as appropriate.  

Haynes offers audiences a strong example of the kind of movie you can make when you have the right blend of acting, direction, story, and shot composition, making “Carol” a film you must see for its beauty, as well as its importance.

Final grade: A