For whatever reason, the film industry has
never done well with lesbian romance.
Whether it is a film built explicitly on an exploitative premise (My Summer of Love) or one made with
passion but with a deficiency of talent (Itty
Bitty Titty Committee), lesbians just seem underrepresented with quality
motion pictures even within the niche area of gay and lesbian targeted
romances. Even films with mainstream
notoriety such as Blue Is The Warmest
Color turn out remarkably disappointing when actually scrutinized as more
than a representation of on-screen diversity.
Fortunately, Carol does not
disappoint; it is a great love story that hinges entirely on the nuanced
performances of its cast, particularly its two leads.
Therese (Rooney Mara) is working as a toy store
clerk in 1952 when from across the store she notices a striking woman whom we
will later come to know as Carol (Cate Blanchett). The two women have obvious chemistry from the
start, and minor interactions begin to build toward something more as a friendship
and eventual romance blossom. This
results in Therese finding her own assertive voice and finding an undiscovered
confidence through her newfound sexuality, yet Carol isn’t simply a catalyst
for Therese’s development. Carol is in
the middle of a strained divorce with her husband that threatens to alienate
her relationship with her young daughter if her husband can convince the court
that, as a sexual deviant, she is unfit to parent.
As far as the romance itself is concerned,
the portrayal is spot-on, a slow burn that feels like the natural development
of a relationship. Mara and Blanchett
will deservedly be recognized as two of this year’s best actresses, as the body
language they exhibit with one another is not only subtle but immediately
communicative, as it well should be considering that the time period in which
their characters live does not allow for open sexual flirtation with members of the same
sex. Mara in particular does an
excellent job of portraying a subtle insecurity befitting of one who is finding
new emotions alien to her but is scared to voice those concerns, and Blanchett
is equally fascinating as a woman who has to decide between being true to
herself and suppressing her identity in order to have a relationship with her
child.
The portrayal of men in this film is also
astoundingly complex, as Carol’s husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) and Therese’s
boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacy) are far from the stock abuse caricatures they
could have been in a lesser film. Richard
is the personification of the nice guy trope, the man who thinks that his
careful celibate courtship of Therese will one day reward him with marriage and
sexual intimacy; he doesn’t have bad intentions, but his view of women as
people is certainly skewed so as to perceive them as prizes for kindness. Similarly, Harge is completely dumbstruck by
the possibility that Carol could reject his love for that of, not another man,
but women, making him entirely insecure in his ability to control his life and
raise his child. Though the men of this
film might be called villains for this instigation of the film’s conflicts,
they aren’t one-dimensional and are sympathetic in their lack of education and
context in seeing lesbian relationships as legitimate.
Even without all the extravagance of the film’s
setting and the commentary on the social perception of lesbian identity, Carol would excel as a beautifully told
romance, the kind that could never be emulated by the mindless portrayal of
beautiful people kissing in the rain seen in any Nicholas Sparks
production. This is a story of
interesting characters navigating treacherous waters together in order to find
a way to make love work in a time and place that is openly hostile to them
doing so, but without one single villainous entity on which to blame that
hostility. I think I’ve been using the
phrase “best of the year” too often as of late (because this is an AMAZING year
for movies), but this film is definitely among my favorites this year. I just have to think long and hard about its
competition to tell if it breaks into my top ten.
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