Carol is the story of forbidden love in the 50's between Carol, played by Cate Blanchett and Therese, played by Rooney Mara. The film is made from the book The Price of Salt, written by the renowned author Patricia Hightower famous for other works such as Strangers on a Train or The Talented Mr Ripley. The Director Todd Haynes has previous experiences with the genre especially in the great film Far From Heaven, so I had some expectations. Roney Mara and Cate Blanchett both play their characters superbly well and Haynes has really succeeded in creating a good personal chemistry between them.
Carol is a well made film combined with great cinematography and beautiful music by Carter Burwell. We are quickly introduced to Therese and realizes that she isn't comfortable with her relationship with Richard. When she meets Carol, sparks fly and we can tell they have got an attraction. However, Carol has a heavy history and Therese gets drawn into a divorce, a custody battle and a jealous ex-lover. I think this is where it gets problematic because we know so much about Carol and her background, but we are left to draw our own conclusions and make guesses about Therese's past life. Perhaps we would have better understood and known Therese, had we got to know more about her life. I also don't feel like we really understand why Carol is drawn specifically to Therese. Is it love or just mere passion? She has a past of female lovers and doesn't appear to have felt the same thing for them.
As Carol reaches the end I still don't feel like the main characters faces any real trouble. Carol's husband appears to be relatively understanding and we don't know anything about Therese's life and her social circle, and can therefore only speculate on how they would react. It is really not that much standing in their way and yet they mess it up. I think if their love would have been made an even greater struggle and faced with larger obstacles it would have felt more stronger and important. Plain and simple, the film would have needed to be a bit more dramatic. But, still it is a good film and I do get drawn into their story.
David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se
Carol is a well made film combined with great cinematography and beautiful music by Carter Burwell. We are quickly introduced to Therese and realizes that she isn't comfortable with her relationship with Richard. When she meets Carol, sparks fly and we can tell they have got an attraction. However, Carol has a heavy history and Therese gets drawn into a divorce, a custody battle and a jealous ex-lover. I think this is where it gets problematic because we know so much about Carol and her background, but we are left to draw our own conclusions and make guesses about Therese's past life. Perhaps we would have better understood and known Therese, had we got to know more about her life. I also don't feel like we really understand why Carol is drawn specifically to Therese. Is it love or just mere passion? She has a past of female lovers and doesn't appear to have felt the same thing for them.
As Carol reaches the end I still don't feel like the main characters faces any real trouble. Carol's husband appears to be relatively understanding and we don't know anything about Therese's life and her social circle, and can therefore only speculate on how they would react. It is really not that much standing in their way and yet they mess it up. I think if their love would have been made an even greater struggle and faced with larger obstacles it would have felt more stronger and important. Plain and simple, the film would have needed to be a bit more dramatic. But, still it is a good film and I do get drawn into their story.
David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se