Carol

“Just when you think you can’t get any worse, you run out of cigarettes” 

Todd Haynes has previously demonstrated his expertise with character dramas in Far from Heaven and his miniseries Mildred Pierce. Now he reunites with his I’m Not There star, Cate Blanchett in Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name. 

Christmas in the early 1950s. Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), an amateur photographer, is working in Frankenberg’s department store, calm amongst the chaos of the seasonal period. Across the room, an elegant older woman, Carol (Cate Blanchett) admires a model train set. The two get chatting and she orders the trainset. After Carol ‘accidentally’ leaves her gloves behind in the store, Therese mails them off. So begins a series of rendezvous between these two women, stuck in their individual unsatisfying relationships and each looking for something more intimate. 

This really is a slow-burn character drama, which might not be to everybody’s tastes. It takes its time to build nuanced characters, although the interactions between Carol and Therese escalate into a relationship a little too quickly to be entirely believable. Phyllis Nagy’s screenplay does an excellent job of exploring sexuality beyond the confines of the labels. It’s difficult to tell exactly where the two leads each sit on the broad spectrum of sexual identity - given their unfulfilled yet notable liaisons with men - but the definitions get swept aside to focus on a multi-layered relationship between two women that aren’t sure where they’re going with their lives. 

Set in the 1950s, Carol manages to be subtle in its portrayal of the era, by which I mean it doesn’t overdo it to the point of caricature as some recent period pieces have. The film was shot on 16mm film by cinematographer Edward Lachman, and the soft, warm image with unexpectedly dull colours mirrors the tone of the film. At times Carol even takes on aspects of film noir, an effective style for both the setting and the duplicitous aspects of the story. 

Blanchett is, as usual fantastic. Carol’s dry-wit and cynicism act as a shield to the fragility that we as

an audience see in her. Her difficult husband and divorce proceedings are only part of the problem as she seems to be hiding more about herself than at first glance, which turns out to be her lack of satisfaction in life. All of this comes across with subtlety and ease thanks to Blanchett’s devoted understanding of the art. 

Rooney Mara is just as good; Therese in a similar yet different way to Carol, has a vulnerable streak to her and has an innocence that comes out through things like her photography. Although it’s more of an aside, Therese’s photographic hobby, in the way that it’s developed (pun not intended) felt like a nod to the naval-gazing characters of French new wave films. Carol could have so easily become a melodrama, but - aside from one scene - it manages to stay grounded thanks largely to the two lead performances. 

Todd Haynes has developed another detailed character drama with Carol, thanks to a great screenplay and brilliant performances. However as I said it is very much a slow-burn film and for quite a while I lost focus. I feel that I’ll need to see this again to really pick up on the details.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Opening where the second film left off, Smaug’s attack on Laketown, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the last (as far as we know) of Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth fantasy films. The Second in the series of incredibly long names (with running times to match), The Desolation of Smaug, was infinitely better than the first (despite the unnecessarily-long barrel sequence) but stretching an epic trilogy out of a book shorter than any of the Lord of the Rings novels has always been a concern. Now, with the blockbuster release of the third Hobbit, it’s up to Jackson to tie it all together. 

Jumping straight into the action, the dragon, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) inflicts brutal destruction on Laketown as the residents flee, with only Bard (Luke Evans) left to fight the beast. Up at the Lonely Mountain, the leader of the dwarves, Thorin (Richard Armitage) is inflicted with Smaug's "dragon sickness", a powerful urge to find the Arkenstone, which is affecting his sanity. Bilbo (Martin Freeman), who is aware of Thorin’s state, continues to hide the Arkenstone from him. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) remains imprisoned by the Necromancer (Also Benedict Cumberbatch) in Dol Guldur, until Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), with help from Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Saruman (Christopher Lee), frees Gandalf. Whilst others are gathering their forces to raid the Lonely Mountain, Gandalf rushes back to warn of the approaching Orc army. The battle for Smaug's lair of gold is about to begin.

Epic in visual scope, The Battle of the Five Armies is, as the name would suggest, brimming with action. The battle sequences which dominate the second half of the film are impeccably choreographed and are exceedingly stunning, with effects-heavy visuals that justify the $250 million budget. However, whilst these sequences do try to draw some points about the lives lost in the useless battle for gold, they are basically just excessive battles. This is where the flaws of the trilogy format slide through the cracks. What could have been two very solid movies, have been extended to three, and whilst the running time of this third instalment is blissfully shorter at a not-unreasonable 144-minutes, there doesn't seem to be enough plot left to justify a full movie. This sees much of the second-half of The Battle of the Five Armies stretched out into an unnecessary display of mindless battling, only marginally justified by the strong first half of the film.

Whilst the already well-established characters don't exactly require much more development, the strained story would certainly benefit from it. Thorin is the only one that really evolves in any way, inhibited by his changing states of sanity. However it must be said that the performances certainly stand up to the calibre of the first films (as well as the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the characters that appear in both). Freeman is very good as Bilbo, although he doesn't get as much screen-time as I would have liked. Richard Armitage shines as Thorin, and it's always fun to see the 75-year old Ian McKellen and 92-year old Christopher Lee involved in some battles. The only real issue with the characters is in the various death scenes (which you ought to expect in the final instalment), which are heavily clichéd, with slow motion and somber music that somewhat undermines the emotions that are being put forth. 

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies finally wraps up a trilogy that should really have been concluded in two films, and hence there are certainly some issues with stretching it out into a third. But it does seem, in many ways, a fitting conclusion for the series, with big-budget action and strong performances. I'm sure that long time fans will enjoy this film.

Classic Movie Review: Babel (2006)

In the late 90s to mid 2000s, a swath of films that were made up of interconnected stories were released. Unlike these other movies, like Traffic, Crash and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (all of which are fantastic), Babel took this film structure and made a far greater film. Maybe it's the lack of an ensemble cast (with only two big actors known two mainstream audiences) or maybe it's the plausible storyline that plays on the audience's fears that make this an excellent film.

The film takes place in three different locations around the world and focuses on four groups of characters. The first group of characters are Moroccan goat-herders. Abdullah (Mustapha Rachidi) buys a rifle from one of his neighbours to shoot jackals that prey upon his herds. He gives the gun to his sons Ahmed (Said Tarchani) and Yussef (Boubker Ait El Caid) when they go into the hills. The two brothers begin to fight about who is a better marksman and end up shooting at a bus full of tourists. This is called an act of terrorism by the United States and there is pressure on the Moroccan authorities to find the culprits. The police eventually track down Abdullah, Yussef and Ahmed. Ahmed is shot and killed by the police, at which stage Yussef gives up and surrenders to police custody.

Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) are two American tourists on holiday in Morocco. Susan is increasingly worried about getting sick from poor hygiene in what she considers an unclean country and is desperately missing her children back home. While they are on the tour bus, a gunshot hits Susan in the neck. Being too far to get to any major cities, the tour guide suggests that they go to his village which is closer, much to the apprehension of the other tourists. The busload of tourists eventually decide to leave Richard and Susan in the village. They are later airlifted out and taken to the US embassy.

Back in America, Amelia (Adriana Barraza) is looking after the children of Richard and Susan. She is trying with some difficulty to find someone to look after the children while she goes to Mexico for her son's wedding. Her nephew, Santiago (Gael Garcia Bernal) suggests that she brings the children to Mexico. On the way back, there is some confusion at the border and Santiago, who has been drinking, makes the mistake of driving through the border and into the US, prompting a chase in the night. Santiago stops the car and tells Amelia and the children to stay there and he'll come back for them. Amelia and the children stumble through the desert and get separated. Amelia gets found by the border patrol, who also find the children. Amelia ends up being deported to Mexico for working as an illegal immigrant within the US.

The final story, which is seemingly unrelated to the rest of the film, follows Chieko Wataya (Rinko Kikuchi), a deaf-mute schoolgirl from Tokyo. She is self-concious about her disability and tries very hard to get the attention of boys when she is out with her friends, as she wants to lose her virginity. All the attempts she makes are unsuccessful. A young police officer, Kenji Mamiya (Satoshi Nikaido), has been asking to question her father. Chieko believes this is to do with the suicide of her mother, but it is in fact to do with the ownership of the rifle used to shoot Susan in Morocco.

Now that the plot's out of the way, we can finally talk about the rest of the movie. First off, I love the symbolism of the title of the movie. In biblical terms, the Tower of Babel was built by humanity who had a united language and believed that they could reach God if they built a tower. As punishment, God made all the people on Earth speak a different language. One of the major themes in this film is being able to communicate with one another, whether it be Richard trying to tell the Moroccans what is wrong with his wife or Chieko being able to communicate with anyone.

I really like the casting in this film. Brad Pitt is fantastic and gives one of the best performances of his career, although we see very little of him. Likewise, Gael Garcia Bernal gives a fantastic performance, but he is not in the film for long. The two standout performances come from Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza. The scenes in which Barraza is walking listlessly throughout the desert are fantastic. Kikuchi is also fantastic and it is her story that I can relate to the most. Having a disability myself, I watch the story of Chieko and I can see parallels between that story and my own teenage years.

Surprisingly, that is not the only story I can relate to in this film. I too have been injured in a country where I don't speak the language and although my injury wasn't as bad as being shot, you do feel a certain helplessness in being unable to communicate what you need. Perhaps this is why this film resonates with me, because half of the movie's plot is recognisable.

The soundtrack for this film really sticks out for me too. Gustavo Santaolalla's score is fantastic and his use of guitar makes the film even more evocative. All of the Mexican music played at the wedding is fun to listen to and it makes me want to travel there all the more.

Verdict: A powerful movie that makes you think about how small the world has become.