To call Roman Polanski’s latest effort Carnage a return to form is equal parts belittling and inaccurate. It seems to suggest, quite unfairly, that the controversial director had gone somewhere in the first place and that his latest is a return to the claustrophobic nature of his famed Apartment Trilogy (Replusion, Rosemary’s Baby, The Tenant). If anything the movie is a slight disappointment when placed against the standard set by his earlier films. Carnage is very much a stage play adapted for film, but made with an outstanding cast and by a director with great visual acumen.
After a schoolyard assault leaves the son of Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) with a couple of missing teeth, the parents of the perpetrator, Nancy and Alan Cowan (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) pay the victim’s parents a visit. A series of miscommunications, nagging, and unanswered questions leads to an increasingly tense situation where the sick Nancy and the constantly distracted and professionally minded Alan are unable to leave the bossy Penelope and the boorish Michael behind.
While the film is constantly referencing and name checking Cronus, the Greek deity most widely known for bringing chaos and disorder, it has its roots firmly ensconced in Sartre’s assertion that hell is other people. This is a situation without easy answers for anyone and without any exit or hope for a concrete resolution from the start. It’s a very basic conceit to hang a play on, but a lot harder to translate to film.
Despite Polanski doing his best to play up how this microcosmic conversation is meant to shadow western values and ideals, the screenplay (co-written by Polanski with original God of Carnage playwright Yasmina Reza) shows its stagey roots far too often. At a scant, but forceful 79 minutes, it is brief, but there’s nothing particularly cinematic about it. Polanski does all he can with his signature close ups and spinning camerawork within a confined space, but the material seems detached from the style. This type of story might be better off told with a more static approach, especially when the film begins to drag past a seemingly logical point for the story to conclude.
But in a film where success hinges on good dialog delivered by great actors, Carnage really cooks. The witty dialog moves the story along at a snappy pace, and all four character actors are able to keep up beautifully. While Reilly isn’t doing anything he hasn’t done on screen many times before, he’s been hired precisely because he’s one of the best people to hire when you need someone who can sound smart while being a complete imbecile. Winslet gets to let her guard down and play the most outwardly sympathetic member of the never ending discourse.
This show, however, firmly belongs to Foster and Waltz as the film’s most philosophically opposed forces. Foster’s performance is smart, canny, and fully realized as a person who seemingly can’t help but slighting everyone she talks to simply so she can feel like she’s doing the right thing. Waltz, on the other hand, gets to play a character who’s extremely intelligent, but couldn’t possibly care less about such a cyclical argument.
It’s a basic comedy of increasingly bad manners and a less than subtle dig at forced civility, but delivered with purpose and desire by Polanski and his cast. In the grand scheme of Polanski’s filmography, it’s a bit of a minor work, but certainly not invaluable.
Rating: 
Rated 14A
Cast: Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Top image: A scene from Carnage. Courtesy Mongrel Media.
