Review of Carnage (2011) by Brian H — 12 Oct 2012

It's not that Carnage, the film adaptation of Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage, sucks really bad and is unwatchable. It's just that the film, directed by that great master of claustrophobic drama Roman Polanski, offers little to be compelled and gripped by.

What I imagine burst with energy and blood-drawing satire on stage feels almost like deadweight on screen. For about 88 minutes we watch two 'civilized' New York couples gather in a New York apartment and succumb to the basest trappings of human nature.

What sparked this meeting? A school yard fight between the preteen sons of Penelope Longstreet (Jodie Foster) and her working class husband Michael (John C. Reilly) and Nancy Cowen (Kate Winslet) and her lawyer husband Alan (Christoph Waltz).

And so the Cowen's trek over to the Longstreet's Brooklyn apartment to hash out some kind of settlement, and, like the play its based upon, the action never leaves the apartment. Now that probably matters little on stage, but here it presents some challenges.

Whereas the play might invite the audience as participants, the film instead seems to trap us against our will. Also, the cast is a bit off. On stage, both couples were portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden and James Gandolfini as the Longstreets and Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis and the Cowens.

How I would have loved to have seen Gandolfini play the role onscreen, sorry Reilly. He and Foster can't quite match the acid wit. Winslet and Waltz fare better, but they still can't save the film by themselves.

The setting should work better too, since claustrophobic abodes are par the course for Polanski (see Rosemary's Baby, The Tenant, Repulsion, The Pianist), but too often he struggles to give the action some, well, action and real movement.

You can respect Carnage, but it's difficult to enjoy it.