Review of Carnage (2014) by Ed B — 08 Dec 2012

Wow. Not good. Talk about script issues. Carnage tries way too hard to be the "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe" of a new generation and fails miserably. There was nothing remotely controversial or thought provoking about this, whereas Virginia Wolfe thrived in it's own brashness.

This film had potential until midway through act II, when it fell apart. I appreciate the fact that you're not really supposed to take sides with any of the characters, but there's almost no consistently likable or dislikable quality with any of them. The only constant is Jodie Foster's character who remains unwaveringly annoying throughout.

Their individually grating characteristics change ad-naseum for the duration of the film and makes it hard to take any of them seriously. It's as if the characters don't take themselves seriously. The constantly morphing alliances between the couples seems to serve a purpose, as it helps the viewer to actively see the argument from both sides. Too bad none of them bothered to stay true to character, or I might've cared.

Plus, the film keeps trying to raise the stakes, but there's no additional conflict to make that possible. Getting drunk doesn't raise anything. It just took the pettiness of their argument and made it louder. Speaking of which, what was with the overblown drunken shittiness that arose out of one glass of scotch each? Really? One glass of whisky and you act like that? Give me a break.

The leaving to the hallway and coming back in to the apartment to continue with the awkward bickering became tiring as well. Who the hell deliberately puts themselves in that situation? If you're in an uncomfortable situation like that, you leave. You don't repeatably excuse yourself only to invite yourself back in.

When it was all said and done, there were too many hurt feelings, too many apathetic attitudes and too many repetitions to elicit any kind of an emotional response. The fact that it had a pointless open ending was baffling, but at least it brought things to a conclusion. In the end, I was just glad it was over.