Roman Polanski’s Carnage is not a polite film, no matter what it’s opening few moments with dual parental units Penelope (Jodie Foster) and Michael Longstreet (John C. Reilly) and Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan Cowan (Christoph Waltz) pleasantly meeting for the first time to discuss the actions of their respective children might lead you to believe. Granted, why anyone would think that the director of flicks as gloriously unsettling as The Ghost Writer, Repulsion, Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby would have an interest in doing anything even slightly warm and/or fuzzy is beyond me, so those fooled into thinking that would be the case here have only themselves to blame when the worm turns and olive branches of peace suddenly mutate into verbal machetes covered in blood.
John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet in Carnage
Based on the play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza and with a screenplay co-written by the director and the playwright herself, this movie is a one set descent into darkness, a foray into the human condition highlighting how indecency and carelessness can manifest themselves in even the most benign of situation. It is about stripping people to their basest natures, about laying their insides naked for everyone to see, the bleak leftovers a coldly comic reminder about how far we can fall when indifference and complacency takes root and multiplies.
The basic plot cordially pits the Longstreets against the Cowans, the former’s son hit in the face with stick by the latter’s child, the foursome coming together to hopefully come to an amicable solution that will help both of their children process their actions and hopefully heal. Yet one thing slowly leads to another, and as hard as the Cowans try to leave something keeps brining them back into the Longstreets New York apartment allowing their conversations to continue.
And, for them at least, that’s the problem. They eat cobbler. They discuss art. They drink Scotch. But as the clock keeps ticking their words get more and more honest, the truth about how each really feels about the situation slowly coming into the light. Each starts to shed their skin revealing more and more of themselves to the other, shredding one another bare, if you will, and as such true personalities come to the forefront shining a spotlight none of them are all that comfortable standing within.
This movie is fitfully funny, and much like Polanski’s Cul-de-Sac or Bitter Moon the coal black nature of much of what takes place is as enjoyable as it is scandalous. This is a movie that appalls and enthralls almost in equal measure, the ugly truth being that as much as the viewer wants to believe themselves the exact opposites of either the Longstreets or the Cowans the cynical truth is probably close to the exact opposite. There is venom to be found in the words coming out of these characters’ respective mouths, listening to it as frightening as it is entertaining.
Not that a lot happens, or ends up being all that unexpected, and other than a delicious end credits sequence at a playground which is as ironic as it is truthful I can’t say much of what occurred ever surprised me as much as I expected it to. Additionally, a key plot element revolves around an upset stomach and its consequences, and while the projectile truths it helps incite are important I can’t help but feel Polanski or Reza could have come up with a better way to go about getting them into the open.
All the same, Carnage is deliciously malevolent fun for fans of the director, his quartet of esteemed actors more than up to the challenge of delivering it all with the requisite emotionally complex relish. Waltz, in particular, manages to steal almost the entire show, watching him work as melodious a treat as any I could possibly imagine. He stalks the Longstreets’ home with malevolent relish, and whether he is the focal point of the scene or standing at the sidelines taking all the chaos in as things progress it becomes more and more difficult to takes one eyes off of him.
The bottom line here is that it should be evident before even buying the ticket what a potential viewer is in for when they make the decision to take Polanski’s latest in. This isn’t a movie for the faint of heart; it hasn’t been made for those who like their comedies clean or their drama devoid of cutting personal insights. Carnage is all about the human catastrophe; about the tragedies and heartaches we construct for ourselves on a daily basis and the lengths we go to conceal them from the world at large, all of it delivered with the signatory idiosyncratic flair of a maverick filmmaker unafraid of slitting wrists while sarcastically giggling as the blood freely splatters.
