CAROL 2016

CAROL – Carol, an unrequited lesbian romance set against the closeted and intolerant era of 1950s America. Carol (Cate Blanchett) is a rich wife who meets Therese (Rooney Mara), a department store employee who assists with her Christmas shopping. They are both drawn to one another in the strange way that love works, and their possible relationship could jeopardize Carol’s custody of her young child. Because of the time period, so much of this romantic liaison is internalized and thus we get longing looks, small gestures that are meant to speak volumes, and plenty of starting and stopping, leaving the audience to fill in the blanks. There’s no passion evident throughout the movie and I was left wondering what exactly Therese saw in Carol and vice versa. Neither woman has a particularly strong personality, though that could be a side effect of having to live publicly as a different person. I couldn’t get into them as characters and so felt little interest in seeing them together, which made the constant circling and nervous indecision even more belabored.

Q-tips say: It was ok but a tad long. Mrs. Q says: It has been nominated for some awards but see it as a rental you and you will enjoy not spending the money. Blanchett and Mara were excellent as was the character who played Carol’s husband. Tho the acting was good, Mrs. Q got tired of all the soulful longing looks. To me, it looked like a May/Dec. relationship between two gay women. Perhaps that is because it was in the 50’s and at that time gays did not feel as free as today to express their feeling in public and being gay was not as understood like it is today.

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