Grown ups behaving badly: middle-class grown-ups behaving badly at that.
Boys will be boys and in a Brooklyn park, Zachary Cowan has thumped Ethan Longstreet hard enough for him to require dental work.
Before things become litigious, parents of both boys meet in the apartment of the Longstreets to agree a code of conduct and a plan of action regarding resolving the fight between the two classmates. It’s a civilised way to deal with the situation.
Breakdown of civility
But things do not always go to plan as the lawyer/investment banker Cowan couple (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) are impatient to leave but who, in the case of Waltz, always wants (and needs) the last word. One-upmanship is a professional necessity for Waltz. It becomes something of a personal challenge for him against the liberal, progressive Longstreets.
Dialogue is crisp and brisk as the two couples discuss, debate, bicker, argue, occasionally yell, and, on one memorable moment, projectile vomit over the coffee table and valued art books of Penelope (Jodie Foster).
As the elegant Cowans fail to escape and the ever-hospitable Michael Longstreet (John C Reilly) brings out the whisky, so the couples’ behavior degenerates and the civilized attempt at resolving the situation disintegrates into an uncivil slanging match.
Performance versus dialogue
It’s not always Cowans versus Longstreets. Different alliances are formed and broken; the men and women on occasions side with each other; cigars are smoked as the males bond. But it only takes a word inadvertently used for the original division to be redrawn.
Carnage is not the most memorable of films, betraying as it does its stage origins, with Polanski choosing to remain in the claustrophobic confines of the apartment. But the movement of the couples around the apartment mirrors the ebb and flow of dialogue and conversation.
Nothing is really resolved. Both couples will feel they have won. Both will feel dissatisfied the following morning with their seemingly narrow victory.
But as a quick-fire, screwball comedy, it works. Carnage is brief at 79 minutes - but it’s also laugh-out-loud entertainment.
Personal rating: 3 stars
Directed by Roman Polanski (The Pianist, Chinatown)
Written by Roman Polanski (The Ghost Writer, The Ninth Gate), Yasmin Reza (Chicas, Art – TV)
Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd (Impardonnables, Tais-toi!)
Starring Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs, Inside Man), Kate Winslet (The Reader, Titanic), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Water for Elephants) John C Reilly (Chicago, Step Brothers)
Keith Lawrence - Published writer of articles in magazines, newspapers and websites, predominantly on culture, alongside ghostwriter/editor/copywriter.
