Catch the Choas of “Carnage.”

January 27th, 2012

© A.J. Malouin 2012

(Rating: 2 by A.J. Malouin.) (See our side-bar page “How We Rate Movies”)

(2011/France/Germany/Poland/Spain. Directed by Roman Polanski.)
You are not likely to see quartet of more brilliant and highly strung performances anywhere than you are going to be part of in “Carnage.” Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz, John C. Reilly, and Jodie Foster play two sets of parents who come together to settle things in a civilized manner when one couple’s 11-year-old son brutalizes the other couple’s.

The meeting starts innocuously enough, but soon comes to resemble The Battle of Trafalgar. Unlike Trafalgar, however, which only involved three combatants, the combatants in “Carnage” keep jumping ship.

Originally framed as a battle of one couple against the other, the sides change to men against women, high-brow against low-brow, cigar-smokers against non-smokers, and even cell-phone users against non-users.

Not for audiences who are looking for a walk in the park, “Carnage” rewards those who stay the course with riveting performances by all four actors. Read the rest of this entry »

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