Carnage, 2011.
Directed by Roman Polanski.
Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly.
SYNOPSIS:
Two sets of parents meet after their children are involved in a fight but their increasingly childish behaviour leads to chaos.
Take four solid actors, (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Cristoph Waltz and John C. Reily) a respected director with a controversial past, (Roman Polanski) a story based on a French play (“God of Carnage“) mix them all together and you get Carnage.
After their son is hit with a stick and badly injured by another boy, the Longstreets (Foster and Reily) invite the Cowans (Winslet and Waltz) over to their apartment to discuss the situation and try to find out why the Cowans son harmed theirs. At first everyone is willing to work things out and try to get along for the sake of their two sons, but after a while things start to get out of head and escalate into everyone showing their true colors.
At first glance this movie might not look like much. Essentially, you have only four characters who spend the entire 79 minute running time in one location bickering and yelling at one another over an altercation with their children. Doesn’t sound like too much but what you get on screen is actually quite entertaining. The cast plays a big part in making this movie enjoyable. All four actors are clearly having a good time in their roles and each get their own little moments of hilarity throughout the movie.
In the beginning the movie is a tad bit slow, which isn’t a good thing for a movie this short. For about the first ten to fifteen minutes you’re kind of watching just wondering where exactly this could possibly go but once the characters start to let loose that’s when the movie picks up and starts to get more interesting and definitely a lot more funny. The only major flaw here would be that once you get to see all the characters for who they truly are, they all become somewhat unlikeable. That could definitely turn off some people but I was enjoying all the arguing and bickering so them being unlikeable didn’t concern me too much just as long as they were making me laugh.
Overall, the movie isn’t a laugh a minute comedy but it is funny enough and the actors are all good enough to make this a solid movie.
Jake Peffer
Originally published January 16, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
