"Don’t give up on Polanksi, or the cast" - Hector J-S

Carnage

Dir – Roman Polanksi

Starring – John C Reilly, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz

At some point or other in every life, you find yourself trapped in a terrible, awkward or boring situation, as you’re too polite to leave. It’s natural. Someone’s boring aunt, or at a bad party: if you’re unlucky enough on a long flight to have a verbose neighbour my heart goes out to you. But there is no way – No WAY - that it would take me 80 minutes to leave such a situation. Yet I, and everyone in the cinema, was forced to endure this farce. And pay to do so. 


You see this is one of those films when everyone’s stuck in a room together, and the prolonged exposure leads gradually and subtly to tension and aggression, finally over the limit into something drastic and rash. Pushing people to psychological breaking points does make for good cinema, and it has been done well – The Shining, Lakeview Terrace or Changing Lanes works better as an example. But this film never quite makes it to that level of madness that we, as savage spectators, really want to see. The recurring theme in the other films I’ve mentioned, however, is attempted homicide, but by the end of this film you’ll be wishing the characters would just get on with it and at least strangle each other, not just throw up and drink grumpily. Let me summarise before I go on, lest I fail to draw a conclusion. This is not a good film. And that breaks my heart, because I never want Polanski to stop being good (as a director, not a person – never forget that he pleaded guilty for kiddy fiddling), but it just isn’t. It starts so promisingly, with subtle hints at oafish rage (in the reliably hilarious John C Reilly) and dark undertones of sadistic genius (Christoph Waltz, who reminds you of just how damn evil he can be) pointing to the carefully planned character arcs that will lead to the titular ‘Carnage’ we’re all waiting for. But it never comes, and the whole thing deflates bitterly. It’s depressing watching such a talented pair as Jodie and Kate being so boring, but there is no enjoyment to be drawn from watching a film that manages effortlessly to be tedious and unbearable at the same time.


Don’t give up on Polanksi, or the cast. And I’m sure that the Yasmina Reza play which this is based on is terrific, but the translation is flawed at best. The film, funny in parts and occasionally promising, disappoints. 
I’m just going to stick this on at the end. Take the 10 pounds you’ve saved by not seeing carnage, get on amazon and buy a copy of the Norwegian monster movie Troll Hunter. Would that Hollywood could make such funny, scary and completely engrossing movies reliably.