The God of Civilized Chaos

Carnage is a middling effort from Polanski, a filmmaker who we have all come to expect greatness (at least in his craft) from. His camera is generally pretty straightforward and it has never been more stripped down than in this film. Other than the shots of the boys playing at the park that bookend the film, the frames are all straight out of a textbook which is arguably appropriate for this material. Taken from Yasmina Reza's stage script, the film attempts to underline the tenuous walls of decorum amongst accomplished adults. It fails as much as it succeeds in this endeavor, but where it succeeds is in (most of) the casting. 


The film world is quite taken with Christoph Waltz, and he gives us yet another reason to jump on board. His character seems to be the thesis of the film, though still not without his failings and hangups. He even punches a bit too hard on the "God of Carnage" line for my taste, but he otherwise navigates the role of the reluctantly "doing-my-part," resigned father, and busy lawyer with a slight sneer once the movie gets going. This is similar to the worldview that Polanski seems to always be driving toward. We conduct ourselves with a certain decorum, but once things start to tip in one direction or another, begin to show others the parts of ourselves that lean toward the sociopathic. If you accept this perspective whole heartedly as Polanski seems to, you will likely enjoy the rest of the film.


But then we have the other characters to compete with, each representing a different philosophical vantage. John C. ("Give us your bones") Reilly is turning out to have a wonderfully varied career as of late. He shines in this part as well. His character, too, is thinly veiling his contempt for his idea of a "certain kind of people." Pragmatic and humble in profession, he has acquiesced to his more liberal wife's (Jodi Foster) ideas of how to see the world, but this is dropped as well as the film settles into its unpleasant character exchanges, and begins offering everyone scotch and cigars. 

Winslet is her expectedly wonderful self in a role that requires her to be weaker. She wants to play nice, keep up the veneer of good will and she succeeds for a while, but it is eventually ripped from her grasp. Foster is the only disappointment. Some have praised her brash, almost schizophrenic portrayal of her character, but for me, it was a bit over-the-top. She contorts her face in such ways when she is lashing out that don't seem to fit with the circumstance, though it's not all bad. Her moments of exhaustion from what is transpiring around her are spot on. 


The last thing that movie does well is let us see the shifts in alliance and then sometimes revokes them almost as soon as you've realized they've formed. When Reilly's character agrees with a specific point of view that Waltz's character espouses, he will say so and provide some other anecdote that supports the position only to hurl a barb back after Waltz further clarifies his intention. 


Carnage is best seen for its study of character and space, but beyond that, the content is thinner than its words would seem to suggest.