Carnage

There are many plays that have been made into films. Most try to expand the scope of the play to make it more cinematic. However writer/director Roman Polanski has decided not to go that way with this film.

The entire film takes place in a few rooms of a New York apartment. With only two scenes that open and close the film taking place outside in a park. There is no action in the film and is just four people talking. For many people I know this would not make a very interesting film. But for a person like me who loves clever, witty dialogue it is a work of art. The play's original writer Yasmina Reza and Roman Polanski have come up with a very clever plot that takes a simple situation and manages to stretch it out to feature length. This is very much a character based film where a group of people come together to have a discussion and the plot turns on their reactions to each other based on what they say. This makes for some funny situations as these four people try to be civil to each other and mediate a difficult situation. The story could easily have finished many times but each time something happens to draw the story out more. I find this type of thing incredibly clever from a writing point of view. To be able to work out a way of keeping these people together is so well done. It is something I'm envious of. I love dialogue driven films. So this film really appealed to me.

Roman has assembled an excellent quartet of actors to play our two couples. I've long been a fan of Jodie Foster and she is excellent as the uptight member of the group. Her character is the one who seems to keep them all together as she searches for reasons. Her husband is played wonderfully by John C. Reilly. Most people would know him from his big comedies he's done with Will Ferrell but John does a lot of indie films like this too. He is great as the more down to earth member of the group. It is good to see Christoph Waltz have a role where he is not playing a villain. He plays his role as the ruthless lawyer very well. Most of his time is spent on the phone, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group. It is a very funny character trait. Kate Winslet does not get to play comedies very much but she plays the cold, rich woman very well. She does however loosen up nicely over the coarse of the film and in more ways than one.

If you like films with lots of action then this is not for you. However if you like something that is more dialogue driven and more theatrical then this is for you.