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Review: Carol (2015)
I was expecting to like this movie and I did, despite not normally enjoying romance movies. I think what I enjoyed about this romance was that the focus seemed to be on the emotional aspect rather than how the love was manifested in actions or words. I would recommend this film for those looking for a romance movie.
Spoilers.
Story
In a lot of mainstream romances, I find that the point of the story is to show how the romance trumps all other conflicts in life. In the case of Carol, the romance grows "around" the normal conflicts of life. Carol and Therese have their own share of problems (Carol's custody dispute and Therese's relationship with Richard), but their love for each other doesn't interfere that much with their problems. Actually, the romance in this movie kind of reminded me of how romance is usually built up in fanfiction. The conflicts are there, but it's about how the characters' love finds its way into their lives, both in the midst of the conflicts and outside of it. Not sure if that makes sense.
In any case, this type of romance was better suited for me than mainstream romcoms and the like because I don't really like big displays of affection. The romance was very subtle, and it didn't feel performative.
I did know that this movie had a happy ending, so I actually wasn't too worried about anything bad happening to Therese and Carol. But if I hadn't, I might've been a little more anxious while watching the movie lol.
Production
I think both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara did well, but I think in terms of chemistry, it wasn't the best that I've seen. Which isn't exactly something that's their fault. Chemistry can't be forced, but it's of course a nice bonus when it is there.
I think the way the film was directed suited the story. As I mentioned, the movie was more about the emotional, internal aspect of romance as opposed to the performative aspect, and we did see a lot of scenes where Therese was doing a lot of thinking and emoting.
Characters
Therese Belivet
The movie was mostly shot from Therese's point of view. Now that I'm thinking more about Therese as a character, I'm finding that I don't actually know that much about her. It's implied that she's pretty young, so I'm going to guess she's in her early 20s. I think this movie was almost like a coming-of-age story for her, as she didn't feel attracted to women before she met Carol, and part of the movie had her explore her sexuality as well.
That being said, we still get a chance to see Therese take her life into her own hands towards the end. For the first part of the movie, she was mostly indulging her attraction to Carol. She even said that all she does is say yes, and she was upset about it because she thought she'd hurt Carol by doing so. After the period of time Carol and Therese were apart, we got to see Therese actually make some decisions that weren't fuelled by attraction. Not that Therese was only crazy about love before, but I do think she was a more mature person after her trip with Carol, and she seemed like she had better control of herself and her decisions.
Carol asked Therese to consider restarting their relationship, with asking her to move in, and then asking her to dinner. Therese declined moving in, mostly because I think that was too big of a step. But she did eventually go to see Carol at the club for dinner. I think Therese decided to restart the relationship because she felt that Carol was in a better place emotionally. When they'd first met, Carol was struggling with her divorce, and how to be a mother, but by the end of the movie, we saw that Carol had made peace with both of those things. Because of that, I think Therese felt it was now "safe" to be with Carol, that they wouldn't always have to be looking over their shoulders, and that Carol had a grip on her own life.
Carol Aird
Carol was the cool, mature woman who was the object of Therese's affection. She always seemed so confident and attentive (especially to other women, such as Florence her housekeeper or other female service workers). As Therese got to know Carol, she saw that Carol didn't have it together, but she couldn't help but be drawn into Carol's tumultuous life until they both realized that they had to stay away (at least temporarily) until things blew over.
Carol seemed not too worried about her divorce, but she was very worried about the prospect of not being able to see Rindy again. Though we didn't see that much of Carol on her own during the movie, I think we can infer that she did a lot of self reflection in the time she was away from Therese. In addition, she had Abby there to be her sounding board. Anyway, Carol's final conclusion was that she had to be true to herself in order to be a good person, which meant not hiding her love, even if it meant breaking the "morality clause." She also knew that fighting for custody was going to be terribly hard on Rindy, so she tried to work out a truce with Harge, which I am optimistic Harge will accept.
With that out of the way, Carol tried to get back together with Therese, but she too understood that Therese might've been angry with her for abandoning her. In Carol's initial letter, she said that she understood Therese's hurt, and that part of it was likely due to her age. So I think Carol knew very well what Therese was going through and wanted to be patient with her, and let her have control of the situation, which I think does also speak to Carol's maturing. Rather than trying to control everything in her life (custody, Therese), Carol realized that she can only do so much, and she had to accept that.
Richard Semco
Richard was the man that Therese was seeing before she met Carol. I think they were living together, and he wanted her to marry him and move to Europe, but throughout the movie, it was hard to see any spart of a romantic relationship between them.
Richard was pretty angry that Therese would go on a road trip with Carol on an impulse and yet she was hesitant about going to Europe with him even though she'd been the one to push him to buy boat tickets.
It's clear that Richard and Therese were not a good fit, and they didn't understand each other at all.
Hargress Aird
Harge was Carol's husband. He insisted that he still loved her, but with his attitude, I have to think that he was more in love with the idea of having a perfect beautiful wife rather than Carol herself. When Harge saw Carol with Therese, he got pretty angry. My guess is that he thought Carol was just in love with one woman, but when Carol was with Therese, he realized that maybe Carol just wasn't in love with men in general.
Anyway, Harge went on full offense and filed for full custody, as well as hiring an investigator to get evidence of Carol's "immoral habits."
During the final meeting with the lawyers, I think that Carol's words did have an effect on Harge, and that he did realize that they were hurting each other for no reason.
Abby Gerhard
Abby was Carol's childhood friend, short time lover, and long time confidant. Harge continuously brought up Abby to infer Carol's lesbian tendencies, but the fact was that they hadn't been lovers for a while. However, Abby was likely the only person that Carol trusted enough to talk about her love for women with, which made her far more trustworthy than Harge. In the end, Abby helped Carol to keep an eye on Therese (just in terms of her well-being).
Overall
This was a nice, cozy romance movie. Though the stakes were sort of high (custody dispute), I still felt that it was a pretty mellow story, maybe because the conflict was mostly internal. Anyway, I still enjoyed it, and I think a lot of people would too.
Spoilers.
Story
In a lot of mainstream romances, I find that the point of the story is to show how the romance trumps all other conflicts in life. In the case of Carol, the romance grows "around" the normal conflicts of life. Carol and Therese have their own share of problems (Carol's custody dispute and Therese's relationship with Richard), but their love for each other doesn't interfere that much with their problems. Actually, the romance in this movie kind of reminded me of how romance is usually built up in fanfiction. The conflicts are there, but it's about how the characters' love finds its way into their lives, both in the midst of the conflicts and outside of it. Not sure if that makes sense.
In any case, this type of romance was better suited for me than mainstream romcoms and the like because I don't really like big displays of affection. The romance was very subtle, and it didn't feel performative.
I did know that this movie had a happy ending, so I actually wasn't too worried about anything bad happening to Therese and Carol. But if I hadn't, I might've been a little more anxious while watching the movie lol.
Production
I think both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara did well, but I think in terms of chemistry, it wasn't the best that I've seen. Which isn't exactly something that's their fault. Chemistry can't be forced, but it's of course a nice bonus when it is there.
I think the way the film was directed suited the story. As I mentioned, the movie was more about the emotional, internal aspect of romance as opposed to the performative aspect, and we did see a lot of scenes where Therese was doing a lot of thinking and emoting.
Characters
Therese Belivet
The movie was mostly shot from Therese's point of view. Now that I'm thinking more about Therese as a character, I'm finding that I don't actually know that much about her. It's implied that she's pretty young, so I'm going to guess she's in her early 20s. I think this movie was almost like a coming-of-age story for her, as she didn't feel attracted to women before she met Carol, and part of the movie had her explore her sexuality as well.
That being said, we still get a chance to see Therese take her life into her own hands towards the end. For the first part of the movie, she was mostly indulging her attraction to Carol. She even said that all she does is say yes, and she was upset about it because she thought she'd hurt Carol by doing so. After the period of time Carol and Therese were apart, we got to see Therese actually make some decisions that weren't fuelled by attraction. Not that Therese was only crazy about love before, but I do think she was a more mature person after her trip with Carol, and she seemed like she had better control of herself and her decisions.
Carol asked Therese to consider restarting their relationship, with asking her to move in, and then asking her to dinner. Therese declined moving in, mostly because I think that was too big of a step. But she did eventually go to see Carol at the club for dinner. I think Therese decided to restart the relationship because she felt that Carol was in a better place emotionally. When they'd first met, Carol was struggling with her divorce, and how to be a mother, but by the end of the movie, we saw that Carol had made peace with both of those things. Because of that, I think Therese felt it was now "safe" to be with Carol, that they wouldn't always have to be looking over their shoulders, and that Carol had a grip on her own life.
Carol Aird
Carol was the cool, mature woman who was the object of Therese's affection. She always seemed so confident and attentive (especially to other women, such as Florence her housekeeper or other female service workers). As Therese got to know Carol, she saw that Carol didn't have it together, but she couldn't help but be drawn into Carol's tumultuous life until they both realized that they had to stay away (at least temporarily) until things blew over.
Carol seemed not too worried about her divorce, but she was very worried about the prospect of not being able to see Rindy again. Though we didn't see that much of Carol on her own during the movie, I think we can infer that she did a lot of self reflection in the time she was away from Therese. In addition, she had Abby there to be her sounding board. Anyway, Carol's final conclusion was that she had to be true to herself in order to be a good person, which meant not hiding her love, even if it meant breaking the "morality clause." She also knew that fighting for custody was going to be terribly hard on Rindy, so she tried to work out a truce with Harge, which I am optimistic Harge will accept.
With that out of the way, Carol tried to get back together with Therese, but she too understood that Therese might've been angry with her for abandoning her. In Carol's initial letter, she said that she understood Therese's hurt, and that part of it was likely due to her age. So I think Carol knew very well what Therese was going through and wanted to be patient with her, and let her have control of the situation, which I think does also speak to Carol's maturing. Rather than trying to control everything in her life (custody, Therese), Carol realized that she can only do so much, and she had to accept that.
Richard Semco
Richard was the man that Therese was seeing before she met Carol. I think they were living together, and he wanted her to marry him and move to Europe, but throughout the movie, it was hard to see any spart of a romantic relationship between them.
Richard was pretty angry that Therese would go on a road trip with Carol on an impulse and yet she was hesitant about going to Europe with him even though she'd been the one to push him to buy boat tickets.
It's clear that Richard and Therese were not a good fit, and they didn't understand each other at all.
Hargress Aird
Harge was Carol's husband. He insisted that he still loved her, but with his attitude, I have to think that he was more in love with the idea of having a perfect beautiful wife rather than Carol herself. When Harge saw Carol with Therese, he got pretty angry. My guess is that he thought Carol was just in love with one woman, but when Carol was with Therese, he realized that maybe Carol just wasn't in love with men in general.
Anyway, Harge went on full offense and filed for full custody, as well as hiring an investigator to get evidence of Carol's "immoral habits."
During the final meeting with the lawyers, I think that Carol's words did have an effect on Harge, and that he did realize that they were hurting each other for no reason.
Abby Gerhard
Abby was Carol's childhood friend, short time lover, and long time confidant. Harge continuously brought up Abby to infer Carol's lesbian tendencies, but the fact was that they hadn't been lovers for a while. However, Abby was likely the only person that Carol trusted enough to talk about her love for women with, which made her far more trustworthy than Harge. In the end, Abby helped Carol to keep an eye on Therese (just in terms of her well-being).
Overall
This was a nice, cozy romance movie. Though the stakes were sort of high (custody dispute), I still felt that it was a pretty mellow story, maybe because the conflict was mostly internal. Anyway, I still enjoyed it, and I think a lot of people would too.