The two nominations it should get are for the performances of its leads: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The former is very much a known quantity, almost unable to give anything less than a stellar performance, while the latter is still the new kid on the block (the opening scene of The Social Network, and the remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo).
Mara has been keen to point out that it was watching Blanchett that made her want to be an actress. If Mara had approached the filming with hero worship in mind, Carol would have fallen apart immediately.
Instead, she bravely grasps the trickier role, the mild oddness/otherness she usually conveys absolutely right for her character and the journey she will go on.
But many great actors have played couples before and failed to exhibit any spark of chemistry, but Blanchett and Mara are on fire. I can’t think of a more realistic on-screen relationship other than Alfred Molina and Jon Lithgow in last year’s Love Is Strange.
Here, one of the many joys is the restraint that 50s social mores force up upon Blanchett’s and Mara’s budding relationship: a single touch of the hand on a shoulder that lingers just a little too long becomes an almost ecstatic moment. Such intimacies as these burn with passion. The only way this film could be any more intimate is if Susanne Bier had shot it with lots of extreme close-ups.
The inevitable love scene is just that: a display of their love – Blue Is The Warmest Colour this isn’t. There’s no titillation for titillation’s sake, no leering straight male gaze. It just seems natural and unforced.
Given the level of restraint on display here, I was almost shocked at how much I wanted a happy ending for this possibly tragic couple.
Score: 8/10
Carol is released on
27 November.
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