Carnage

Roman Polanski's "Carnage" is a mildly engaging social satire about two well-heeled New York couples who lock horns when they meet to rehash the events surrounding a squabble between their two young sons, during which one of the boys was injured. The ostensible purpose for the get-together is to smooth ruffled feathers and determine monies owed to cover the hurt youngster's medical expenses. But in short order and fueled by alcohol, the foursome's facade of civility and restraint begins to crack and disintegrate as everyone spirals out of control. Polanski has created an existential hell where no one seems able to get up and leave.

The story unfolds in real time and is set in the bohemian-chic Brooklyn apartment of Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly), who play hosts to the offending child's parents, Nancy and Alan Cowan (Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz). Based on Yasmina Reza's award-winning play "God of Carnage"—produced on Broadway, in London, and in Paris—the script has been adapted by Reza and Polanski. Onstage and onscreen, the central challenge for the actors and director is maintaining plausibility within the parameters of parody.

Playing the politically correct and brittle Penelope, Foster has the most problematic role. The character is a control freak, and Foster's tightly wound wife is overstated from the outset. Usually a terrific actor, she has miscalculated badly in attempting to lay the groundwork far too early for the character's ultimate implosion. By contrast, Reilly is convincing as a wholesaler, whose values are firmly rooted in a blue-collar world. It's easy to imagine Reilly's Michael marrying Penelope in an effort to "better" himself. Yet, when sufficiently provoked, his erupting views have been subtly prepared for. Waltz is persuasive as the high-powered attorney, whose connection to his cell phone is umbilical. The endless interruptions are his shield against life's messier intrusions, though he does not have the comic flair that Jeff Daniels displayed in the same role on Broadway. Winslet suggests a well-bred investment banker who is unhappily married to Alan and not entirely sure what is required of her as a mom. But her excessive drinking and projectile vomiting is over-the-top and aesthetically repellent.

Whatever the film's shortcomings, the ensemble acting is fine, the pacing is brisk, and the momentum builds. Credit must also go to Polanski for employing the confines of one set to evoke the claustrophobic world the characters inhabit—literally and metaphorically—without making the audience feel trapped. (Polanski previously did a fine job with the Dakota apartment in "Rosemary's Baby.") Production designer Dean Tavoularis' book-filled, slightly shabby Longstreet apartment is splendidly authentic. It's yet another movie where the set, with its furniture, furnishings, and window treatments, is a high point.

But the most compelling aspect of "Carnage" is what unwittingly emerges about child-centric contemporary parents, who convene to earnestly analyze and dissect a playground brawl. They're overly involved, one speculates, because they never really wanted children—or thought they did and now regret it—and feel guilty. But that's way too dark to be anything other than sub-subtext.

Genre: Comedy
Written by Yasmina Reza and Roman Polanski
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly