Metrics
Genre:
Romance, Drama
Rating:
8.5/10
Audience:
Older teens to adults. Bonus points if you’re gay. Best watched alone, maybe with a close friend.
Rewatch Time:
Not exactly light viewing—twice a year tops.
Winner:
Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett)
Review
As a bit of a skeptic towards romances, the fact that this movie actually impressed me is a pretty solid testament to its quality. Of course, putting Cate Blanchett in a title role isn’t ever going to hurt your film, but the electric chemistry between her character and Rooney Mara’s Therese, the captivating story, and the melancholic score all come together to form a wholly engaging experience. Given that Carol comes off as confident and refined past what any actual person would be like, Therese seems to be the character the audience is expected to relate the most to. Her most prominent character struggle is one of what she wants for herself versus what others (her boyfriend, her colleagues, Carol, society) want for her, which is definitely something almost everyone has faced on some level. The only problem is that that indecisiveness makes her a little bland and lacking in agency right up until the very end. We never really get to learn what makes her (or Carol) tick, since their most profound bonding moments are either really meaningful eye contact or chatting drowned out by music. We don’t learn what draws Carol to Therese, which feels like a betrayal of how the movie constantly reminds us how hopelessly lost in love the two of them are. The actual relationship plays second fiddle to the characters’ individual struggles, and I’m fine with that, but not having your central romance hold up feels like a betrayal of your genre. All that said though, great movie, go watch it.
Spoiler Territory
Not really spoiler-sensitive.