Starring Catherine Deneuve
Directed by Roman Polanski
Directed by Roman Polanski
First off...awesome poster to the left. Make fun of my Polish kinfolk all you want, but that's a kick-ass poster we made there.
Unfortunately, the awesome Polish poster is all this movie has going for it. This is one of those insanely weird art-house movies that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Sometimes that weird stuff works, but here, it doesn't fully achieve its goal.
The lovely Catherine Deneuve is Carol. The twenty-something lives in an apartment London with her older sister who happens to be dating a married man whom Carol doesn't care for. In the middle of the night, Carol hears her sister having sex with the boyfriend and finds herself sickened by the act. The very act of kissing her (sort of) boyfriend Colin turns her off. It's obvious that something's not 100% right mentally with Carol and when her sister goes away on vacation, Carol's world begins to fall apart. She locks herself in the apartment and begins imagining (or is she?) herself getting raped and abused by men. Fun stuff, huh?
I understand that director Polanski's goal was to lull us at the beginning and ratchet up the tension as the film goes on. However, literally nothing happens in the first hour of this movie. Sure, the audience realizes that Carol's nutty and not exactly socially adept, but I don't need an hour to figure that out. Admittedly, the final 45 minutes, and, in particular the last 25 or so certainly interested me. I was also intrigued by the ending -- I was moderately surprised by the way the film concludes. Not that it's a shocker by any means (nor is it supposed to be), but I didn't expect it to end the way it did.
I've seen a few of Polanski's films at this point and while I may not have liked them all, I've been interested to a certain extent in all of them. He definitely knows how to visually set up shots in quite a beautiful way. That being said, I don't want to be bored for an hour in order to get only a moderate payoff in the end.
Unfortunately, the awesome Polish poster is all this movie has going for it. This is one of those insanely weird art-house movies that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Sometimes that weird stuff works, but here, it doesn't fully achieve its goal.
The lovely Catherine Deneuve is Carol. The twenty-something lives in an apartment London with her older sister who happens to be dating a married man whom Carol doesn't care for. In the middle of the night, Carol hears her sister having sex with the boyfriend and finds herself sickened by the act. The very act of kissing her (sort of) boyfriend Colin turns her off. It's obvious that something's not 100% right mentally with Carol and when her sister goes away on vacation, Carol's world begins to fall apart. She locks herself in the apartment and begins imagining (or is she?) herself getting raped and abused by men. Fun stuff, huh?
I understand that director Polanski's goal was to lull us at the beginning and ratchet up the tension as the film goes on. However, literally nothing happens in the first hour of this movie. Sure, the audience realizes that Carol's nutty and not exactly socially adept, but I don't need an hour to figure that out. Admittedly, the final 45 minutes, and, in particular the last 25 or so certainly interested me. I was also intrigued by the ending -- I was moderately surprised by the way the film concludes. Not that it's a shocker by any means (nor is it supposed to be), but I didn't expect it to end the way it did.
I've seen a few of Polanski's films at this point and while I may not have liked them all, I've been interested to a certain extent in all of them. He definitely knows how to visually set up shots in quite a beautiful way. That being said, I don't want to be bored for an hour in order to get only a moderate payoff in the end.
The RyMickey Rating: C-
Boooooooooobs
ReplyDeleteI knew that reaction would've been forthcoming...
ReplyDeletethis movie is not even a 2. if she wasn't attractive i would've stopped watching. nothing happened and yet it remained predictable. now I know where the paranormal activity people got their inspiration.
ReplyDelete