A well-made, workmanlike disappointment, much inferior to Haynes's Far From Heaven. You knew where it was going and it went there. Along the way there are no surprises from the two lead characters. The most surprising thing, which lifts it above Lifetime territory, is that it does not villainize the male characters. They have the values of their time, to be sure, but the husband and the boyfriend mean well, while the detective and Carol's lawyer are both matter of factly professional. Her lawyer, in particular, does an excellent, nonjudgmental job with what looks like a hopeless case.
The most erotic scene in the movie is not the consummation but rather the first lunch date, where Carol looks ready to swallow Therese alive and Therese seems ready to jump right down her throat. The imbalance of power in that scene is distasteful. As I grow older, I find that love stories of any gender between an older sophisticate and a young naif have either a predatory or a transactional vibe to them that puts me off. Throughout, Carol knows exactly what she wants and is cool and composed enough to wait for Therese to figure herself out, catch up and provide it. At its least exploitative, this kind of relationship is a bargain, where the elder provides education in return for rejuvenation. And since this is a Patricia Highsmith story, material concerns are part of the bargain. Carol's standard of living makes a powerful impression on Therese from the outset, and she quickly grows used to what it can provide By the end, Therese understands perfectly well who she is, and some other women can perceive it. But the ending, when Therese moves from a Greenwich Village party of impecunious young bohemians to join Carol for dinner at the Oak Room, is set up in such a way that we don't know whether Therese is opting for true love or for the bigger and better deal. I'm not sure Therese knows either.
For what is supposed to be a story of amour fou, it isn't fou enough. The basic setup is Anna Karenina, but Harge isn't Karenin and nobody throws themselves under a locomotive. The ending is not quite a happy ending, more like happy enough given the circumstances. That may be real life, especially in the social circles of Carol and her husband, but, unlike Far From Heaven, there's no pathos here and no tragedy. I give it a B.
17 out of 29 found this helpful