Adaptations #1: The Lack of Carnage
This is the first in a three-part series devoted to movie adaptations I have rented this past week.
This issue deals with Carnage, a simple film with what might be considered an all star cast, had it not consisted of just four people. John C. Reilly (a staple for anyone looking to cast a broad comedy), Jodie Foster (The Beaver), Cristoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds), and Kate Winslet (Titanic-3D) star respectively as two couples trying to resolve a dispute between their children in Roman Polanski's film adaptation of Yasmina Reza's stage play, "The God of Carnage."
What begins as a civil conversation between the couples quickly degenerates into a war of words as opinions and personalities clash, turning couple against couple and husband against wife in every possible combination until the film ends with nothing resolved and everyone drunk.
The powerful four do what each of them does best: Reilly says inappropriate things, Winslet plays the proper woman-of-wit that has seemed to work for her in the past, Waltz manages to annoy and captivate with equal measure, and Jodie Foster steals Carnage, as expected, by putting on an effortless dramatic performance. But ultimately, the players water each other down like cheap Scotch, and the film fails to impress as a whole.
I'll save you the rental fee and the hour-and-a-half viewing time with a free cliche: Violence doesn't solve anything.
C-
What begins as a civil conversation between the couples quickly degenerates into a war of words as opinions and personalities clash, turning couple against couple and husband against wife in every possible combination until the film ends with nothing resolved and everyone drunk.
The powerful four do what each of them does best: Reilly says inappropriate things, Winslet plays the proper woman-of-wit that has seemed to work for her in the past, Waltz manages to annoy and captivate with equal measure, and Jodie Foster steals Carnage, as expected, by putting on an effortless dramatic performance. But ultimately, the players water each other down like cheap Scotch, and the film fails to impress as a whole.
I'll save you the rental fee and the hour-and-a-half viewing time with a free cliche: Violence doesn't solve anything.
C-
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