Carnage

Films set around one location must, one must assume, prove a challenging concept for writers, actors and directors alike. Films such as Buried, Phone Booth and Inside Man all provide great examples of how this restrictive style can be used to their advantage, as they’re all intensely claustrophobic and highly effective thrillers that dial up the intensity spectacularly. While it’s a style that particularly lends itself to thrillers and horrors, it’s been less frequently utilised in the field of comedy, and director Roman Polanski has made a credible attempt at just that with Carnage, a skilfull adaptation of the play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza.

Set entirely in and around a New York apartment, the story begins with Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Jodie Foster and John C Reilly) welcoming Nancy and Alan Cowan (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) into their home. The tone is amiable, the reason for the meeting less so. The Cowans’ son has struck the Longstreets’ son in the face with a stick and knocked out two of his teeth, and the two couples are out for a resolution. Opening with a scene where the Longstreets agonise over their “statement” on the matter while the Cowans perch themselves at their shoulder contesting the wording, from the very beginning there’s a tone of awkwardness existing just below the surface of their apparent civility.

The Longstreets are an odd couple, of sorts. Penelope seems unduly uptight with a heavily pronounced social conscience, while Michael seems more laid back and liberal. Meanwhile, the Cowans are similar in many ways but seem to live in separate universes. Alan is the head of a pharmaceutical company and is forever attached to his phone (it breaks his conversational rhythm on many occasions here. We’d be madder about an actor of Christoph Waltz’s calibre being stopped in his tracks so often if it didn’t dial up both the couples and our collective annoyance so effectively). It’s a preoccupation that evidently troubles his wife, and it’s not difficult to imagine her grabbing of his phone and cry of “the here and now, god dammit!” around the film’s halfway stage being reflective many real-life domestic troubles.

As the story progresses over its 79 minute runtime, guards are let down, civility evaporates and all four of our key players reveal their true colours. Star of the show is arguably John C Reilly, who continues his hot streak after his brilliant turn as the contentedly oblivious father of the titular character in 2011′s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Elsewhere, while he possibly hasn’t chosen projects quite as well as we’d have hoped in the wake of Inglourious Basterds, Christoph Waltz is irresistibly condescending here, and with the aid of a punchy script, our interest never wains, even when the final twenty minutes or so head dramatically over-the-top.

All in all, Carnage is a fist-clenchingly awkward and superbly-scripted comedy that is carried along in excellent fashion by a quartet of superb leading performances. While its wince-inducing moments won’t be to everyone’s tastes, those in search of an unusual, fresh comedy could do far worse than give this a look.