Carol

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"Therese" (Rooney Mara) is pretty unfulfilled, clerking in a department store that's frequented by the far more interesting "Carol" (Cate Blanchett). Their first meeting ignites a spark, and that spark quite quickly takes over both of their lives as the story unfolds and there develops an inter-dependency between the women. The latter is married to the wealthy "Harge" (Kyle Chandler) but it's an hollow arrangement that is coming to an end in the divorce court - their daughter together proving to be quite an important pawn in those proceedings. "Therese" has a long-term boyfriend "Richard" (Jake Lacy) who wants to settle down and get married - so both have much to lose as their relationship becomes more important and intimate. "Harge" has shrewdly inserted a morality clause into their proposed shared custody arrangement and is none too shy of resorting to some fairly underhand methods of tracking his wife's activities to prove that she isn't fit to have any access at all to their child. We also have to consider the closeness of the friendship between "Carol" and her best friend "Abby" (Sarah Paulson) and by mid way through the internecine complexities of their lives they risk leaving everyone with nothing. It's a romance, this, but largely devoid of sentimentality. A love story that is more visceral in nature, where one love is essentially climbing on top of another for supremacy over the heart and the head! It's Mara who does most of the heavy lifting, her character seems the more plausibly conflicted; but Blanchett delivers well as the desperate mother increasingly hemmed in by circumstance little of her making. The film looks great, the production design and Carter Burwell's period score adding a richness to a theme that offers us some intricate characters and scenarios that are anything but straightforward. It's maybe just a little too dialogue heavy - there's a lot of verbiage - but that's incidental. It's still a classy piece of cinema.

> Just when it can't get any better... The first thing I noticed was after seeing the movie is there's some kind of mistake in the Oscars nominee. Rooney Mara should have been on the lead role list, while Cate Blanchett in the supporting character's. Maybe the Academy people misunderstood that the title role must be the lead character. Theirs switched place actually does not make any sense. Anyway the Oscars never made sense at all. This story was okay, but adapted screenplay and direction, especially the music was excellent. For the ending scene alone, you will be tempted to raise your rating than what you initially thought it deserves. I was not expecting the movie to be awesome, so I'm not upset for the overall movie. Believe me, the last thing I want in this movie is to see Cate Blanchett in naked. Maybe out of respect or her age or she's not attracted to me, there are plenty of reasons that I can't figure it out which one, but after knowing what this theme is, I was only praying for that not to happen. And obviously that is unavoidable, otherwise the movie will lose its soul and strength. Well, it was better than I thought, both the actresses were good, but Rooney Mara dominated. Whatever category she's in for the Oscars, I'll be happy if she wins. It is not a must watch, but a decent movie and betters in some parts. 7/10

'Carol' is beautifully shot and very maturely made. The acting was very class all around the film. The whole thing seemed like it was taken from the 40s. I loved how fine it all looked and felt and it deserved a lot more awards than it got. ★★★★