Carnage

I had no idea what to expect going into this movie. All I knew was the basic plot line and that it had a stellar cast. It turned out to be a great movie. Insanely funny and so true how when you put people in that situation they will start out at one place, switch alliances, and then go back to where they were at the beginning.

It is such a simple little concept. Take four people put them in a room and make them attempt to deal with some “traumatic” situation. In this case four parents dealing with a playground argument that resulted in one child assaulting another. Amazing how intricate the writing and the performances are to display the difference in how the parents want to deal with it.

Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz as the parents of the child who committed the assault want nothing more than to escape the whole situation. Christoph is barely even present in the situation as he deals with a crisis for one of his clients. Kate wants to seem like such a caring and concerned parent but, truly she feels the whole thing is being blown out of proportion. They both are desperate to get out of the situation but, are designed to be too accommodating so they keep accepting odd invitations back into the apartment of Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly.

For their part Jodie and John’s characters just don’t want anyone to leave mad or think poorly of them so they are constantly trying to make everything better. Of course this is clearly going to be accomplished with cobbler and coffee and eventually liquor. Once the liquor comes out then the fun really begins and there is a brief portion of time when it’s women versus men. And that’s when Jodie and Kate really shine and show why they were both nominated for the Golden Globe.

This movie was absolutely worth full price. And it is Jodie or Kate who deserves to win the Golden Globe since they are true comedy performances. Honestly if I were voting I’d probably have to flip a coin to determine who to vote for.