Review: Carnage

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Carnage

Will these two couples ever part, I wondered? Will the hosts finally close the door behind their guests? The characters tease us by lingering at the door jamb, even stepping into the hall and pushing the elevator button. But if you know Carnage is based on a stage play, Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage (which just finished a run at Zach Scott), you figure most of them can't travel too far away. Perhaps they'll leave and return later ... or on the other hand, the four of them could be trapped in the same room forever, evoking shades of No Exit.

The suspense about this situation is only part of the tense and occasionally comic interaction that infuses Carnage with more energy and humor than you might expect from a stage-based, occasionally stagy adaptation. End-of-year "award bait" dramas aren't usually quite this funny, although the twisted humor takes awhile to get going. It's not at all what I would have predicted from a film directed by Roman Polanski starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and even the often-amusing John C. Reilly.

Carnage opens on a scene of playground violence -- two groups of boys arguing, and eventually one hits the other with a stick. As the setting shifts to four adults hovering over a computer, we learn that the boy who was hit ended up suffering serious medical and dental injuries. The bully's parents -- the Cowans -- are visiting the victim's parents, the Longstreets, to figure out what should be done about this, not simply legally or financially but how the boys should deal with one another.

The couples are polite around the computer, polite in the living room immediately after ... and slowly the situation begins to deteriorate. No one can quite bring himself or herself to let any seeming conclusions rest. Penelope (Jodie Foster), the mother of the victim, is the most adamant; her husband Michael (John C. Reilly) the most accommodating. Alan (Christophe Waltz), the alleged bully's father, is the least concerned about any of these goings-on, as he fields calls about his job. And Nancy (Kate Winslet) seems picture-perfect, at least up until a point.

I could see the interactions between these couples could get overly dramatic and even ugly, but I had no idea it would be so damned funny. You'd think the humor would come from Reilly, whom we're accustomed to seeing in comedies, but no, the best lines belong to Waltz. The business with his cell phone and the periodic brief reactions he makes, especially to Penelope's pronouncements, provided staccato beats of humor that are even more effective by being unexpected. (Except I just told you to expect them, but hopefully that won't affect your viewing enjoyment.) Even Penelope's earnest humorlessness becomes ludicrous enough to be laughable.

At this time of year, when the prestigious awards-bait dramas glut Austin arthouse theaters, it's a relief to be surprised with a seemingly dramatic film that blossoms into a comedy. The strong performances from all four actors, combined with smart dialogue from playwright Reza (who adapted her play into the script), overcome the stagy artificiality of the premise and setting, and make Carnage almost darkly gleeful.