10 January 2012

Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011)

9/10
Adapted (and probably virtually unchanged) from a play, Carnage features two sets of parents in one room of one house for its entire running time, discussing the fall-out from one parents' son hitting the others' in the face with a stick. In very Bunuelian fashion, things eventually descend into chaos and hysteria. If the trajectory is predictable, it's a heck of a lot of fun getting there. John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet are all fantastic, perfectly cast, and clearly revelling in what is patently an actor's movie. I'm giving it extra marks for being that most rare thing - an English-language comedy that appeals to adults without being juvenile (mostly). I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard in the theatre.

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