Carnage

Adapting any material for the big screen can be a tricky process but  it’s especially so when considering the minimalist settings and  character oriented tales on the stage. There is a preconceived idea on  how the story should play out with play adaptations because of the  familiarity with the story and the performances of the original cast.  And with a popular play such as Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” popular  both here in the US and in France where it originated, that standard of  expectation is equally daunting even if you have an accomplished  director such as Roman Polanski behind it. Carnage, as the film version of the play is titled, is Polanski’s first comedy of sorts since his 1967 film The Fearless Vampire Killers and truth be told it drastically shows. The casting isn’t ideal, the  comedy delivery is slightly stunted, and his handling of the static and  limited environment isn’t what you would expect from a well-known  director. It certainly lacks in presentation skills compared to the  mastery of Sidney Lumet in how he dealt with minimalist settings (Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men).  The film explores two couples meeting to discuss a fight between their  sons at a playground and becomes a comedy of revelation, which exposes  the annoying quirks, prejudiced assumptions, and diminishing facades of  the parties involved. The play and film have a similarity to the themes  of Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel where high class  sensibilities devolve into the animalistic meaning the elimination of  civility and politeness, which makes sense since they are both  originally from French authors. Carnage, while not as good as  its stage predecessor, has enough interesting dialogue and performances  that will keep an audience relatively satisfied. However, throughout the  process you realize that Polanski’s abilities are strained, the actors  on the screen are not as good as their stage counterparts, and the film  reveals too much to an audience that is meant to be purely objective  observers.

A fatal flaw in a film presentation of the play “God of Carnage” is the  opening credits where we witness, at a distance, the quarrel between the  children on the playground that ignites the parental encounter that is  the entire film. Actually seeing the act of violence doesn’t add  anything to the core of the film and with enough contemplation can be  seen as a detriment to our objective experience. Witnessing anything  slants our view and it didn’t have to be in the film. But that is a  criticism that is only part of the presentation as a whole. Polanski’s  directing style can be sweeping, it can be elegant, and it can be  succinct when he wants it to be. However, throughout Carnage it  seems he had a difficult time handling a very tight environment, which  utilizes a lot of close ups and different shot exchanges but never tries  to express the emotion in the scene with the position of his camera.  The beginning of the film should be uncomfortably awkward in its  politeness and transitions into loose and bitter honesty near the end,  though the camera use remains consistent. But the point of this story  really revolves around the strengths of the performances because Carnage is  an acting piece for comedic and overly dramatic delivery giving the  actors in the project a lot of range and expression that needs a bit of  restraint. While the four leads work very well and definitely appear to  have fun with their roles, there is no denying that even though they  have unquestionable talent the film would have benefited more with the  original Broadway actors. John C. Reilly works best in his role as the  arbitrating and overly polite host to the visiting couple but his  transition from civil mediator to an explosively apathetic father  doesn’t have the same level of change as it would have been with James  Gandolfini (Broadway original), who happens to have the best reserved  rage in the business. Where comedy is concerned delivery is important  and it doesn’t seem Christoph Waltz has the chops as much as he did in  Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. His comedic abilities become  more evident as the film goes on but his demeanor comes off as just  plain nasty than it does pompous and indifferent, such as Jeff Daniels  in the original play. The two female leads, Jodie Foster and Kate  Winslet, have a unique chance to go unhinged and it is relatively  successful though at times Foster seems a bit out of place. Acting aside  the material in the play is incredibly strong and having the original  playwright Yasmina Reza be part of writing the screenplay was a solid  choice and it keeps the film interesting if not as strong as it should  be.

A director more willing to experiment with a play that is essentially  one long scene could have planned it out such as Hitchcock did for his  play adaptation of Rope, which would have been essentially been  one shot if he didn’t have to switch film stock. Polanski isn’t as  accomplished a director as bourgeois crowds like to claim since he  hasn’t made a classic or memorable film since Chinatown, but he what he can be credited for is not messing things up. Carnage as a Polanski film is one of those above average pieces in his arsenal  of work probably due to his vast choices for shots and framing that make  an intriguing visual experience and his handling of the actors, which  makes it a sporadically humorous one. Perhaps holding the film up to the  stage play expecting something identical is justifiably overcritical,  but why did they make the decision of not using the original actors from  the stage (Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, and James  Gandolfini). Was this a creative decision? Was it an obligation through  contract? Did the other actors not want to work with Polanski due to his  sordid past? Whatever the reason might be there is an indisputable  truth that transitioning a play to the screen requires a delicate  approach and foresight for presentation and in regards to this play it  needed a director with a better sense of risk and creativity beyond  Polanski’s average abilities.