Carnage (2011)

Jack and I saw The God of Carnage (about two couples discussing a playground incident between their 11-year-old sons) on Broadway in 2009 and liked it a lot. We agree this movie adaptation is a fine one. Here we have superstars Jodie Foster playing Marcia Gay Harden's part, John C. Reilly in for James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet for Hope Davis, and Christoph Waltz for Jeff Daniels. Not obvious choices, but quite wonderful, under the direction of Roman Polanski (covered in The Ghost Writer). Because Polanski would be arrested for his past crime if he were to set foot on American soil, Carnage was shot in Paris, almost completely in a magnificent apartment (standing in for Brooklyn) that Jack commented was too nice considering what the characters who live there do for work. We missed the director's cameo, as the neighbor who peeks his head out of the apartment next door. Polanski collaborated with playwright Yasmina Reza on the screenplay.

Foster (I wrote about her in The Beaver, which Ricky Gervais called "Jodie Foster's Beaver" in the Golden Globes--yes, we finally got to watch that show last week) is so appropriately tightly wound as the intellectual Penelope it's hard for me to remember Harden in the part. Reilly (last in these pages in Terri), as her husband Michael, can channel Gandolfini's volatility in the second half as well as the easy-going manner required for the first. Winslet (my favorites are listed in Contagion) is great as Nancy, the conciliatory mother of the offending boy, as is Christoph Waltz (see Water for Elephants) as Alan, her husband with the non-stop cell phone. Waltz, born in Vienna, has now adopted an American accent as good as Winslet's (a Brit). The actual playground is shown as bookends (scenes at the beginning and end of the movie) shot from far away with no dialogue. Polanski's son Elvis, himself going on 14, plays the offending boy.

Prolific composer Alexandre Desplat (last heard in The Ides of March) provides the score, which is not for sale and hasn't been posted anywhere that I can find. You'll have to take my word for it that it's good. Or just see the movie. It's very short (80 minutes) and will make you cringe and laugh. If you don't have time to see it on the big screen, its expected DVD release is March 20. Of the four movies waiting in draft mode for me to complete, this is the one I liked the best.