It happens around Christmas, so Carol is the quite the name of the season. Yes, there is snow and Christmas trees and gifts, but Carol is no innocent Santa Claus tale. Rather, it is an exquisitely woven love story, between two women. We can call them lesbians today, without looking over the shoulder, but when Patricia Highsmith wrote the novel, in Senator McCarthy’s America of the early 1950s, a time of witch-hunting, the term would surely invite wrath. Sixty-four years later, there are no such fears. 

Two women from very different backgrounds find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store, and dreaming of a more fulfilling life as a photographer, when she meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), a customer, an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. Therese's boyfriend, Richard (Jake Lacy), wants her to go to France with him and hopes they will marry. Carol is going through a difficult divorce from her neglectful husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler), with whom she has a young daughter, Rindy. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens. While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, Kyle begins to question her competence as a mother, as her lesbian involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby (Sarah Paulson) come to light.

Based on The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Carol has a screenplay by playwright Phyllis Nagy. Nagy is best known for the HBO film, Mrs. Harris, written and directed by her, which premièred at The Toronto International Film Festival and went on to garner 12 Emmy nominations (including nominations for writing and directing), three Golden Globe nominations and two Screen Actors Guild award nominations. Highsmith, known for such milestones as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, died in 1995. An almost concomitant feature of stories that are published as novels is the attention to detail. When you add to that the give and take of a dialogue based play, you can rarely go wrong. Highsmith and Nagy have a happy bonding, a century apart in time. In 2014, 11 years after the project was started, there was no need at all to be subtle, understated, and platonic, but they were not making Blue is the Warmest Colour.

Todd Haynes directed and wrote all his films (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There, Velvet Goldmine, Safe) prior to Carol, and one can see why he reposed his faith in Nagy for Carol. He meticulously brings out the problems of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, while balancing and counterpoising the psyches of initiator and the uninitiated, in the sexual equation. On the surface, Therese Belivet might appear emotionless and dumb, but that is only relative to the charged and bold Carol Aird. One must also compliment him on his choice of music and the excellent sound-track by Carter Burwell that stays with you long after you have left the auditorium. A tad long, at 118 minutes, this slow film hardly ever drags, even when nothing monumental is happening.

Cate Blanchett (Australian, Blue Jasmine, The Aviator, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I’m Not There) is wonderful, but she is not alone. Expressing sentiments, having scenes with a husband and a daughter, seducing a much younger girl--she gets so many opportunities to perform, and perform she does. Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Pan, Trash) has perhaps the more difficult role, of a lowly salesgirl, of Czechoslovakian parentage, who has no happiness but is a warm-hearted person, who gets attracted to a customer and finds herself in a forbidden love. It offers her few emoting points, yet she tugs at your heart. Not to be left behind is Kyle Chandler (The Wolf of Wall Street, Broken City, The Spectacular Now, Super 8, The Day the Earth Stood Still), who is naturally impactful.

Jake Lacy (Obvious Child, Intramural) makes an understanding boy-friend who has to face the prospect of his girl leaving him for another girl. As Rindy’s Godmother and Carol’s mysterious first affair, Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave, Mud, Game Change) is composed and confident. You are not going to like Cory Michael Smith (Tommy Tucker), but then who would like a private eye, snooping on the two protagonists of touching love story? John Magaro, as Dannie McElroy, who works for the New York Times, gets to kiss Mara, and that scene is handled with such maturity.

Much has been written about the end of the movie. More will be written. Good writing and worth-a-risk character stretching make the finale simplistic yet most effective, applying one stroke of black while splashing white with the other hand. There is almost no live sex in the film, and the bit that was has been snipped by the Central Board of Film Certification. If you get uncomfortable at the very mention of the words homosexual or lesbian, do stay away. If you can assimilate and appreciate a beautiful film about women finding ways to unravel their ambivalent sexuality, go for it.

A word about the Super 16 stock used to shoot the film. I am unaware of the stages it went through till it reached the NFDC Preview theatre on Tuesday, the 23rd of February 2016. Neverthless, both objects and humans looked very warm and lively. The only problems were the walls, which appeared granular and flaky.

Rating: ***1/2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=679wr31SXWk

Excerpt from the novel, The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith

“But Carol had not betrayed her. Carol loved her more than she loved her child. That was part of the reason why she had not promised. She was gambling now as she had gambled on getting everything from the detective that day on the road, and she lost then, too. And now she saw Carol's face changing, saw the little signs of astonishment and shock so subtle that perhaps only she in the world could have noticed them, and Therese could not think for a moment.”

Inspiration for the characters of Carol and Therese

“A blondish woman in a fur coat, (Kathleen Senn) who wafted into Macy’s in New York to buy her daughter a doll.” Highsmith was working there as a sales-girl during the Christmas rush. On her day off, she took a bus to New Jersey, found the woman’s house (from the address on the sales slip) and simply walked by it.

From the Back Cover

A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover.

Author Patricia Highsmith is best known for her psychological thrillers "Strangers on a Train" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Originally published in 1952 under a pseudonym, Claire Morgan, "The Price of Salt" was heralded as "the novel of a love society forbids." Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realised characters, who defy stereotypes about homosexuality, marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature.

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921-95) won the O. Henry Award for her first published short story, "The Heroine." Her 22 novels and eight collections of short stories include such well-known books as" Strangers on a Train" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Highsmith engaged in sexual relationships with women as well as men, and "The Price of Salt" is regarded as highly autobiographical.

Tragic deaths

Kathryn Cohen, one of Highsmith’s lesbian lovers, a 54-year-old woman, killed herself by taking an overdose of barbiturates. One lover, Allela Cornell, drank nitric acid, suffering a long and painful death. In 1953, Highsmith left another lover, Ellen Hill, to attempt suicide, after a blazing row, but she survived. Following sporadic treatment for her alcoholism, Virginia Kent Catherwood died in 1966, at the age of 51. And Kathleen Senn--the woman whom Highsmith glimpsed in Bloomingdale’s--killed herself by carbon monoxide poisoning, in the garage of her home.