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Health & Fitness

Polanski's Carnage Loses Bite In Its Adaptation From Stage To Film

Roman Polanski has directed a film version of the acclaimed Broadway production God of Carnage. His "Carnage" doesn't quite live up to it source though.

A few years back I got to see a stunning production of the play God of Carnage on Broadway.  With its all-star cast (James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis) taking massive bites out of the hilarious dialogue, this Tony-winning play became the hit of the year.

Now that same play has been adapted to film.  Carnage, its big screen title, has been re-cast with three Oscar winners:  Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, and Christoph Waltz and a comic gem of a nominee, John C. Reilly.  Directed by Oscar-winner Roman Polanski, Carnage attempts to make a one-room farce a suitable film project.  Polanski’s success with the material ends up being less than satisfying.

The narrative concerns Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Foster and Reilly) who are visited by Nancy and Alan Cowan (Winslet and Waltz) after the latter couple’s son, Zachary, knocked out the teeth of the Longstreets’ boy Ethan.  The plan is for the civilized parents to work through the various issues resulting from the incident.  What results is a series of verbal battles concerning everything from child rearing to careers and marriage.  The couples begin to resemble children themselves as their attempts at civilized diplomacy quickly evaporate.

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On stage this all comes across as pretty broadly comical; almost slapstick.  The characters’ behavior seems to be more acceptable for live theater as the audience can roar with on-stage loud fighting, sudden vomiting, and a gradual destruction of the Longstreet’s apartment.  Here, the whole affair seems a bit too shrill and over-the-top.  Audiences watching the film may expect a certain level of realism from this adult-themed comedy.  It’s harder to buy the quickly moving dialogue and shenanigans, with their shifts in focus, as each character becomes a target of something or other throughout the rapid proceedings.

The casting is perhaps less a problem than the direction.  Foster and Winslet, in particular, are known for their fine film work.  They know how to modulate performances for the big screen.  But in both cases, after acceptable starts, they become too big here.  Winslet turns into an inexperienced actor’s version of a drunk while Foster, in the film’s final moments, begins shouting as if needing to reach the back of a large auditorium.

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Polanski is effective at opening up what is essentially a one-room, seventy-minute narrative by varying camera movements and filling the room with windows and mirrors.  All of this allows the work to breathe a bit. 

In the end though, I think audiences might have a better experience, as I did, by either seeing the stage production or reading the play.  Unfortunately, Polanski doesn’t offer much to render this film version necessary.  Carnage opens this weekend.

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