Gay director Todd Haynes continues his love affair with the exquisitely repressive air of 1950s America — which he also explored in projects such as Far from Heaven and Mildred Pierce — but this time with a bit more optimism.
Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt, the film tells the story of a store clerk (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Rooney Mara) and her affair with an older, rich, married woman named Carol (the exquisite Cate Blanchett). While the quiet horror of the era’s cookie-cutter society is present, Haynes blends it here with luscious style, disarming beauty, rapturous passion and a fitting score. THE WORD: The film’s stand-out is Blanchett, weilding a potent, feline smile which spreads across her face so bewitchingly that sometimes you’d swear you never even saw her move. COMING TO: Theaters
Last modified: July 27, 2017
