While waiting to hear back from a publisher for a possible manuscript titled, “Strangers On A Train” Patricia Highsmith wrote a novel in 1949 on the relationship between a timid shopgirl and her much older housewife. This book, “The Price of Salt”, was later published in 1952, under a pseudonym. It is well-known in LGBT studies for how it portrays ‘the closet’ and 1950s America. This novel contains an unfathomable love story that ends with an extended travelogue criminal getaway across America. Highsmith was focused on duality, subversion, and obsession in all of her books. “The Price of Salt” was her most romantic novel and it is believed that the same woman who wrote the sociopath Tom Ripley, also owned a journal that once confessed, One situation maybe one alone could drive me to murder family life, togetherness. But that is what Highsmith is; their duality.
Elder Toddy, the director of Safe, ‘I’m Not There, and Far from Heaven has spent a lifetime dissecting repression and telling melodramatic stories. He has done the same in Mildred Pierce and ‘Carol’ where he directed a film based on a novel by Highsmith with a script written by Phyllis Nagy. In Carol, Haynes focuses on the ‘invisible’ culture of lesbians who ended up being subjugated in the closet during the 1950s. ‘Carol‘ serves as an intense emotional melodrama akin to the movies of Haynes’ patron saint, Douglas Sirk, and like Sirk’s works, is most often concerned with the contrasts and multi-faceted nature of people and relationships in this case, the frightening duality of beauty. Everything in “Carol” is so beautifully seductive that the uncomfortable longing to belong in that world becomes understandable.
Therese (Rooney Mara) holds a position at a NYC department store selling toys. She has a boyfriend Jake Lacy, so good in “Obvious Child“ and has a clueless circle of friends (males). Her body language while standing behind the counter hints her attitude suggests Therese is waiting. Waiting for something that she has no clue about.
An elegant blonde, Carol, comes into view from the other side of the store the camera glides past Carol, and then does a quick pan-camera version of a double take. Their first interaction is on a business level but is intricate with nuances of alluring charm and a hint of risk and danger.
Therese spends her free time in Carol’s home in New Jersey while Carol is separated from her husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) who is always in a constant battle for access to their toddler daughter. Harge steps forward with plans to gain full custody and, to escape, Carol whisks Therese on an ill-considered road trip and before you know it, they are deep in America. The road trip serves the purpose of escaping something and heading toward a destination where their bond has a chance to flourish.
Haynes captures this all with his alacritous eye for detail. Production designer Judy Becker, along with set decorator Heather Loeffler and art director Jesse Rosenthal skillfully create different locations, ranging from dark bars in New York to Therese’s apartment and Carol’s home, each with achingly nostalgic motels. The color scheme is an amalgamation of soft greens, muted pinks, and brilliant gold, alongside Carol and Therese’s finned gas guzzlers that thunder through wide-open deserted highways. Carol and Therese are frequently depicted staring out of their windows festooned with smudged green paint or streaked with rain, depicting their peripheral status.
The feeling of desolation one experiences by not being true to oneself is beautifully portrayed when the film is successful although loneliness doesn’t quite do justice to it. It is more of an aloneness so profoundly exhausted the characters are ‘flung out of space’ as Carol wonderfully describes Therese. Loss accompanies intimacy when it does eventually show up. But first love is always complicated, especially in ‘Carol’. It is more intense because love has to remain concealed.
“Carol” tumbles over while pivoting to swing from one side of its perspective to another. This is partially a consequence of the adaptation. It is told from Therese’s point of view and because of that it is always ambiguous about Carol. Therese is left hanging: she is “in” with Carol, then she is “out.” It captures how love can make you swoon. In the film, there are several sequences where Therese is absent Carol with her husband, and Abby, with her lawyer. These might explain some aspects of Carol’s behavior but they also take away the focus and bring in confusion because so much of “Carol” is told from the point of view of Therese, quite literally, the camera is her eye. An interesting thing about Carol is that she is a much stronger character when viewed from afar.
Blanchett is, by nature, a dramatic, even a theatrical, actress. This means that sometimes, she can appear rather out of place in a realistic setting. However, “Carol” knows how to tap into that and maximize her strengths. In this case, “performing” is how Carol survives, meaning each and every movement is a “bit,” like how she lights up her cigarette, flicks her hair back, and even how she gazes at Therese sitting across the table. These are acts, which are moments of evaluation to check if it is safe to proceed. When Carol finally put her guard down, it’s astonishing because her exterior is so perfectly managed.
Mara has less to work with because Therese’s back story was written out in Nagy’s adaptation. In the film, Therese is a girl with a void she has no family or origins. Yet, Mara manages to give Therese depth and observe the difference between her with Carol and her other cheerful male friends. It is not merely the tale of a timid girl learning to break free from her cocoon. Therese lives a life that is rich in meaning even prior to the story’s commencement. It is revealing to watch how deeply intimidated Carol Therese is. The sense of feeling outdone that this complicated woman invokes in Therese is profound.
In one shot, Therese is in the back seat of a cab and notices a man walking with a woman who has their hand intertwined with each other’s. Patricia Highsmith noted in her journal: It was undoubtedly a catastrophe for me to see “Forbidden” in red paint, “Stop” and could read it when I was six. I have to say it is perhaps a tragedy I had to swallow my precious stone At sixteen, observing self-indulgent boys and girls Linked carelessly, Strolling down public roads, Unfazed by the opinions of others as much as by their feelings.
Just like that couple on the street, soaked in love, Therese’s right hand would love to be intertwined with Carol’s, unfortunately she does not even imagine myself being that free.
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