Should you be the sort of nihilist who believes that pleasant society is a "waffer thin" masquerade that threatens to crumble at any second... that all human relationships are built around insecurity and resentment rather than love and trust... and that everybody secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) hates everybody else... then Roman Polanski's adaptation of the blackly comic Carnage by French playwright Yasmina Reza is the movie for you. Go see it now: I insist.
The premise is simple: two sets of liberal New York parents gather to discuss a playground fight between their respective sons. Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly's boy, Ethan, has had two teeth knocked after being struck with a stick by Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz's son, Zachary. What starts as a cordial get-together to discuss a minor childhood fracas soon descends into anarchy as the two parental pairs go to war - with each other and themselves. Tempers fray and allegiances switch (and switch again). It's couple vs. couple, spouse vs. spouse, husband vs. husband, wife vs. wife, every man and woman for him or herself... with whiskey, cigars, pear and apple cobbler, projectile vomiting and a "dead" hamster thrown in for fun.
Carnage is an actor's dream, and Polanski wisely steps aside and leaves the film to his thesps. Winslet and Foster compete in the uptight bitch category (until alcohol loosens their inhibitions) while the always excellent Christoph Waltz displays his prodigious talent for deadpan grimaces. But the real revelation here is Reilly, going from bumbling nice guy to bitter, misanthropic bigot in the space of an hour. Which only makes us love him more.
Should you believe people are inherently decent, you might want to leave that opinion at the door... or prepare to think again.
