Monday, January 4, 2016

It’s a cold and a beautiful beginning of the winter in 1952. The workers of a major department store are getting ready to welcome shoppers during their Christmas holidays. Among them we see a shy girl Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) a temporary shop girl in the toy department and aspiring photographer.

A stunning woman walk into the store, Carol looking for the perfect gift for her daughter. Therese sees her and get interested in her, probably is mutual. After a very simple conversation Therese is able to sell to Carol a train set and thanks to a lost gloves will be the very beginning of a intense relationship.

Carol (Cate Blanchett) is a sophisticated woman of the New York society, who enjoy a good life, she is unhappy. She is going to an awful divorce with her ex husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) which appears to be a manipulative business man, a possessive person and also misogynist who put

Todd Haynes directs a story of two women are looking for happiness. For Haynes this is not a virgin territory. In 2002 he directed “Far From Heaven” where a housewife Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) discover her husband is secretly gay and subsequently falls in love with Raymond (Dennis Haysbvert) her African American gardener.

In the film Carol love is forbidden, because is between two women who cannot find themselves around the arms of another man. Is 1952 is a time of innocence, but also is a conservative time where family structure it;s very traditional and formal. Homosexuality was a disease and in fact was treated with doctors.

Carol is blackmailed with her little girl to be the model housewife in order to quit her relationship with other women. The film explore unhappiness in the most happy time of all Christmas, men Misogyny’s and also lack of women empower in a time where america was interested in keeping their women’s in the kitchen.

This film is stunning when it comes to cinematography art direction and costume design. Blanchet and Mara have a perfect chemistry, but also are powerful in their roles.

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