Carol

Independent films, even those starring Kate Blanchett, should give the audience a chance to participate in the film.  The best do, the worst ape their bigger budget counterparts.  Doused in a droning Phillip Glass style score and plastered with moody shots of rain drizzled car windows, Carol is out to guarantee maximum melancholy.  It's labored; it's glacially paced.   Melancholy soon begets ennui.

Of course the period dresses and cars are fabulous and Blanchett looks stunning, but the entire piece feels pinned under glass.  Taken from a 1952 romance novel by Patricia Highsmith (famous for her murder mysteries), the film feels far outdated in its genteel treatment of genteel lesbianism.  It was risqué for its time because it offered a lesbian story with a happy ending, but it's pure melodramatic hokum that requires Blanchett to choose between forbidden love and custody of her 4 year old.   Paging Joan Crawford.