Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy, Sarah Paulson, John Magaro, Cory Michael Smith, Kevin Crowley, Nik Pajic, Carrie Brownstein, Trent Rowland.

Such was the shape of the world in the 1950s that it was easier to mention in homes up and down the American political highway the issues surrounding Communism than it was to talk openly about the love shared between two women, that the so-called threat of Communism could be seen as a driving force of debate and yet to be a lesbian was something that was swept under so many carpets that it enjoyed an abundance of innuendo and implication.

Phyllis Nagy’s screenplay of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt looks with a certain amount of elegance at the hidden world of a flowering lesbian relationship in Todd Haynes’ wonderfully crafted directed film Carol. It is a film that truly highlights the way that post-war America tried to cope with the issue and the conservative nature that was offended to the point where they skirted around the word lesbian and placed euphemism as a form of expressionless control, a dominance imposed by a so called moral majority, rather than a society free to believe that any love between two people is a normal and beautiful thing rather than a symbol of derision, confusion or hate.

Whilst there have many other films that deal with the complexity of Lesbianism, and indeed straight relationships, few have made the film noteworthy for its use of language, the silence of the unsaid and hidden. It is a testament to the acting prowess of Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Sarah Poulson as Carol Aird, Therese Belivet and Abby Gerhard respectively, that a single passing glance between any of these women can convey in a single moment what cannot be whispered in a 1000 words.

Cate Blanchett’s resume is one of absolute integrity and cinematic cool, Carol only adds significant weight to that list of impressive roles and the film as a whole is beautifully paced, significant in its approach and wonderfully captured by the leading actors but also by the excellent direction of Todd Haynes.

Carol is a look at a period that isn’t that far away in the past and yet somehow seems as alien as the outlandish spectacle imposed by Senator McCarthy in the same juncture of time about the dangers of Communism; a film of relevance in a time when acceptance and acknowledgement is all.

Ian D. Hall