Carnage

 
   Based on a French play by Yasmina Reza, this 80 minute film documents a conversation between four adults that takes place in one room.  Doesn't sound like much, but thankfully, three out of those four adults bring serious enough acting chops to the table to make this movie bearable.  Jodie Foster is the one who doesn't deliver.  She is absolutely blown off the screen by Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly and Kate Winslet.  Foster and Reilly play the parents of Ethan, an 11-year old boy who gets struck in the face by a stick at the hands of Zachary, the 11-year old son of Waltz and Winslet.  The incident between the two boys occurs on a New York City playground and prompts the parents to set up a meeting to discuss what to do about it.  Ethan's parents, while they obviously have a significant amount of money, are certainly the less-refined of the two couples.  Foster is a writer and Reilly sells toilet-flushing hardware.  They have a strained marriage, and we are led to believe that it is the fault of both.  Zachary's parents, both lawyers, are well-dressed and well spoken people who don't seem to have much love between them either, but are more content with it.
  Wisely, we never get to meet the two boys, which allows us to keep our judgments out of the room.  It doesn't matter whose side we take.  What matters is the journey.  It is fun to see four seemingly rational adults, with a little tension between them and a lot of alcohol, morph into their true selves right on screen.  Each character goes through a transformation that would take years under normal circumstances.  Even though it wasn't technically the case, it felt like the four of them were trapped in a locked cage and forced to deal with their problems until a resolution was agreed upon.  It is how I would imagine people would quickly dismiss their manners and truly get to know each other if trapped in an elevator for 12 hours.  Needless to say, as they transform into uncivilized animals, a resolution doesn't seem likely.  
  The film is a comedy that certainly delivers laughs.  Obviously, Reilly's character is the funniest, but Waltz and Winslet both add significant humor.  Moreover, the idea of putting four drastically different adults in one room for an entire film and showing how they deal with a schoolyard fight between their children is one that has the potential to be entirely pedestrian, but it managed to work enough to keep my interest.  The situations that occur in the apartment are funny enough on their own and when you add Reilly's inappropriate wit and Waltz's intellectual intrigue, the film becomes enjoyable.  It could have been better if Foster were replaced by someone in a similar age bracket with more talent, like Annette Bening or, more perfectly, Frances McDormand.  I've liked Jodie Foster in a lot of films, but in a room with three powerhouses at the top of their game, she gets demolished.
   Directed by Roman Polanski, Carnage is a film that I would have enjoyed more if it were cut down to 50-60 minutes.  I hope that theater companies in Philadelphia or New York pick it back up in the future because I would absolutely love to see it on stage.