MOVIE · 2011

Carnage

ComedyDrama80 min

After a playground fight between their sons, two couples sit down to settle things like adults and steadily do the opposite. Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly are Penelope and Michael, who invite the other parents over for a polite conversation; Kate Winslet’s Nancy arrives with Christoph Waltz’s Alan, a lawyer whose phone never stops ringing. What begins as a careful exchange about manners and responsibility turns into a private war over class, marriage, resentment, and self-image, with each attempt at civility making the room smaller. Roman Polanski keeps the conflict tightly focused on four people who can’t stop smiling through the damage.