Date: March 7, 2012
Location: Bayfield 7 Cinemas, 320 Bayfield Street (Bayfield Mall)
Contact: www.barriefilmfestival.ca
Description:
Adapted from Yasmina Reza's 2009 Tony-winning play "God of Carnage" and featuring a top-notch cast, this film is a captivating, razor sharp, explosively comic study in the tension between civilized surface and savage instinct. Set in contemporary Brooklyn, the story centers on two couples who meet to discuss a playground fight between two of their children. After two boys duke it out on a playground, the parents of the "victim" invite the parents of the "bully" over to work out their issues. A polite discussion of childrearing soon escalates into verbal warfare, with all four parents revealing their true colors. None of them will escape the carnage. Unfolding in real time, Polanski nimbly keeps the action flowing with an active camera that avoids the feeling of a play captured on film. Instead, its single-set confinement (the story essentially takes place over 80 minutes in one location) recalls Polanski's similarly claustrophobic studies of urban alienation and psychic disintegration in "Repulsion", "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Tenant". It is also a master class in acting, and it's a pure pleasure to watch the thespian one-upmanship as each character strives to dominate a deteriorating scenario. CARNAGE is ultimately a dark comedy about losing one's manners. Alternately uproarious and devastating, it convincingly lays bare the darker tendencies of human nature.
Show Times: 4pm, 7pm and 9pm
Admission: Adults: $9.00; Students/Seniors: $7.00