The characters of Therese Belivet played by Rooney Mara and Carol Aird played by Cate Blanchett have an outward air of sleek conformity and an inner life as complicated and Ripley-esque as any of the characters in Highsmith’s murder mysteries.  Therese works in a Manhattan department story but dreams of a more fulfilling life.  She meets Carol a New York socialite trapped in a failing marriage.  When Carol leaves her gloves behind Therese has an excuse to see Carol again.  During a lunch in an upmarket Manhattan restaurant the sparks of attraction fly intensely between Carol and Therese but everything is transmitted through coded nuance that is managed beautifully by Haynes.  This is the 1950’s and a love that dares not speak its name.

Therese is pursued by Richard played by Jake Lacy who is not put off by her indifference and expects them to marry anyway without suspecting the real reason for her aloofness.  Carol’s husband Harge played by Kyle Chandler knows of his wife’s preference for women sexually but thinks that he can somehow still save their marriage by using their daughter as a reason to bind them together as a family.

But the lid is blown off the tensely suppressed emotions when Carol and Therese decide to spend Christmas together and go on a road trip without their families. The two women in echoes of Thelma and Louise head out West and end up in Iowa. But this is 2015 not 1952 and Haynes is not shy in showing us frank scenes of the two women making passionate love as their road trip turns into a journey of erotic awakening.

While the book tells the story from Therese’s point of view the film has been adapted to focus on Carol.  Haynes is known for his successful work with great actresses with Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven and Kate Winslet in Mildred Pierce and he brings out great performances from both Mara and Blanchett but this is really Blanchett’s film.  She gives if anything an even more impressive performance than her Oscar-winning performance in Blue Jasmine.  Blanchett’s Carol is intense yet at the same time understated with everything suggested under the surface as being more than what you see on the screen.

The film manages to capture that special Highsmith mood and 1950’s style that runs through her novels while bringing the story to life in an entirely modern way. 

Haynes who has become a leading exponent of US gay cinema seems like an obvious choice to direct Highsmith’s book about a lesbian relationship which was considered shocking for its time. 

Haynes once again successfully mines the post-World War II period of American history that he used to set his successful Far From Heaven another examination of the stifling conformity of 1950’s America and gay life lived in the closet and what happens when the unspoken boundaries of society are broken. 

Credits (USA, UK)

Directed By Todd Haynes

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler