the leading man is my tpye

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Carol is a true masterpiece. Acting is brilliant. Costume, hair and make-up is fantastic. Todd Haynes tells a wonderful story in this movie and it is a shame that Carol did not recieve any more Oscars than it did.

Carol set out to bring the audience right into the relationship of the two main characters (Carol & Therese) and executed its concept perfectly. The movie does not worry too much about plot or manufacturing suspense, but rather allows the relationship between Carol and Therese to take center stage. This intense focus on character/relationship development while just letting the story progress naturally in the backseat results in a deeply intimate, almost beautiful experience for the audience, something I feel has been missing from the mainstream film industry for a while.

The production design on this is beautiful. Even in its less glamorous scenes, it oozes 50s American charm. It's a fake world and a perfect setting for this story, an exercise in social control bristling with tense expectation and makes for a perfect setting for this love story. It's almost dreamlike, both Blanchett and Mara effortlessly floating from scene to scene. Mara, innocent, playful. Blanchett, cold, mysterious. Dialogue delivered calmly, the camera allowed to linger and drift. Music poignant, haunting. It's not all plain sailing of course, far from it, but the ups and downs are timed perfectly, the editor (Affonso Gonçalves) doing his work perfectly. In fact the pacing of the whole thing is pretty amazing. It's very much a film of twos. Two people, two worlds, light and dark. Fantastic!

It is easy to understand why Cate and Rooney were nominated for the Oscars while the movie wasn't for Best Picture. The actors have done a wonderful job of portraying their respective characters. Cate as the older, unhappy woman who is always impeccably dressed and appears nonchalant but on a closer look reveals a frightened, confused woman with low self esteem. Carol constantly sets her hair and face, worried she's not looking good enough. Rooney is the wistful, innocent little shop assistant who is clearly infatuated with Carol and her rich lifestyle but at the same time is not needy or parasitic. Carol describes Therese as a strange girl, flung out of space. The movie was also nominated for cinematography and deservedly so. The story is set in the 50s when homosexuality was still a taboo and looked down upon. The film is very subtle in its references and there is no garish display of feelings between the characters. The film has also captured the emotions and the feeling of resignation/helplessness that a woman in Carol's shoes would have felt during that period. When Carol is not allowed to meet her daughter, she decides to go on a road trip by simply stating "what else am I going to do?" Carol needs the certificate of a psychotherapist to be deemed a mother capable of bringing up her daughter. (We can let out a sigh of relief that that this was in the 50s, we have made much progress since then OR have we?)I love observing the background and the objects in films that are set in different eras. I particularly remember the ancient looking door handle of the fridge. The filmmakers have paid great attention to detail.The film focuses on the most conflicted question we face in our lives - to follow ones heart or mind? I got a bit bored halfway through because I do not like films that have melancholia lurking in the background. The movie is a bit slow to my liking and this is not my favourite movie of Cate Blanchett.