Based on the 1952 romance novel, "The Price of Salt" by Patricia Highsmith
Blaine: I know I said "Blue is the Warmest Color" is the only lesbian movie I've shown interest in, but after that there were others.
Plot (Spolier Alert)
Therese Belivet works at a toy department during the Christmas season in Manhattan. She is not too fond of working there, but one day a woman named Carol Aird approaches her looking for a present for her daughter. Therese suggest she buy a model train set for her because that's what she loved as a kid. Carol and Therese seem to be flirting with each other. After Carol has left the store, Therese notices she accidentally forgot her gloves on the counter. Therese is lucky to have gotten Carol's address when she ordered the train set so she can mail the gloves to her.
Carol is going through a divorce with her husband, Harge. Though she was married to a man, Carol seems to prefer women. She had an affair with her long time friend, Abby. All Carol wants out of the divorce is partial custody of her daughter. Carol calls the toy store asking for Therese so she could thank her for returning the gloves and wants to have lunch with her. The next day they meet at a restaurant and get to know each other more. Carol asks Therese if she'd like to visit her on the 21st. Therese says yes. Carol and Therese go shopping for a Christmas tree and Therese takes a few pictures of Carol. Therese has a passion for photography, but isn't sure if she should make a career out of it. They bring the tree to Carol's house and Carol and her daughter decorate the tree.
While Carol is wrapping the train set, Therese plays Teddy Wilson on the piano. Carol asks Therese if photography is something she wants to do for a living and if so she should. Then Harge shows up at the house and says he's going to Florida and he wants Carol to go, but she doesn't want to so he takes the daughter. Carol carries her daughter to the car. Then Harge and her get into an argument and Therese witnesses it through the window. Carol is upset and has a a little bit of a bad attitude. They call it a night and Carol drives Therese to the train station so can go home. Therese cries on the train after she gets onboard. When she arrives at her apartment, the hall way phone is ringing. It is Carol apologizing about the way she acted. She asks if she can visit Therese at her apartment the next evening.
Therese's boyfriend wants to marry her, but she is not ready for that and she feels she doesn't really love him. Carol visits Therese at her apartment with a new camera and some film as a Christmas present for her. Carol says she's going on a trip and asks if Therese will join her and she says yes. As Therese packs her suitcase, her boyfriend, Richard is having a hard time understanding why she is going on a trip with a woman she hasn't known that long. He is upset and figures Therese has a crush on Carol, but she denies it. Richard predicts that Carol will grow tired of her and Therese will wish she never met her. The argument causes Therese and Richard to break up.
The girls put their luggage into Carol's car and head out. While they're in a diner, Carol opens her Christmas present from Therese, a Teddy Wilson album. They stop at a few motels along the way. At one of them, Carol is taking a shower and asks Therese if she can bring her one of her dresses. Therese looks through Carol's suit case and puts one of her dresses up against her face and smells it. Then she discovers a gun, but she doesn't ask Carol any questions on why she has a gun. Therese meets a salesman while she's getting ice. She introduces him and Carol to each other while they are all having breakfast the next morning. As they celebrate the new year on New Years Eve, Carol and Therese finally express their romantic feelings to each other and make love on the motel bed. The next morning Carol and Therese discover the salesman is actually a private detective hired by Harge. Carol threatens him with her gun asking for the audio tape of her and Therese, but he has already sent the tape to Harge. Harge's plan is to use the tape against Carol during the divorce hearing.
Carol wants Therese to lay next to her on the motel bed. They kiss and cuddle each other during the night. Therese wakes up the next morning and discovers Carol is gone. Carol went back to New York without notifying Therese and sent Abby to bring her home. Abby gives Therese a letter from Carol. The letter says that she can't go on with their relationship because she still wants to try to get partial custody of her daughter. A few months pass. Therese misses Carol very much and tries to phone her, but Carol keeps hanging up on her. Therese moves forward with her career in photography and gets a job at The New York Times. As she's on her way to the hearing, Carol in a taxi sees Therese crossing the street. At the hearing Carol admits the truth and tells Harge they should do what is best for their daughter. She is sorry that the marriage couldn't work out, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want him to be happy.
Therese gets a letter from Carol asking if she'll meet with her at the Ritz-Carlton. Carol feels she won't come, but then she sees Therese taking a seat at their table. Carol is very happy to see Therese and tells her she has a job and is getting an apartment. She's asks if Therese will want to move in with her, but she says no. Therese is still upset that Carol wouldn't keep in contact or see her after the last time they were together. Carol tells Therese that she loves her and that starts to give Therese a new feeling inside. A co-worker of Therese's shows up and interrupts the moment and asks if she is going to this post party. Carol has to leave and Therese looks like she doesn't want her to go. Therese isn't socializing with anyone at the party. She leaves the party and goes to a restaurant looking for Carol. She finds her and they both make eye contact across the crowded room.
Blaine: Screenwriter Phyllis Nagy wanted to do a movie based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel, “The Price of Salt”. She told producer Elizabeth Karlsen about it and for fourteen years they have been trying to get it made into a movie. Phyllis had developed a script during that time. It wasn’t till 2011 that they managed to buy the rights. It was hard for Phyllis to get involved with the project when the time finally came because she waiting so long, but Elizabeth Karlsen pushed her to do it because she was planning to do it with or without her. Cate Blanchett had been in “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, another film based on one Patricia Highsmith’s novels. She read all of Highsmith’s novels, including “Carol”, and she was drawn to the words she wrote. Cate got involved with “Carol” shortly after Elizabeth was able to buy the rights. Rooney Mara wasn’t interested in the project at first because she was starting to think that acting wasn’t working out for her and she wasn’t that good at it. Then she got an oscar nomination for her performance in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and that made her think that if her acting was good enough to get her an oscar nomination then she should continue pursuing a career in it. “Carol” came back to Rooney a year and a half later. Rooney read the script and couldn’t believe that she turned it down the first time it was offered to her. She felt lucky that she got a second chance at it. Rooney felt it would be good to play a character who is so innocent. The director they hired had to drop out, so they needed to find a new director. It wasn’t hard. Cate Blanchett had worked with Todd Haynes on “I’m Not There”, so she contacted him, told him about “Carol” and what it was about. It sounded interesting to Todd, so he was in after that.
The part of Therese required Rooney Mara to be vulnerable and she was shy to show that to her performance, but Todd Haynes helped calm her down with his kindness. Rooney also changed the tone of her voice for the character. She made it sound sweet and light. The costumes Rooney wears in a film really help her feel the character she is playing. When Therese sees Carol for the first time she can’t explain what she is feeling. But the more Therese spends time with Carol the more she develops a huge liking to her. Carol encourages Therese to pursue a career in photography because she knows she has a passion for it. Therese is also experiencing love for the first time in her life. Cate Blanchett shows how kind Carol is. Like Therese, she is experiencing what she wants in her romantic life. She is married to a man, but she is not in love with him. My dad says the reason Carol married a man was probably because that was expected of woman in that day by society. Of course Carol can’t help the fact that she is more attracted to women. Carol had an affair with her long time friend, Abby, and the husband found out and was not pleased about it. The good thing that came out of their marriage was their daughter. The husband thought that Carol was trying to make his life miserable when really she wasn’t. She finally comes clean with him when they are in the middle of who gets custody of their daughter. She lets him know that she never meant to hurt him and to show it she allows him full custody to their daughter.
Abby and Carol have known each other forever and Abby feels like a main character next to Therese and Carol. I would also say she is as important as them too. She is mentioned a lot sense she is Carol’s closest friend. Abby is also someone who is positive about herself. Abby is a lot of things. She is strong, understanding, she is someone Carol can talk to whenever she is feeling down or having problems. Abby comes from the same planet as Carol and Therese. It’s characters like Carol, Therese and Abby that feel like they matter more than anyone else in the film. Sarah Paulson had to learn how to drive a 1949 stick shift because she drives a lot in the film and it was very challenging for her to learn how to drive an old car like that. She had to practice driving it around an empty parking lot. The cinematographer said he would give Sarah a dollar if she drove perfectly while they were shooting a scene.
Carol and Therese have a lot of separate scenes in the film, but they think about each other a lot. When Cate and Rooney finally got to shoot scenes together it was nice to perform with each other in long scenes. Carol and Therese become guides to each other and it helps them go through the changes in their lives. My dad has pointed out when they used windows either to frame shots or in the shots and he said that both the colors used and lighting were very dark and muted. My dad also said the look of the scene when Carol and Therese first meet in the toy store is indoor lighting, florescent, but he also described it as kind of pastel. Not dim, but not bright (the look). Then there’s the green tint when it shows Therese in the break room and during scene where Carol is driving Therese to her place and the car goes through a tunnel. Another shot I like is of Rooney Mara standing next to a street light after her character leaves a party. The shot is lit by the street light, shot at twilight (blue sky above.) A few friends of mine have asked me if Carol and Therese end up with each other at the end. It’s a story about two women who desire each other and they feel they are each other’s soul mate. Carol told Therese that she loves her and that really gave Therese a lot to think about. She goes to this party and instead of dancing and socializing with other guests she thinks about what is best for her. Therese has always felt comfortable being with Carol. She realizes that she wouldn’t want to be with anyone else except Carol. Carol is everything to Therese. Therese goes to Carol and they both look at each other smiling. They look like they plan to spend the rest of their lives with each other. I don’t know what else that says except “happy ending”. My rating on “Carol” is five out of five stars.
