This was nominated for six Oscars this year but didn't win any. Therese (Rooney Mara) is a shopgirl desperate to find herself. A chance meeting with a beautiful woman named Carol (Cate Blanchett) shows Therese that there are more paths in the world than the bare few she has been offered if only she has the courage to take them. Carol's life is not all wine and roses, however. Her husband (Kyle Chandler) is not above using their child as a bargaining chip to keep Carol from divorcing him despite knowing that she prefers the company of women.
There has been a long-standing trend in mainstream movies about homosexuals that they must end with either violent death or quiet despair as the character forces him/herself to conform to society's expectations. The unspoken message is that society still considers homosexuality to be a deviation, something that must be overcome. **SPOILER-ISH** Carol is the first film that struck me as being deliberately hopeful. The character stands up to her husband and refuses to claim that being a lesbian is a mental disorder, even though she knows she will lose custody of her daughter. She reaches out to Therese, who has become confident and successful in her career, and offers a chance to resume their relationship openly. **END SORTA SPOILERS** These are huge strides forward.
Movies show thinly-veiled metaphors for the values of our society in most cases. I feel like it's a very positive trend that we have moved beyond the stock "gay" stereotype characters to 3-D representations of real people and now we're even letting them have happy endings, instead of relegating them to "tragic cautionary tale" symbols.
No comments:
Post a Comment