Every once in a while, you see a series of trailers that convince you that a movie will be awesome. Sometimes this holds to be true, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you convince yourself that a film is going to be amazing based upon the trailers alone. And then, when the critics support your belief by giving the movie high praise, you head into that movie thinking that you are about to see something exceptional. I thought Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There) was about to strike gold with Carol. He had the players. With apologies to Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is the current leading lady in Hollywood. When I first heard Blanchett’s soothing voice-over speaking to an unidentified character during a trailer with lots of drama, strife, and unpopular decisions with the leads, I could not help but be engrossed. I don’t know who created this trailer, but this individual should have directed Carol rather than Haynes because they brought more drama to a two-minute snippet than Haynes brought in two hours. This isn’t an exaggeration. The trailer is THAT good, and the movie is THAT disenchanting. Blanchett’s dramas are heavy, and she is at her absolute best when she plays a character who is lost in her confusion. So why wasn’t Carol the movie of the year? My belief was because Haynes and Blanchett blew it. The film lacked all of the drama that the preview led you to believe that it had. And Blanchett’s performance wasn’t so flat as much as it was confusing. I based many of the reviews of other lead actresses this year around how I perceived Blanchett would be in Carol (incidentally, I did the same with Lawrence for her performance in Joy). I completely jumped the gun with both of these actresses and prematurely included them in the same sentences as Brie Larson (Room), Carey Mulligan (Suffragette), and Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn). While I do believe Blanchett will get a nomination (primarily based on name recognition), it would be a travesty if she were to win over Larson or Ronan.
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