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Carol  2015
Dir. Todd Haynes.  From USA  Seen: Jan 16, 2016

An atmospheric period piece (well, 1950’s) beautifully directed by Todd Haynes (‘Far from Heaven’, and the excellent but little seen here TV mini series ‘Mildred Pierce’).

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are very good in a tight, somewhat suppressed screenplay. True, a lesbian relationship such as this in the socially rigid 1950’s needed to be suppressed from general view and this is evident in the mood of the film.

Somehow this mood of repression seemed to infect the screenplay to the extent that I came away feeling like something was missing – not sure what though.

The role of Carol is tailor-made for Cate Blanchett – she does glamour and sophistication very well and Rooney Mara brings a nice mix of naivety, confusion and intensity to the role of Therese and the chemistry between them is there. Although the older Carol is clearly presented as the predator and the young innocent Therese as the ‘victim’, at times I felt that Carol was as much the ‘victim’

Production design by Judy Becker (BAFTA nominee) is superb.

A child custody sub-plot fleshes out the story arc, adding a bit of ‘vinegar’ to the story.

Overall enjoyable and very watchable, but for me not quite living up to the studio hype.

My Score: 7.8/10

Truth  2015
Dir. James Vanderbilt.  From USA  Seen: Jan 16, 2016

How much Cate Blanchett is too much? Just recently I had a double bill date with Cate; Truth and then Carol, which included a hair-raising dash by car from the Nova to the Sun.
Like ‘Spotlight’ I reviewed earlier, Truth is about investigative journalism and the challenges of getting around the powers-that-be trying to shut down their efforts to shed light into dark places.

Based on actual events, Truth is about the Television leviathan 60 Minutes with producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and presenter Dan Rather (Robert Redford) and their team hunting George W Bush and his apparently fictitious military service in the National Guard in the run-up to the 200? presidential election. Like all good detective stories there’s plenty of tension, red-herrings, reluctant witnesses and bad guys.

Our Cate is really good in this and Redford is solid – bringing a certain gravitas to the Dan Rather character.

As the hunt hots-up Republican wrath is incurred and well . . . no spoilers,  but things do go well for our investigative journalists.

The film was shot in Australia – at Cate’s request apparently and led to the curious (but clearly pragmatic) use of numerous Aussie actors in key supporting roles.  I spent the film playing spot the Aussie. Aussies i spotted included Rachael Blake, Noni Hazlehurst, Andrew McFarlane and Steve Bastoni. There are others – see how many you spot.
While its subject matter (a politician fudging or falsifying history – who’d have thought!) isn’t as serious as that dealt with in ‘Spotlight’, ‘Truth’ delivers on every level.

My Score:  8/10