It's 1952 Christmas season. Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) is looking for a doll for her daughter. She strikes up an attraction to shop girl Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara). Therese's possessive boyfriend Richard Semco (Jake Lacy) is leery of her new friendship. Carol is in a destructive divorce negotiation with husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) over their daughter. He is still angry at her relationship with her childhood friend Abby Gerhard (Sarah Paulson).

I can't help but think this subject matter would be edgier back ten or twenty years ago. It would have made this movie more compelling. It's still a good forbidden romance. Cate Blanchett is amazing as always. Rooney Mara does a good job. Kyle Chandler delivers a great angry white man. Jake Lacy is creepily clingy. The start is a little slow and the ending drags on too long. The movie seems to climax with Cory Michael Smith. I would have liked for the movie to wrap up quickly after the lawyers' meeting. The ending runs on too long.

Rooney Mara is manning a desk at a department store when mink-coated Cate Blanchett comes by to figure out what she can buy for her son's Christmas. When Miss Blanchett departs, she leaves her gloves. Miss Rooney calls her to rturn them and soon they begin an affair.

It's a movie based on a novel Patricia Highsmith published under a pen name lest she be typed as a writer of homosexual fiction. Todd Haynes directs coldly, with the early 1950s reproduced in a perfect exhibition of set design, and while the leading ladies are, as you might expect, perfect, it's yet another Highsmith adaptation that leaves me unmoved Everyone is is either clueless, predatory, or both, and Edward Lachman's lighting leaves everyone looking bloodless. Yes, I get it. The Old Days were terrible; no one could be themselves, everyone had to pretend, and everyone was miserable. I'm left with the thought of John Sullivan grinding ten thousand feet of hard luck, and wondering when someone is going to shove him back to Hollywood so he can make ANTS IN YOUR PLANTS OF 1942.

Carter Burwell's score is in a minor key, of course.

"Carol" is a 2015 movie and considered one of the big awards contenders this season. Let us start with the people we do not see in the film. Writer Patricia Highsmith is responsible for novels like "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Strangers on a Train" (turned into a movie by Hitchcock). 2015 is the 20th anniversary of her death, so it's a nice way to honor her literary legacy. Phyllis Nagy is the one who adapted her work for this film here. She has only written (and directed) one television movie so far and that was already ten years ago, but that one back then, "Mrs. Harris", received lots of awards attention too. Director Todd Haynes is known for writing his own films most of the time, but here he was "only" the one directing. His most known works so far include Kate Winslet's "Mildred Pierce", "Far from Heaven" and "I'm Not There", another Cate Blanchett movie and that one is from 8 years ago.

Talking about Cate Blanchett, she is the big star in here and I am slowly (or quickly) beginning to become a great fan of hers. Occasionally, she seemed somewhat cold and unemotional to me in past works, but this may only have been my wrongful perception. I loved her in "Blue Jasmine" and she is excellent as the title character in "Carol" as well. It's tough to pick a favorite scene as she shines for 2 hours from start to finish of the movie, but I really liked her moment of revelation during the hearing with the lawyers towards the end. Oscar-worthy. She also has good chemistry with her co-star Rooney Mara. Mara, who was pushed back and forth between lead and supporting all awards season, won a Palme d'Or for her performance here and, like Blanchett, got nominations from many other crucial awards bodies, so the two are basically locks for Oscar nominations. I must say she is good, but nowhere near Blanchett's level, so I was slightly underwhelmed by her portrayal here. Lacy, Paulson and (especially) Chandler give convincing supporting performances here too. I especially liked the scene in which we see Chandler's character's eyes through the door after Paulson's character closed said door on him.

Finally, there were three or four great moments, but sadly as a whole, even if I really enjoyed this film at times, I cannot say it was totally mind-blowing for me or anything that I would consider among the best of the year. Thumbs up as well for the soundtrack and all the visual aspects of the film. If you like the historic tone and context of "Mad Men", you will appreciate the stylistic side of "Carol" for sure too. It is a story about a woman who has to give up on love (for a little while) in order to be allowed to see her daughter. Homosexuality was still mostly a taboo back then - times were entirely different - and this aspect also makes it very much worth a watch for the historic context. Of course, it's also worth seeing for the difficult and complex relationships between the characters. A well-rounded effort by Haynes here and I can see why he and the film are getting so much praise. I recommend the watch. Thumbs up.