Madison gets its Carol for Christmas (Sorry).
All freakin’ weekend
Carol (Sundance)
Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt is soured from the subjectivity of Therese (Rooney Mara), a young shop girl who falls in love and then is spurned by the clandestine advances of Carol (Cate Blanchett). As its title belies however, Todd Haynes’s adaptation is far more interested in the perspective of Blanchett’s housewife. Carol begins with an encounter between the two before unpacking and then revisiting their affair across post-war New York City. With visuals inspired by the mid-50s touchstones of Saul Leiter’s photography, Carol indulges in the joyful free fall of falling in love and the crushing myopia of having to fall out of it.
The Danish Girl (Sundance, Point)
Regardless of your opinion on casting a cisgender man as the title role (and there are certainly valid reasons to be against it), Eddie Redmayne has shown himself to be a transformative actor already. Hopefully director Tom Hooper can treat the subject matter — based on the true story of Lili Elbe, among the first to receive sex reassignment surgery — with more care and subtlety than the movie that put Redmayne on the map in the first place.
Saturday
Swing Time (2:00p — Hawthorne Library)
Out of their 10 pictures together, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were at their peak with Swing Time, George Stevens’ 1936 musical that is much better when you stop thinking about the so-so story (Astaire has to raise $25,000 to prove to his father-in-law he’s worthy of marrying his daughter). But nobody goes to the ballgame for the hot dogs. The dancing is dependably top-notch here, with Jerome Kern composing six tunes, three of which are showstopping duets for the headlining duo. (Adult Swim Theater cuts a rug for FREE.)