Taut as a snare drum, Roman Polanskis claustrophobic Carnage is a tightly wound piece of filmmaking that crackles with tension.The movie is the fourth variation of playwright Yasmina Rezas bleak comedy, but the premise remains the same: Two couples whose children have had a playground conflict meet in a Brooklyn apartment to come to an understanding.Over the course of the next 78 minutes the underlying tension comes to the surface in various ways, as polite banter gives way to open hostility. Alliances seem to shift at first its couple vs. couple, but after the Scotch starts flowing we see the women at odds with the men, or one character suddenly feeling a burst of admiration for someone he or she despises. Using alcohol to allow characters to express their true feelings is a familiar device in plays and films, but nothing about Carnage seems trite. It hums with an immediacy that wouldnt have been possible without an excellent cast. As the film opens we witness from a distance the confrontation in a Brooklyn park as one boy hits another with a stick. We dont know what its really about, but the incident is discussed in detail later. Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly are Penelope and Michael Longstreet, the parents of the boy who lost a couple of teeth in the incident. Michael sells pots and pans for a living, and Penelope is working on a book about Darfur. Their opposite numbers are Alan and Nancy Cowan, a corporate attorney and an investment banker played by Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet. Penelope has prepared a sort of memorandum of understanding describing the incident. She wants everyone to sign it, but from the beginning theres disagreement about word choices. Alan and Nancy dont accept the description of their son as being armed with a stick or that the Longstreet kid was disfigured.This film brings to mind other pressure-cooker stage-to-screen translations Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Boys in the Band, Glengarry Glen Ross in which clever directors found creative ways to make their screen adaptations more than just a filmed play. Polanski, while staying within the confines of the Longstreet apartment after the initial altercation, keeps things interesting by allowing his camera to move. He follows characters down the hall to the bathroom and into the kitchen. In the early going, the Cowans try repeatedly to leave, and the camera follows them into the corridor as they wait for the elevator. Frequent close-ups allow his actors to deliver nuanced performances. Deep-focus angles capture both foreground and background action in one shot. Fosters take on Penelope is a woman whose fundamental beliefs (politically correct assumptions about justice and the benefits of communication) are under assault, and as the film progresses she becomes as brittle as kindling. The oafish Michael, as played by Reilly, is vaguely tolerant of Penelopes enthusiasms, including her compassion for the people of Darfur and her taste for rare art books. As things begin to break down, their mutual disdain is released and their relationship, it seems clear, will never be the same. Waltzs Alan is a high-tech lawyer constantly interrupted by urgent calls on his smartphone, who seems cynically amused by the very premise of meeting with the Longstreets. As it becomes clear that he represents a pharmaceutical company that may be in trouble for potentially lethal side effects from one its products, he finds himself an object of contempt. Winslet plays Nancy as a carefully assembled upscale businesswoman whose demeanor is stripped way, at first because she becomes ill, and later because shes drunk. Watching these wonderful actors work together shouldnt be as rare as it is in movies, but the quality of the ensemble is what sets this film apart. Actors hunger for complicated roles with pointed dialogue, and this script gives them that and more. Anyone who saw the play and didnt care for it should stay away. But if youre in the mood for a smart, caustic, very funny comedy that has something to say about the facades we project as we go about our daily lives, this movie is for you. (At the Glenwood at Red Bridge, Palace, Studio 30 and Town Center.)Awards prospectsWhile Carnage was picking up some Oscar buzz early on, other films have moved ahead of it during awards season. Still, Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster are competing against each other for a best actress Golden Globe on Sunday. Four versionsPlaywright Yasmina Reza originally wrote God of Carnage in French. Christopher Hampton, a playwright in his own right and Rezas usual English translator, wrote two versions in English one for British audiences, set in London, another for Americans, set in New York City. The Unicorn Theatre and Kansas City Actors Theatre staged a memorable co-production of the American version in October featuring Melinda McCrary, John Rensenhouse, Cinnamon Schultz and Brian Paulette.The American version was a Broadway hit, and thats the script the new film seems modeled on, although director Roman Polanski and Reza, who co-wrote the screenplay, have changed a couple of characters names and tweaked some of the narrative details. Hamptons name does not appear in the credits.What others are saying•  The Associated Press: If youre into sheer domestic savagery, this is the film for you. Ive behaved poorly, Penelope Longstreet says at one point. She has. They all have. Quite wonderfully.•  Washington Post: In this leaden production directed in a rare flat-footed outing by Roman Polanski what are supposed to be transgressive observations about the holy state of parenthood and matrimony instead come across just as self-satisfied and shallow as the pieties (Yasmina) Reza intends to puncture.•  Minneapolis Star Tribune: Is there another actress so fine at conveying piano-wire hypertension as Jodie Foster? Can any performer alive top Christoph Waltz at sardonic sullenness? If youre casting for an affable lug or a skittish trophy wife, could you surpass John C. Reilly and Kate Winslet? In a word, no. On these first-rate foundations Roman Polanski has built Carnage, a brilliantly discomfiting comedy of frustration.•  Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Carnage gets almost everything wrong. Polanski has taken stage-bound material and made it seem even more visually inert and dramatically contrived. The performers, meanwhile, hyperventilate and screech and squeal. They seem to be mugging for the rafters, even though Polanski keeps jamming the camera into their faces.•  Los Angeles Times: This kind of material is never going to warm anyones heart, but done as well as it is here, this pitiless verbal farce can provide bleak satisfactions of its own.

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‘Carnage’ descends to glorious chaos | 3½ stars

This uncivil war is tense, nasty and toxic.

By ROBERT TRUSSELL

The Kansas City Star

Stage to film, film to stage: The elusive art of illusion

‘CARNAGE’

* * * 1/2

Rated R | Time: 1:19

More News

Taut as a snare drum, Roman Polanski’s claustrophobic “Carnage” is a tightly wound piece of filmmaking that crackles with tension.

The movie is the fourth variation of playwright Yasmina Reza’s bleak comedy, but the premise remains the same: Two couples whose children have had a playground conflict meet in a Brooklyn apartment to come to an “understanding.”

Over the course of the next 78 minutes the underlying tension comes to the surface in various ways, as polite banter gives way to open hostility. Alliances seem to shift — at first it’s couple vs. couple, but after the Scotch starts flowing we see the women at odds with the men, or one character suddenly feeling a burst of admiration for someone he or she despises.

Using alcohol to allow characters to express their “true feelings” is a familiar device in plays and films, but nothing about “Carnage” seems trite. It hums with an immediacy that wouldn’t have been possible without an excellent cast.

As the film opens we witness from a distance the confrontation in a Brooklyn park as one boy hits another with a stick. We don’t know what it’s really about, but the incident is discussed in detail later.

Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly are Penelope and Michael Longstreet, the parents of the boy who lost a couple of teeth in the incident. Michael sells pots and pans for a living, and Penelope is working on a book about Darfur. Their opposite numbers are Alan and Nancy Cowan, a corporate attorney and an investment banker played by Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet.

Penelope has prepared a sort of memorandum of understanding describing the incident. She wants everyone to sign it, but from the beginning there’s disagreement about word choices. Alan and Nancy don’t accept the description of their son as being “armed” with a stick or that the Longstreet kid was “disfigured.”

This film brings to mind other pressure-cooker stage-to-screen translations — “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “The Boys in the Band,” “Glengarry Glen Ross” — in which clever directors found creative ways to make their screen adaptations more than just a filmed play.

Polanski, while staying within the confines of the Longstreet apartment after the initial altercation, keeps things interesting by allowing his camera to move. He follows characters down the hall to the bathroom and into the kitchen. In the early going, the Cowans try repeatedly to leave, and the camera follows them into the corridor as they wait for the elevator. Frequent close-ups allow his actors to deliver nuanced performances. Deep-focus angles capture both foreground and background action in one shot.

Foster’s take on Penelope is a woman whose fundamental beliefs (politically correct assumptions about justice and the benefits of communication) are under assault, and as the film progresses she becomes as brittle as kindling. The oafish Michael, as played by Reilly, is vaguely tolerant of Penelope’s enthusiasms, including her “compassion” for the people of Darfur and her taste for rare art books. As things begin to break down, their mutual disdain is released and their relationship, it seems clear, will never be the same.

Waltz’s Alan is a high-tech lawyer constantly interrupted by urgent calls on his smartphone, who seems cynically amused by the very premise of meeting with the Longstreets. As it becomes clear that he represents a pharmaceutical company that may be in trouble for potentially lethal side effects from one its products, he finds himself an object of contempt.

Winslet plays Nancy as a carefully assembled upscale businesswoman whose demeanor is stripped way, at first because she becomes ill, and later because she’s drunk.

Watching these wonderful actors work together shouldn’t be as rare as it is in movies, but the quality of the ensemble is what sets this film apart. Actors hunger for complicated roles with pointed dialogue, and this script gives them that and more.

Anyone who saw the play and didn’t care for it should stay away. But if you’re in the mood for a smart, caustic, very funny comedy that has something to say about the facades we project as we go about our daily lives, this movie is for you.

(At the Glenwood at Red Bridge, Palace, Studio 30 and Town Center.)

Awards prospects

While “Carnage” was picking up some Oscar buzz early on, other films have moved ahead of it during awards season. Still, Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster are competing against each other for a best actress Golden Globe on Sunday.

Four versions

Playwright Yasmina Reza originally wrote “God of Carnage” in French. Christopher Hampton, a playwright in his own right and Reza’s usual English translator, wrote two versions in English — one for British audiences, set in London, another for Americans, set in New York City.

The Unicorn Theatre and Kansas City Actors Theatre staged a memorable co-production of the American version in October featuring Melinda McCrary, John Rensenhouse, Cinnamon Schultz and Brian Paulette.

The American version was a Broadway hit, and that’s the script the new film seems modeled on, although director Roman Polanski and Reza, who co-wrote the screenplay, have changed a couple of characters’ names and tweaked some of the narrative details.

Hampton’s name does not appear in the credits.

What others are saying

• The Associated Press: “If you’re into sheer domestic savagery, this is the film for you. … ‘I’ve behaved poorly,’ Penelope Longstreet says at one point. She has. They all have. Quite wonderfully.”

• Washington Post: “In this leaden production — directed in a rare flat-footed outing by Roman Polanski — what are supposed to be transgressive observations about the holy state of parenthood and matrimony instead come across just as self-satisfied and shallow as the pieties (Yasmina) Reza intends to puncture.”

• Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Is there another actress so fine at conveying piano-wire hypertension as Jodie Foster? Can any performer alive top Christoph Waltz at sardonic sullenness? If you’re casting for an affable lug or a skittish trophy wife, could you surpass John C. Reilly and Kate Winslet? In a word, no. On these first-rate foundations Roman Polanski has built ‘Carnage,’ a brilliantly discomfiting comedy of frustration.”

• Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Carnage” “gets almost everything wrong. Polanski has taken stage-bound material and made it seem even more visually inert and dramatically contrived. … The performers, meanwhile, hyperventilate and screech and squeal. They seem to be mugging for the rafters, even though Polanski keeps jamming the camera into their faces.”

• Los Angeles Times: “This kind of material is never going to warm anyone’s heart, but done as well as it is here, this pitiless verbal farce can provide bleak satisfactions of its own.”