Carol Broke My Heart Then Put It Back Together Again
Alexandra Gore | December 6, 2023
I was not entirely sure what I needed to pregame finals week, but something told me it was a queer holiday heartbreak.
I had been meaning to watch Carol for over a year, and honestly, I thought I would never get to it. I always seem to fall behind on movies until they are outdated and the conversations about them are at a standstill. What possessed me to watch this film at 2 a.m., I am not entirely sure, but its new label as one of my comfort movies makes me feel no remorse.
Starring Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird and Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet, the scene is set in the early 1950s. Therese works at a department store, which is booming with sales for the holiday season. The Christmas in New York setting blanketed me, and I felt nostalgic for something I had never experienced.
Carol enters the scene as a shopper who is convinced by Therese to buy a new motorized train. In true 1950s fashion, she writes her banking information and address on a memo pad and leaves with the promise of a quick delivery. But surely their interaction could not end there — Carol accidentally leaves her gloves on Therese’s sales counter.
Therese, who now has access to Carol’s address, quickly ships the gloves back to her, who then calls into work to ask her to go to lunch in return. This sets the scene for their sporadic back-and-forth encounters with one another. You begin to feel them slowly fall in love. In an attempt to escape her New York troubles, Carol poses an offer that U-Haul queers know too well: would Therese travel across the country with her?
If you are rooting for these two, I do not blame you, but I must fill you in on the details.
Carol is married. Well, not really — she is filing for divorce from her husband Harge. They also have a daughter, who is being pulled every which way between spending nights with her mother and father. Harge cannot fathom the reality of the divorce and goes out of his way to make sure Carol stays with him.
Therese is dating Richard, who pressures her to take a vacation to France with him, where we can assume he wants to propose to her.
Carol is also much older than Therese. At several points throughout the movie, their differences in maturity and naivety separate them. Carol has had female lovers before, but this is all new to Therese.
We follow Therese on her queer crisis — can girls like girls the way girls like boys? She may not understand the logistics of her attraction to Carol, but she knows that she feels something with her that she has never felt with Richard before, so she wastes no time accepting Carol’s invitation to get away.
Carol is a bittersweet story, and I cannot tell if I want to sob violently or rejoice in queer love. It explores self-discovery, the complexity of a first love and the horrors behind being queer in the mid-twentieth century.
Having been recorded with 16mm film, Carol is all-around stunning. The subtle sensuality between Carol and Therese is exciting and heartwarming. I love this movie so much, and it is taking everything in me to not drop everything and watch it again right this second.
Those who want to feel the whiplash of vintage queer love can find Carol on Amazon Prime Video.