MOVIEmeter
Top 5000
Up 53 this week

Carnage (2011)

7.1
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.1/10 from 60,198 users   Metascore: 61/100
Reviews: 149 user | 346 critic | 40 from Metacritic.com

Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos.

Director:

Writers:

(play), (screenplay), 2 more credits »
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2369 titles created 4 months ago
 
a list of 444 titles created 28 May 2011
 
a list of 703 titles created 03 May 2011
 
a list of 10000 titles created 2 months ago
 
a list of 19 titles created 22 Aug 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Carnage (2011)

Carnage (2011) on IMDb 7.1/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Carnage.
Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 5 wins & 14 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.

Director: Wes Anderson
Stars: Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Jared Gilman
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.

Director: George Clooney
Stars: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Adventure | Western
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.8/10 X  

Upon admittance to a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients to take on the oppressive head nurse, a woman he views as more dictator than nurse.

Director: Milos Forman
Stars: Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, Louise Fletcher
Comedy | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

An insurance salesman/adjuster discovers his entire life is actually a TV show.

Director: Peter Weir
Stars: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich
The Hunt (2012)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.

Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp
A Separation (2011)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematics but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Stars: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck
Gran Torino (2008)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang
Rain Man (1988)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.

Director: Barry Levinson
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
Moneyball (2011)
Biography | Drama | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.

Director: Bennett Miller
Stars: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.

Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch
Edit

Cast

Cast overview:
...
...
...
...
Elvis Polanski ...
Zachary Cowan
Eliot Berger ...
Joseph Rezwin ...
Walter (Telephone Voice) (voice) (as Joe Rezwin)
...
Dennis (Telephone Voice) (voice)
Tanya Lopert ...
Michael's Mother (Telephone Voice) (voice)
...
Secretary (Telephone Voice) (voice)
Edit

Storyline

In Brooklyn Bridge Park, eleven year old Zachary Cowan strikes his eleven year old classmate Ethan Longstreet across the face with a stick after an argument. Among the more serious of Ethan's injuries is a permanently missing tooth and the possibility of a second tooth also being lost. Their respective parents learn of the altercation through Ethan's parents questioning him about his injuries. The Longstreet parents invite the Cowan parents to their Brooklyn apartment to deal with the incident in a civilized manner. They are: Penelope Longstreet, whose idea it was to invite the Cowans, she whose priorities in life include human rights and justice; Michael Longstreet, who tries to be as accommodating as possible to retain civility in any situation; Nancy Cowan, a nervous and emotionally stressed woman; and Alan Cowan, who is married more to his work as evidenced by the attachment he has to his cell phone and taking work calls at the most inopportune times. Although the meeting starts ... Written by Huggo

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

A new comedy of no manners.

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

| |  »

Country:

| | |

Language:

Release Date:

18 November 2011 (Spain)  »

Also Known As:

God of Carnage  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

|

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was shot in real time, without breaks and, with the exception of the park scenes, in a single location. See more »

Goofs

Michael takes the phone from the vase and a close shot shows it in his left hand as well as Alan's left hand to the right. Alan's fingers are outstretched. The camera cuts to a reverse shot, where his fingers are not outstretched. See more »

Quotes

[last lines]
Nancy Cowan: This is the worst day of my life too.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.22 (2011) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
The uncomfortable first half leads to a rewarding second half....
24 January 2012 | by (Canada) – See all my reviews

By Maurice Jones

Roman Polanski's 'Carnage' starring Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz main seem like an unbalanced superficial casting to some for a low-key movie such as this, but what at first is expectedly unfit and useless is later realized and understood.

From the opening of the film Roman Polanski uses the same intensity of 50's-60's suspense film openings such as 'Compulsion' to distract you from what is happening behind the credits to then lead you to the purpose of the film to the then the plot. The back drop of the credits is filmed and placed in a way that looks especially 70's, which entirely gives a delightfully and brilliantly vintage opening of a treat, as something like this is unfortunately rarely seen in a dramedy as this. A starting such as this lets you know that you're in for the creative dramatically playful telling of Mr. Roman Polanski.

The first few lines of the movie give way to the two head strong characters of the movie who battle it out later on, but before then the movie centers on the societal dealing with a schoolyard attack on the son of a seemingly liberal couple; Penelope and Michael (played by Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) by the son of a seemingly conservative couple; Nancy and Allen (played by Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz). Penelope is an opinionated, passionate writer who leads the reasoning of the incident. Michael is a friendly yet choosy salesman who tries to make light of the whole situation. Nancy is a pseudo-conservative who like Michael tries to keep the whole situation without argument and Allen is a sly yet focused attorney who would rather be working then deal with the incident as long as the whole thing is dealt with fairly. The first half of the movie displays the tight-rope courtesy of the two couples dealing with this unfortunate situation in Penelope and Michael's New York apartment, as little by little the faults of each parent comes out but is especially looked over for the sake of good re pore, which makes for a realistic look out on the stubborn idiosyncrasies of parents in general. As what one would consider to be poorly written, boring, typical or an off-putting part of the film is really a clever set up of what's to come as the first half realistically exports the pointlessness and exhaustiveness of how this situation is handled. As things seep towards the second half of the film the characters become less and less censored and open to be their real selves in the confinement of Penelope and Michael's apartment which leads to the rewarding and interesting part of the film. Nancy and Michael are the soft, mending parts of their relationships but turn out to be more disturbed and Penelope and Allen are the leaders and rightfully duke it out. As the conservative couple Nancy and Allen are nothing without their accessories and as the liberal couple Penelope and Michael just want to be heard and taken seriously.

What's great technically about 'Carnage' is Roman Polanski's eye and directing as he is aware of the subtleties and exaggerations of film and why they can go hand in hand. With that Kate Winslet is great at acting guarded and then letting her guard down and Jodie Foster pushes herself to points that seem brilliantly worrying (she should probably get an Oscar nom). John C. Reilly naturally does great playing the friendly, caring Michael who as much as he is that, he's as well careless and Christoph Waltz plays his usual cocky self who has an answer to everything, which is accurate as the fierce attorney he portrays.

Also written by Roman Polanski 'Carnage' has a lot of insight biased or not about men and women and society which makes it importantly realistic and in part shows view of the accurate thoughts of Roman Polanski. If you're into or not into films about four people dealing with each other in one location, check out 'Carnage' and if not for Roman Polanski, see it for the rare useful form of the actors involved. I started out not sure whether I was going to like 'Carnage' or not but towards the end I saw the big picture and in that my only regret is, that when it ended I wanted more time with these four people.


34 of 45 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Niaeve Question, how did Kate vomit mid-scene mlhmovies
B-O-R-I-N-G tenajb1959
John C. Reilly suednim1960
how does waltz's english sound to native speakers? beat
No Oscar nomination for Jodie... rafaelstiborski
How did they get drunk so fast? The Truth
Discuss Carnage (2011) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?