Carnage

Carnage Four frequently great performers are put in a room together and, not surprisingly, the results are worth watching in Carnage, the latest from director Roman Polanski. Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz all deliver good work in this inconsistent, somewhat predictable, but ultimately enjoyable adaptation of the Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage. Foster and Reilly play Penelope and Michael Longstreet, parents of a young boy who takes a stick to the face in a scuffle with a classmate. Winslet and Waltz play Nancy and Alan Cowan, the parents of the kid who did the swinging. The four parents come together in the Longstreets’ Brooklyn apartment to have a civil discussion about the event that caused some serious damage to the Longstreets’ son’s face. Of course, the mild-mannered discussions unravel in a maelstrom of rude cellular phone interruptions, hamster abandonment stories, alcohol consumption, and generally childish human dysfunction.