THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COBBLER IN ROMAN POLANSKI'S 'CARNAGE':

While waiting on an arrival of dvds to be shipped from hmv.com (worst delivery time ever, fyi, 9 days & counting..), I figured I would head into my local DVD store and pick out a few films to keep me occupied for the few days I have left at home before heading back to university. While my local DVD store is, to say the least, lacking in anything other than romantic comedies, I was lucky to come across a cheap copy of 'Carnage', a 2011 film by Roman Polanski.

After a brief (just over one hour..) viewing of the movie last night, I could not stop thinking about how effective the film was. Polanski makes an apartment in New York City, the only set of the film (apart from the opening and closing credits), the least claustrophobic place in the world. The film's overall execution is something to be applauded in itself, play-to-screen adaptations can often find themselves lacking in substance, so I have found, and although I wasn't expecting that from this film after reading reviews and hearing from word-of-mouth how good the film is, I was not expecting it to be of the level it is.

It struck me, about halfway through the film, shortly after the projectile vomiting, how the apple and pear cobbler is of much more importance than at first thought. The apple and pear (a classic combination, as said by Penelope) cobbler can be used as a metaphor to describe the whole situation of the film. We first start off with the cobbler being misplaced in the fridge, something which Penelope is unhappy with, showing it is not going to be as good as it could have been if it were out of the fridge. This can represent the meeting between the two couples. The original aim was to solve an issue between their two children, however the bitterness of both of the couples and the constant passive aggression shows that from the outset, the meeting is not going to solve anything and is going to get.. messy (quite literally..). This shows that if the cobbler was not put in the fridge, it would have been much tastier and satisfying, almost like if both of the couples did not have this bitterness and passive aggression, the problem between their children would have been solved.

This short piece of analysis of the.. cake (definitely NOT a pie, right Penelope?) can speak for the whole film, the vomiting being a result of too much anger and that is the only way it can be output effectively, the alcohol representing what the cobbler did, everybody wants a big but some can not handle it, showing their lack of ability to communicate their strong feelings in an effective manner.

The film is amazing, Polanski outdid himself again, and his cameo as a confused apartment owner towards the end of the film was the cherry on a most wonderful cake.