Carol

Patricia Highsmith's controversial, keynote lesbian novel The Price of Salt is brought lovingly to the screen by director Todd Haynes, in resplendent Far from Heaven fashion. Trapped in a marriage of convenience, uptown, worldly Carol (Cate Blanchett) begins an affair with naive, besotted shop girl Therese (Rooney Mara). But this is early 1950s Manhattan and when Carol's husband threatens her with scandal, the women embark on a road trip towards self-discovery and inalienable truths. No one is better at nuanced melodrama in the classic Hollywood style than Haynes, and with two high-calibre leading ladies exercising coiffed poise, era-sensitive intelligence and sophistication in every fabulous-looking frame, this exquisite romance is both chic and chilly in correct proportion before it explodes in tear-jerking emotional transparency. A stunning masterpiece, front-loaded with atmospheric mood and poignant tenderness.