History Film / Carnage

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carnage-3_8295.jpg]]

''Carnage'' is a 2011 DarkComedy film by Creator/RomanPolanski starring Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/JohnCReilly, Creator/ChristophWaltz and Creator/KateWinslet, based on the play ''Theatre/GodOfCarnage'' by French playwright Yasmina Reza.

Two couples, Penelope and Michael (Foster & Reilly) and Alan and Nancy (Waltz & Winslet) have met to work out an incident. After an argument in a public park, Alan and Nancy's son Zachary hit Penelope and Michael's son Ethan in the face with a stick, causing the latter to lose two front teeth. Hoping to discuss it like reasonable people, Alan and Nancy have come to Penelope and Michael's place. While all four start out acting in an immaculately polite fashion, [[HilarityEnsues things quickly deteriorate]] to a state of total chaos involving vomit, booze and a mobile phone.

The film proper is set almost entirely in one New York apartment, except for two brief scenes at the beginning and end. There are only four actors in the whole film, with the exception of a few extras we see in the introduction and epilogue and some voices we hear over the phone. It is also notable for occurring almost in real time, save for the aforementioned bookends.

Not to be confused with the [[ComicBook/{{Carnage}} comic book character,]] although they both share a New York setting (and a taste for BlackComedy).

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!!This film provides examples of:
* ActorAllusion: Possibly unintentional, but this is not the first time we've seen Christoph Waltz [[Film/InglouriousBasterds in a long dark Gestapo-ish coat.]]
* AdaptationNameChange: Since the film is set in a different country than the play, this was bound to happen. However, only Penelope (who was Véronique in the play) and the kids (Zachary/Ferdinand; Ethan/Bruno) play this trope straight; the other three main characters' names are literal traductions of their original French names.
* AllPeriodsArePMS: Penelope quickly hides a package of tampons out of sight when she takes Alan into her apartment's bathroom. It can be assumed her emotional fragility is at least partially related to PMS.
* AmoralAttorney: Alan, as quickly becomes clear from his many phone conversations.
* BookEnds: The scenes in the park at the beginning and end.
* BrickJoke:
** At the end of the film, [[spoiler: the hamster is revealed to be alive, lost in Brooklyn Bridge Park.]]
** The fight between the two kids turns into one of these [[spoiler: when it's revealed that they managed to make up without any input from their parents whatsoever, thus rendering the whole thing completely pointless.]]
* ColorCodedCharacters: Penelope and Michael: red. Alan and Nancy: blue.
* ComedicSociopathy
* TheComicallySerious: Alan attempts to remain calm throughout all the absurdity.
* ContrivedCoincidence: [[spoiler:Michael's mother]] happens to be taking the same exact pills whose possibly harmful side effects Alan, a lawyer to the pharmaceutical company that produces them, is discussing over the phone.
* CuttingTheElectronicLeash: [[spoiler: Nancy]] throws Alan's mobile into a vase full of water after growing weary of his constant phone conversations. At the end of the film, it looks like the phone is about to be subjected to even worse mistreatment.
* DeadpanSnarker: All four principle characters are snarkers to a degree, but Alan has the deadpan side down.
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Sort of. Penelope eventually gets fed up and starts pounding Michael's back, but it isn't taken too seriously. However, it should be noted that the lack of reaction to it seemed less to do with gender, and more to do with the fact that (A) he was being ''really'' annoying, and (B) he is much bigger and more solidly built than her, and didn't seem to be in any pain from it.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Doodle; Darjeeling.
* EnemyMine: One of the main points of the film is the constantly shifting alliances between the four, even though none of them really like each other that much.
* EveryoneHasStandards
** Nancy is married to an amoral attorney who will calmly discuss severe problems happening to humans over the phone, yet she is absolutely disgusted to find out that [[spoiler: Michael abandoned his hamster on the street.]]
** Despite not wanting them to come over, once he has been forced to accept that he can't avoid it, Michael goes out of his way to make them feel welcome because "Guests are guests".
* TheFilmOfThePlay: A faithful adaptation of the 2006 play ''Theatre/GodOfCarnage''.
* FreakOut:
** The most spectacular one has got to be Alan after [[spoiler: his wife kills his all-important phone.]]
** Nancy's reaction to [[spoiler: Penelope throwing her handbag across the room]] is pretty extreme.
* {{Hypocrisy}}: All of them on some matter or other.
** HypocriticalHumor: Lots, but [[spoiler:Nancy's distraught FreakOut to having her handbag thrown across the room even after destroying her husband's cell phone while mocking ''his'' Freak Out about it stands out.]]
* InVinoVeritas: Once the characters start to get drunk, the sorry state of their relationships is quickly revealed.
* {{Jerkass}}: Alan is quite transparently this right from the start, but all four of them reveal varying levels of this when certain buttons get pushed.
* KickTheDog:
** Michael starts off seeming quite nice, but even before this persona has really cracked, he reveals that he [[spoiler: abandoned his hamster on the street]].
** Much of the reason why the situation deteriorates so much is because none of them can resist making snide, petty remarks on various matters that will inevitably cause offense.
* LadyDrunk: Two of them, eventually. The two men also drink, but not as heavily.
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Nancy]] mocks Alan for being so distraught after [[spoiler:she]] has killed his mobile phone. Not long after, a similar incident leaves [[spoiler: Nancy]] equally distraught.
* {{Minimalism}}: Four characters, one setting, RealTime.
* MinimalistCast: Only four actors.
* NoEnding
* NotSoDifferent: As the quarrel intensifies, it becomes all the more apparent how similar the two couples are to each other.
* OneHeadTaller: Michael and Penelope.
* OnlySaneMan: Michael and Nancy seem to fill this role in the first half of the film. Both are soon revealed to be more than they seem.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Oh, so much. At least until the "passive" goes completely out the window.
* RealTime: Besides the opening and closing shots, the movie takes place in real time.
* SacredHospitality: Mild version. Michael did not want Alan and Nancy to come over, but nonetheless made a real effort to make them welcome, and lasts for quite a long time before losing it.
* ShaggyDogStory: The two kids [[spoiler: are playing together at the end of the film, making the whole meeting between the families utterly pointless, except to illustrate how childish and prideful the supposedly "mature" adults can be while their children are just fine with the way things transpired]].
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The conflict in the movie comes largely from the four characters having different positions on this scale, with Alan being the most cynical and Penelope the most idealistic. Neither the idealistic nor the cynical viewpoint is shown to be the right one; rather, the script ridicules both sides of the argument.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: More like "the adaptation confirms [[spoiler: the hamster's]] survival".
* StepfordSmiler: Everyone.
* TheStoic: Alan in general remains straight-faced throughout most of the conversation.
** NotSoStoic: ...Until of course, [[spoiler:his cell phone is destroyed.]]
* StrawmanPolitical: Sort of: usually with this trope, a political view is oversimplified for the sole purpose of discrediting it, and thus making the alternative more credible. All four of them have opposing views that are shown to be severely flawed in some way (and thus might be considered discredited), but since none of them are ultimately suggested to be right, the usual purpose behind a StrawmanPolitical is averted.
* StrawMisogynist: Both Alan and Michael have some very sexist views, that clearly paint them in an even more negative light. It should be noted that the women are not presented as being much better, so it's more a case of everyone being wrong.
* StrawNihilist: Alan is an unashamed nihilist.
** [[spoiler: Once he gets drunk, Michael]] gives Penelope a lecture on the hypocrisy of her liberal sensibilities.
* TitleDrop: The play on which it is based is called "The God of Carnage", which Alan references by name when discussing his open nihilism.
* TroubledFetalPosition: Not quite, but Alan gets pretty close to one (see VillainousBSOD below).
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: All four, to a greater or lesser degree.
* TheVoice: Michael's mother; Walter and Dennis (Alan's conversation partners).
* VillainousBSOD: It's debatable whether he can be called a [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist villain]], (though he sure as hell can't be called [[HeroicBSOD "heroic"]]), but after [[FreakOut his initial reaction]], Alan collapses onto the floor and doesn't take part in the conversation for a while. [[spoiler: Unusually for this trope, when he does eventually start talking again, he is actually much calmer than before.]]
* VomitIndiscretionShot: [[spoiler: Nancy graphically throwing up over the coffee table]] serves as a major turning point in the film.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Michael apparently has a crippling fear of rodents.
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