Review Roundup: Yasmina Reza's GOD OF CARNAGE Makes its Cinematic Debut

Kate Winslet and Jodi Foster star in the film adaptation of Yasmina Reza's Tony-winning play, God Of Carnage, under the direction of Roman Polanski. Reza has adapted her original script for the screen alongside Polanski.

The film, titled simply Carnage, is a comedy of manners without the manners. The play deals with the aftermath of a playground altercation between two boys and what happens when their parents meet to talk about it.

After receiving rave reviews in London, God of Carnage opened on Broadway March 22, 2009 to unanimous praise. The Yasmina Reza comedy won the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play (Matthew Warchus). God of Carnage also won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. God of Carnage reunites the creative team that staged the Tony Award-winning Best Play, Art. Designed by Mark Thompson (sets and costumes), with lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker & Chris Cronin, the play has music byGary Yershon. The production closed in 2010 with Jeff Daniels, Janet McTeer, Lucy Liu and Dylan Baker. What did the reviewers think? Find out here!

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: There's nothing terribly wrong with Carnage, the film version of Yasmina Reza's Tony-winning stage comedy God of Carnage. But there's nothing trippingly right with it either. What bubbled on stage lacks fizz on screen...the film version of Carnage hasn't just lost God from its title, it's lost the laughs from the play that brought it life.

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's painful being in the company of these obnoxious, privileged sorts, but some of their dialogue shines a light on contemporary society and human nature...This seems a natural subject for director Roman Polanski, who has explored unsettling behavior in Rosemary's Baby,The Pianist and many other films. But Polanski's direction here feels overblown, stagey and forced.

Richard Corliss, TIME: At 78, Polanski has earned the right to pursue his career-long demons of confinement and anarchy even in a minor film like this. But Carnage is not the word for what he’s perpetrated here. Minor irritation is more like it.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: To fans of the play, relax. Polanski and Reza, who share screenwriting credits, have added no flashbacks or car chases or explosions to what on stage has always been a four-character talk-fest -- sometimes a scream-fest -- that unspools in an apartment in real time. In fact, the movie hews so closely to the play that it sometimes feels like a filmed play. This new film's cast -- three Academy Award winners and one Oscar nominee -- have risen to the challenge -- and teased out more of the humor than the Broadway production.

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: In such an audience stroker, where casting is everything (on Broadway, James Gandolfini brought exciting menace to the role of Mr. Longstreet), Winslet and Waltz jell while Foster and Reilly flounder, unable to make sense of what kind of people they're supposed to be.

Kenneth Turan, LA Times: Not only is Polanski very much in his comfort zone with this material, he also has cast it impressively, staying away from any of the actors who played the parts in either its London or New York productions and finding players who match up well with "Carnage's" juicy dialogue.

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Waltz comes closest to being genuinely funny; he's a sly actor, as well as a fine one, and the ironies of his character allow him some restraint. But the unsubtleties of the script—gleeful displays of glib hypocrisy—compounded by two broad performances plus Ms. Foster's excruciatingly shrill one, make "Carnage" a puppet show with a misanthropic puppeteer.

Bob Mondello, NPR: Here, the lightness of Reza's script is heightened by the casting of such powerhouse actors, then amplified by the fact that theatrical unities are still being observed: one plot arc, one locale, one day. On stage, given the exigencies of theatrical production, where sets and additional actors cost money, this minimal approach qualifies as naturalism; on screen it feels artificially constricted.

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