Some movies are essentially plays staged on film, and Roman Polanski’s version of Carnage certainly qualifies. Its story concerns two pairs of parents who meet to discuss one child’s bullying of another. The drama (and some comedy) plays out in a single apartment and hallway, although it is bookended by static shots of the kids in a park where the transgression occurred. This framing device, which takes place during the opening and closing credits, is crucial to appreciating the movie, though it may not seem so at first glance.

Carnage focuses not on the kids but their parents. One pair (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) are embarrassed to have to apologize for their son’s bullying, which has injured the son of the other couple (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly). Over nearly an hour and a half, the two couples gingerly and then not-so-gingerly step around the ramifications of the fateful incident, revealing a great deal about themselves to each other. Indeed, much of the story’s power comes from the interaction within each couple, as they argue about what they should be revealing to the other couple (and, of course, to the audience). The revelations increase in frequency and amplitude as alcohol is introduced, an old dramatic standby which feels a little forced but which is still played very effectively.

This kind of movie is an actor’s showcase and the acting here does not disappoint. Jodie Foster in particular is stellar, probably because she has the showiest, most fragile role. Foster’s character is really the lynchpin of the piece, as it is she whose brittle personality inevitably courts response from the others. Kate Winslet is fine, although her character is the least defined. Christoph Waltz scores as a dispassionate businessman tied inexorably to his cell phone, and John C. Reilly is as good as I’ve ever seen him as Foster’s gregarious husband.

Yazmina Reza’s dialogue is sharp and taut, realistic and believable most of the time, with just a smidgen of artful pomposity (which may well be intentional). The dynamic between the couples, and even within each couple, ebbs and flows like an emotional tide, rising in anxious crescendos only to dissipate (sometimes in laughter) before real violence erupts from their exchanges. And one of the joys of this dynamic is that the couples, even when they remonstrate that they have to end the conversation, cannot help but continue their harangue. It’s as if each person needs the others to vent against, and to witness the venting, and needs to witness the venting of the others, as some sort of communal activity, one which will renew them in some way. I’m not sure I agree that any of it is necessary for them, but I found it fascinating.

Polanski’s film is not particularly cinematic (despite being filmed in a widescreen process), and it ends rather abruptly just shy of the 80-minute mark. But it ends with another shot of the park and the kids interacting, which is just how it needs to finish, letting the image of the kids contrast with what we have just witnessed of their parents. It puts everything in its proper perspective.  ✰ ✰ ✰.  25 Jan. 2012.