Blanchett delivers award-worthy performance in imperfect classical music drama
Cate Blanchett can play icy cool confidence like nobody’s business (see Carol and Nightmare Alley), but she won an Oscar for having an emotional breakdown in Blue Jasmine. That skill at playing a woman on the edge of madness just may yield her another trophy for her stellar work in writer/director Todd Field’s problematic new film Tár.
Blanchett is the best reason to see Tár, which, without her, would suffer under the weight of its own importance. But as a character study, the film is worth a look for Blanchett’s indelible creation of Lydia Tár, a world-renowned classical music composer and conductor who unravels as she faces the collapse of her professional and personal lives.
A tell-but-don’t show plot device at the film’s start quickly introduces us to Lydia, as she’s interviewed on stage by the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. As her CV high points are rattled off, we quickly gather that she’s sophisticated, highly intelligent, incredibly accomplished, and at the pinnacle of her career. Oh, and she’s an EGOT winner to boot. This woman, we understand, is The Real Deal.
Of course we know that when a story begins with a character at the top of her game, there’s nowhere for her to go but down. And so it goes with Lydia. Just as she’s preparing for a lauded performance of Mahler’s 5th symphony in Berlin, she’s confronted with a sexual harassment case that turns her ordered, posh, uber-successful life upside down.
Saying any more without revealing spoilers is difficult, but suffice to say that the picture follows how Lydia, her wife Sharon (Nina Hoss), her assistant Francesca (Noémie Merlant) and others in Lydia’s orbit deal with that scandal. All three actresses are excellent, but Blanchett is the standout, as she exhibits ferocity, fear, vulnerability, and defiance often within the same instant.
Todd Field hasn’t made a film since 2006’s Little Children, and 16 years’ worth of ideas certainly feel crammed into his new picture. Themes of power, art, identity, cancel culture and the #MeToo movement fill the film’s nearly three hour run time as Field unspools Lydia’s story. The problem with all these musings, though, is that none seem completely developed.
Much of what happens to Lydia is implied, with major plot details and characters relegated to off screen moments, leaving us to assume certain outcomes. While such a technique has its merits in terms of engaging the audience, there are times where including a character or a scene actually would be warranted. Doing so would enrich the picture and avoid the sense of an empty distance, which is what we regularly get here. Is Lydia a victim or a predator? Is the canon of dead white composers to be celebrated, or reviled? To allow the audience to wonder is fine, but, too frequently, we get the sense Field himself is unsure of his own point of view.
The film’s ending, too, will definitely yield much discussion. There’s much I would say about it, but diving into it without giving anything away is almost impossible. A heavy-handed Apocalypse Now reference sets the tone for the conclusion, and, after that, the finale devolves into something shockingly condescending and derisive.
But don’t let that scare you: see Tár for yourself and see what you think. Come for Blanchett’s masterful performance and stay for the terrific Berlin cinematography and the peek into the rarefied world of upper echelon classical music. And bonus: for you Bay Area symphony fans, there’s even an MTT joke, which, at the screening I saw, elicited the film’s only laugh.
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Tár opens today at Bay Area theaters.
