Carol
2015 · Film · Todd Haynes
1950s longing in a fur coat, shot like every glance is a crime.
Where to watch Carol
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Streaming options last verified September 15, 2026
What is Carol about?
Therese Belivet is working the toy counter at a Manhattan department store in 1952 when Carol Aird, an older woman in the middle of a divorce, leaves her gloves on the counter. What follows is a courtship conducted almost entirely in glances, phone calls and road-trip motels, under the surveillance of a husband who is prepared to use their relationship to take his daughter away. Todd Haynes adapts Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and the restraint is the point: the film is shot through windows and reflections because the era only allowed these women to be seen indirectly. What makes it great, and what made the novel notorious in 1952, is that it refuses the required punishment. Two women want each other, one of them has to decide what she will trade for it, and the ending is neither death nor a fantasy.
It takes lesbian desire completely seriously as grown-up drama. The restraint is the point, and it's devastating.