directed by Todd Haynes (118 minutes)
Nearly 30 films have been based on Patricia Highsmith’s novels and short stories. Carol, the latest, stands apart. It originally appeared (pseudonymously as The Price of Salt) in a gaudy cover as lesbian porn for male readers. When, 30 years later, Highsmith had come out as its author, it sold over a million copies. Though it has a private investigator, and a scene with a handgun, it’s not a tightly plotted crime thriller. Nor is it about a sociopath. Neither is it porn, though it does glancingly feature sex.
