NOTE: This review gives away important plot points.
But let's look at other elements of the movie. The acting is quite good, and for much of the film's length it emerges as a compelling study of a fascinating person. Very late in the movie the accusations start, but the film never really deals with them head on. Perhaps Field did worry about turning his heroine into a predator who acts like many men do when they achieve or are handed power over others, but if that was the case (based on reaction to the film he shouldn't have worried) he simply should have adjusted the script. It is Blanchett who makes Lydia almost three-dimensional, not Field's script. The film is quite long, and although I was happily pulled along for quite awhile, eventually tedium began to set in as I realized Tar was going to sidestep issues and just focus on the heroine's utter debasement.
There are other interesting characters in the film such as cellist Olga (Sophie Kauer), whom Lydia seems attracted to; Lydia's assistant Francesca (Noemie Merlant), who ultimately betrays her; and Sebastian (Allan Corduner), Lydia's conducting associate who thinks he's being replaced by Francesca. I was intrigued by the fact that many reviewers of the film made Lydia seem much worse than she is actually portrayed. She is not nasty to the Julliard student; she is loving to her daughter; she does use her position to influence decisions regarding the orchestra, but that hardly makes her a villain. It's almost as if, being told by the filmmaker that Lydia is a bad girl, they have to see evil in everything she does. And let's face it, even nowadays there are people who will see Lydia as evil simply because she's an out and proud lesbian.
Lydia Tar (Cate Blanchett) has risen far in the field of classical music as both composer and conductor, and now leads the Berlin Symphony. In that city she lives with her wife, Sharon (Nina Hoss), and their adorable daughter, Petra (Mila Bogojevic). Lydia at first seems to be an altogether admirable figure, but the film hints that she may have serious personality flaws or worse. Eventually she is accused of "grooming" young women, using her position for exploitation, and causing a student's suicide. Lydia's life begins to unravel as she's "canceled" ...
Let's get one thing out of the way immediately. Although it may be wrong to judge a film on what it isn't as opposed to what it is, in this case it's impossible not to do so. Writer-director Todd Field, presumably a straight male, could have written a positive study of a gay woman who rises to the top of her profession against odds and is then unfairly singled out by those who are jealous of her or whom she's ticked off. But Tar -- although it tries unsuccessfully to be subtle about it -- pretty much makes it clear that Lydia is a sexual predator, a tiresome old and homophobic stereotype. The movie distances itself from her misdeeds in an attempt to create thought-provoking confusion in the viewer, which it certainly does. At one point Lydia refers to herself as a "u-haul lesbian" and Cate Blanchett deepens her voice to almost sound like a man, although she never quite comes off as "butch" as she may have intended. More stereotyping.
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| Nina Hoss and Cate Blanchett |
Does Tar really deal with cancel culture? In one sense it does, as Lydia is stripped of her job, title, marriage before there's any trial (as far as we know, at least, as in the final quarter the film jumps from event to event with some scenes only lasting half a minute). There's also an early scene at Julliard when a student tells how he can't get behind white European male composers such as Bach because they don't fit into his 21st century ideologies, which is absurd. Lydia rightly challenges him, but in a contrived scene he storms off and calls her a bitch when her behavior is not nasty nor does she put the young man down in any concrete fashion. Later on someone edits this encounter at Julliard to make Lydia come off much worse than she really did, but this is just dropped in and then completely dropped.
Cate Blanchett also starred in a much more pro-lesbian movie entitled Carol, which scrupulously avoided stereotyping and was all the better for it. At that time Blanchett gave interviews in which she seemed almost contemptuous of gay people who "shout it from the rooftops." So I'm not surprised she had no trouble with this script. Tar presents its long, long end credits at the very beginning of the movie, backed up by some rather awful vocalizing. Most people will fast forward over that. Tar would probably benefit from re-editing, trimming, putting back some scenes that may have been left on the cutting room floor, and possibly rethinking the entire last quarter. I know that Field and company will argue that Lydia is just a study of one lesbian, not the entire gay community, but it's so ironic that just when Hollywood figures promised to present more positive depictions of minority characters, including gay people, Tar presents one of the most negative gay stereotypes to come along in quite a while. But then Hollywood recently has a history of championing "gay" movies such as Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight that are not that pro-gay if at all.
Verdict: Initially interesting, this meanders too much and is shockingly reactionary when it comes to LGBT characters. **1/4.
