Metrograph

A Metrograph holiday tradition, back by popular demand. It starts at Frankenberg’s department store, and an exchange of glances between Carol and the girl behind the counter (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, both sublime), a look that tangles up fantasies of commercial acquisition and desire. What follows is maybe the finest romance this century has yet produced, an agonizingly slow seduction where the act of shopping for and decorating a Christmas tree becomes an intensely erotic act, and delayed consummation is packed with all the anticipation that a child has for finally unwrapping a present.