(Rating 4.5/5 stars)

I honestly didn’t think that a movie called “Carnage” could be so much fun, but I was wrong. The latest film by director Roman Polanski, based on the play “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza, tells the story of two couples who meet after their 11-year-old sons are in a violent altercation. What begins as a polite and amiable interaction turns into pure immaturity and chaos.

The two couples, Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) and Nancy and Alan Cowan (Kate Winslet and Cristoph Waltz) are introduced as the image of upper-middle class respectability. The Longstreets, whose New York apartment is the only setting for the film, are welcoming and well-mannered to the Cowans who are apologetic for their son Zachary having hit the Longstreet’s son, Ethan, in the face with a stick. Though the tension between them is palpable, their interactions are cordial while they agree to settle the matter with an official statement of Zachary’s guilt. It is only when the Cowans attempt to leave for the first time that relations begin to fall apart. Soon the couples are fighting, then the husbands are fighting the wives, and before long it is everyone against the other while alcohol, vomit, and a possibly tainted cobbler turn the four sophisticated adults into screaming children.

With an all-star cast like this one, you know the acting will be fantastic. These four are the only characters and they are more than up to the task of carrying the film. Jodie Foster is impeccable as a bleeding-heart artist who breaks down over the course of the film into sobbing and petulance. John C. Reilly, about whom I was originally dubious, is pitch-perfect as Foster’s conservative mama’s-boy of a husband. Kate Winslet is as wonderful as always, even when projectile vomiting, an act which prompted my viewing companion to exclaim, “now that’s carnage.” Finally, Christoph Waltz is reminiscent of his role in “Inglorious Basterds” as a man who is calm and confident until he breaks like a ragdoll, with a voice that I could listen to all day and every day.

Polanski once again lives up to his distinguished directorial reputation. The claustrophobia of the apartment grows over time as the film becomes more and more like a yuppie version of Sartre’s “No Exit;” being stuck together is hell for these characters, yet they cannot seem to leave or let go of each other.

Though the tension of the film can be uncomfortable at times, and there is a large amount of vomit for a movie based on an award-winning play, “Carnage” is a witty and compelling look into human nature and the veneer’s of Western society.

You’ll like this if you liked: Movies based on French plays like “The Birdcage,” movies with awkwardness that you can’t look away from like “Annie Hall” and movies where Kate Winslet steals the screen like “Titanic” or is in a crappy marriage like “Revolutionary Road.”

-Aliza Weinberger