I knew more or less nothing about the new movie Tár aside from the fact that the movie featured Cate Blanchett as an orchestra conductor. My general knowledge of classical music being basically nonexistent meant, for all I know, “Tár” with the accent over the “A,” is a music term. It might still be. I will say right now that the movie doesn’t really say one way or the other. I learned a little more about the movie before going in, but not a whole lot. I don’t think I have gone into any movie with so little knowledge in ages.
I mean, it took me a few minutes to recognize actor Mark Strong in this since he had a full head of hair and spoke in an American accent.
Lydia Tár (Blanchett) is the American-born conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Her life, both personal and professional, is probably at its peak. She’s been honored with multiple awards and has been celebrated throughout the music world. Her big goal is to conduct, with the same orchestra, the five major symphonies of the composer Gustav Mahler. She’s conducted each of the five before for different orchestras, and she has completed four of the five in Berlin. Now, with the fifth and final one coming up, Lydia is at the top of her game, having shattered a few barriers as a woman conductor. Happily married to her wife Sharon (Nina Hoss) with a young daughter, it would seem that the cool and professional Lydia has the music world exactly where she wants it.
Except all is not so well. Lydia has some demons in her closet, so to speak. It doesn’t seem like much at first, but gradually her poor choices, cool detachment, and other personal flaws all seem to escalate to hit her just as she is about ready to hit her moment of triumph. As it is, the things that happen seem to be a mix of her personal flaws mixed in with things she may or may not have done earlier in her life before the movie started. It really isn’t the sort of movie that says how guilty she should feel or even if she’s at fault. It’s a movie where Lydia’s personal faults all gradually come to the fore and begin to bring her down, taking her from a high point to a low one. For all that she has broken barriers as a both a woman and a lesbian, she also seems to be someone who enforces the old standards, grumbling about “Millennial Robots” over her perception that they spend too much time on their phones and discount composers like Bach for the simple reason that they are dead, straight white men.
Quite frankly, this is a movie that asks Blanchett to basically carry it. She appears in every scene, and the toll of everything that happens to her comes to the fore. It’s a movie where, since the extent of Lydia’s culpability is entirely up to the viewer, what we do know only comes out in vague dribs and drabs. A late scene where Lydia meets up with her brother is a prime example. They don’t talk long, and what little they say to each other implies a lot, and it comes down to Blanchett’s performance to basically carry these scenes. I don’t want to say too much about what Lydia is accused of here. I figure anyone reading this should go in as cold as I did.
That said, I do wonder when exactly writer/director Todd Field got to to work on this script. Much of what happens to Lydia could be chalked up to “cancel culture,” and there was a moment when I thought a line of dialogue sounded a little too, well, let’s say recent. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of this film in any way, but it was something I thought about a bit. Tár is the sort of psychological character study that, like a lot of movies that studios hope will win some awards, starts to come out this late in the year. They tend to be as good as the actor carrying the load, and Blachett is in top form here. Is it an awards bait sort of movie? Yeah, probably. But it’s still a good one.
Grade: A
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