Movie Review: TÁR
Todd Field’s TÁR, the director’s first film since 2006’s Little Children, begins unlike any movie I have seen in 2022 and maybe ever. The credits roll, but they feel like the closing credits. Set to a backdrop with no music, we see the credits of everyone who worked on the film, from the stars to the craft services team. It almost felt like the film was playing backward or someone in the projection booth messed up and the film started at the end.
But shortly into the actual film, you realize why Field did the opening credits like this: this was the program to Field’s cinematic symphony.
A typical symphony is made up of four music groups: woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. Each group has its own sound and is used at various points throughout the concert. But despite their different sounds and uses throughout the concert, they all come together to give out cohesive performance and tell a story constructed by its conductor.
Field constructs TÁR in a similar fashion and conducts the film to tell a single story about a complicated woman, Lydia Tar (Cate Blanchett), and her fall from grace. Lydia is one of the world’s great composers and the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. The opening scene finds Lydia being interviewed and we immediately see her brilliance, confidence, and ego. In the interview, Lydia talks about working on several projects, most notably a live recording of Mahler’s 5th Symphony.
That’s one plot. Another finds Lydia dealing with the untimely death of Krista, a former colleague, who, we learn, was groomed by Lydia into having a sexually transactional relationship, only for it to fall apart and for Lydia to blackball Krista from ever having a successful career as a conductor. This causes a serious backlash against Lydia, only opening more allegations about who she is and what she has done to other students.
We start to see Lydia’s grooming process when she meets Olga (Sophie Kauer), a young cellist who Lydia is attracted to and brings in for her live recording of Mahler’s 5th Symphony. We see how Lydia starts to play Olga and her attempts in seducing her, which puts a strain on her other relationships, most notably her reliable assistant Francesca (Naomi Merlant), and Lydia’s wife Sharon (Nina Hoss).
All these plots by themselves would have made an interesting and compelling movie, much like how only seeing and hearing one aspect of the symphony would also be entertaining and great. But bringing all of them together makes for an even better and more layered film and really paints a portrait of who Lydia Tar is and her ultimate downfall from the very top of the mountain. Field takes his time with the film and fleshes everything out, but knowing when to focus on another plot and how much to show, much like a conductor knowing exactly when to have the trumpets play and when to bring them back in. It is Field’s best work as a director to date.
TÁR rests on the shoulders of Blanchett’s performance as Lydia. Blanchett’s understanding of the complicated nature of Lydia shines through and you see Blanchett fully immerse herself into the intense, confident genius that is Lydia without any prosthetics or anything flashy. It feels like Blanchett is in every frame of TÁR and her performance is one of the best of 2022 and one of the best of her illustrious career.
TÁR is a stunning symphony of cinema. Every note is played perfectly, and Todd Field gives us a captivating, stunning movie led by a towering Cate Blanchett.
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