'Tar' Movie Review: Blanchett’s towering performance makes Tar an unforgettable experience

Tar

Film: Tar

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noemie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong

Director: Todd Field

Rating: 4/5

Runtime: 158 mins

Todd Field's latest is a long-drawn… yes, but a brilliant character study of a magnificent musical polymath, a fictitious world-famous conductor of a major German orchestra, Lydia Tár (Blanchett), a woman very self-aware of her own rarefied talent and without any humility whatsoever. She chairs a scholarship fund run by an investment group headed by (Mark Strong) who is himself a hobbyist conductor. She is also about to release a book and is on the verge of completing her collection of Mahler recordings by performing his Fifth Symphony.

Tar comes on stage for a live New Yorker interview about her illustrious career - The conversation is a hard nut to crack, forbiddingly replete as it is, with esoteric technical citations. But that's not important here. Tar's verbosity is not what strikes you the most. The manner in which she holds herself and the minutest shifts in body language she displays, and the intonations she emits during the interview, speak volumes about the kind of person she is.

She is in a long-term relationship with her First Violin, Sharon (Nina Hoss), with whom she's raising a daughter. Tar is also considering replacing her assistant conductor and her loyal PA Francesca (Noémie Merlant), a talented scholarship-earning musician, is hoping to be considered for the position.

The narrative begins largely as a series of events giving form to Tar's exacting professionalism. The manner in which she deals with issues that crop up in her life speaks volumes of her almost bullying nature. Field's uncompromising script showcases this Gay woman at the peak of her profession, as someone who rejects identity politics, misogyny and is averse to the separation of art from the artist. As we get to know her better (and Todd Field doesn't make it easy with his cryptic puzzle-like narrative), we find ourselves being increasingly alienated from the person the film reveals her to be. And that's exactly what Field intended to do.

Tar is admirable, talented, famous, and successful but not exactly likable. She is shown as vain, selfish, and manipulative. And that's where her trouble starts. Field's narrative allows the audience to ruminate on the tidbits gathering up to the storm that eventually becomes her downfall. Field does not play judge and jury - instead, he gives us reveal after reveal of a person who we may begin to dislike. Highly intelligent, supremely talented, quick-minded, brusque, and touchy she may be but her humanity gradually becomes questionable and Field's narrative which hinges majorly on Blanchett's mesmerising performance, begins to steadily expose the inner rot of this grandiose creature. Field uses the four-note opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth to allude to a sense of what is to follow but it's Blanchett's multi-note performance that really achieves harmony with the narrative and keeps it palpable and alive. Field's narrative is unconventionally exalted. The tempo here is much rarefied and the music comes mainly from the heart and soul of Blanchett's inimitable performance. And what a tour-de-force it is!

The exceptional cast, Florian Hoffmeister's uncommon cinematography, a brilliant derivative score from Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Blanchett's make-up and costuming lend strong worth to a narrative that might not seem complete without Blanchett's towering presence. It is she alone who lends music to the narrative - every note, every gesture, every shift of her eyebrows, eyes, or head takes the awe-struck audience to a soaring crescendo!