Haynes’s period-specific mid-century love affair is the antithesis of what we’d expect from a feel-good holiday classic – slowly paced, reserved, full of glacial silences and quiet longing. 

When the chic Carol (Cate Blanchett) asks for holiday shopping advice from a gauche young shopgirl in a Santa hat (Rooney Mara) an illicit romance blooms. The women simmer beneath their cool exteriors but are stymied by their relationships with men and Carol’s desire to keep custody of her young daughter. The chemistry is undeniable, but it’s the emotional restraint of the denouement that makes Carol all the more affecting. 

“One of the most beautiful love stories ever told.” – Sophie Monks Kaufman, Little White Lies