TÁR REVIEW

 *MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

With In The Bedroom and Little Children, Todd Field has established himself as a skilful filmmaker who knows how to make compelling dramas that feature interesting characters and tell thought provoking stories. At the 74th Academy Awards, In The Bedroom received a total of five nominations including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Five years later, Little Children found similar success at the 79th Academy Awards, with Field receiving another nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Sixteen years after the release of Little Children, Field has made his third feature, Tár, which is based on his original script.

Set in the international world of Western classical music, the story focuses on Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) who is widely considered to be one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the very first female director of a major German orchestra. Despite her professional success, Tár’s personal life begins to fall apart and impacts her career.

Since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September last year, Tár has been critically acclaimed with most of the praise going towards Blanchett’s central performance and Field’s writing and directing. Because of this, my expectations for Tár were high and, fortunately, it didn’t disappoint.

There’s no denying that Blanchett is one of the most talented actors working today. In the last twenty five years, she’s received seven Oscar nominations and won twice for her performances in the films, The Aviator and Blue Jasmine. It is difficult to determine whether her role as Lydia Tár represents Blanchett at her best, however, it does further highlight her unique skills as an actor. Although Tár isn’t the most likeable of characters, she’s definitely fascinating to watch which is why the film works so well as an intriguing character study. In the beginning, Tár is the successful chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, however, following a serious accusation from Krista Taylor, who was a former member of Tár’s conducting fellowship program, her life begins to fall apart, affecting her career. Tár denies the accusations as she wants to maintain her career, unfortunately, an edited video of her offending one of her students further damages her image. What’s most impressive about Blanchett’s performance is that she learnt how to play the piano, learned how to speak German and learned how to conduct an orchestra, which shows how committed she is. 

With his previous two films, In The Bedroom and Little Children, writer/director Todd Field proved that he could adapt books into feature length films. However, his latest film, Tár, shows that he has a skill for writing original screenplays. His script for Tár is an intriguing and thought provoking character study that highlights both the good and bad side to Lydia Tár. Although she’s a talented and successful conductor and one of a small group of people to have won the four major American entertainment awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony), Tár is vain, selfish and a perfectionist, prioritising her career above anything else, including her relationship with her wife, concertmaster, Sharon Goodnow (Nina Hoss). While Tár could have easily been a villainous caricature in the hands of the wrong actor and a less skilful filmmaker, she is humanised through Blanchett’s performance and Field’s writing and directing. Both clearly understand that Tár isn’t a bad person, just a human who is deeply flawed and wants only to have a successful career. 

At the time of writing this review, Tár has received six nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Leading Actress for Blanchett, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Field. I think that Blanchett is most likely to win as her performance has been widely praised since the film premiered in Venice last year. It’s easy to understand why The Academy has recognised Tár as one of the best films of 2022 as it features outstanding work from both its leading lady, Cate Blanchett, and writer and director, Todd Field.

8/10