by A.J.
Best Pictures #86: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
“It is always the question that involves the listener, never the answer.”
Tár is a peculiar and very interesting film until it becomes a strange film for no real reason at all. If it fully committed to becoming a psychological thriller or cerebral drama or even a full blown surreal art film instead of only toying with these elements, then maybe it would be an overall more satisfying experience. As it is, Tár is two-thirds interesting and captivating character study and one third pseudo-cerebral art film that rests entirely on the shoulders of a great performance.
Cate Blanchett stars as Lydia Tár, a most distinguished and accomplished classical music conductor. In addition to being the current conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, she is also an “EGOT”, winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award. She enjoys the power and authority her accomplishments and notoriety provide and is in the middle of preparing for an ambitious performance of Mahler’s 5th symphony when her world comes undone. The suicide of a former student and protégé brings accusations that Tár engaged in inappropriate relations with her protégés, and inflicted severe repercussions on those who did not accept her advances. We never see any explicit scenes of Tár sexually exploiting a female musician but we get glimpses at her lascivious side when she finds a way around the blind audition process to hire Olga, a young female cellist she finds attractive, played by real life cellist Sophie Kauer. Soon after, Tár holds a second sham audition to give Olga a solo, meaning they will have to spend more time alone together.
That Lydia Tár's authority and power come from success in the arts opens the film up to being part of the greater conversation and reckoning society is currently having about artists and abusive behavior. Yet writer-director Todd Field withholds any chastising or pontificating. By keeping the focus on Lydia Tár his film is not just about “cancel culture” or the Me Too movement but has sparked many different conversations on its larger themes as well as its cinematic aspects.
Blanchett’s performance holds the film together even in its odd third act. Lydia Tár is not a pleasant or sympathetic character but she is an interesting character and that is what keeps us engaged. Supposedly Field wrote the part for Blanchett and that is just as well because I doubt it would work with anyone else. No matter the tone of the scene, Blanchett brings the material to its full potential. Her monologues and lectures about composers and music are wonderfully delivered and belie an insecurity just below the surface. Field earned an Oscar nomination for his original screenplay and this in no small part thanks to Blanchett, also Oscar nominated for her performance. 
Perhaps the most skillful thing about Blanchett’s performance, the sign that she truly is a great actress, is that as strong as her performance is, and as overwhelming as her character is, she does not overwhelm the other other performers. Nina Hoss, as Sharon, Tár’s long suffering but loyal partner is great as a counterbalance; her character feels like an average person putting up with things she shouldn’t have to. Noémie Merlant, as Francesca, Tár's long suffering and long taken for granted assistant gives a subtle performance that portrays someone reaching the end of what she can endure.
Like any number of classical compositions, Tár begins slowly and calmly, then builds gradually, hinting at what is to come, until it finally reaches a pitched climax. The final act of the film certainly packs in more than the first two thirds, but this is also where it falls apart. Throughout the film there are strange occurrences: a metronome in a closed cabinet running on its own in the middle of the night, a book of notes disappearing, Tár hearing the unplaceable screams of a woman in a park. These seem to hint at the potential for the supernatural or, at least, the unreliability of Tár’s perception of reality. The most surreal and uncanny scene of all, even more surreal than the actual dream sequence, happens when Tár follows Olga into an out of place abandoned building. If it were to be revealed that everything after this point is a hallucination or dream, I’d believe it—though I don’t mean to say that this is my theory of the film. After this scene it felt less like I was watching a character study and more like I was watching a soft imitation of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive or Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf. The movie's most memorable moment is so over the top I wonder if it really happened. Despite its moments of strangeness and mysterious touches, Tár does not present itself as a film set in a questionable reality, yet that is where the movie goes and these elements, instead of creating intrigue, feel like nagging loose strings that draw attention away from Blanchett’s performance.
Nominees: Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, producers
Director: Todd Field
Screenplay: Todd Field
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Mark Strong
Production Companies: Standard Film Company, EMJAG Productions
Distributor: Focus Features
Release Date: October 7th, 2022
Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Actress-Cate Blanchett; Director-Todd Field; Original Screenplay-Todd Field; Cinematography-Florian Hoffmeister; Editing-Monika Willi
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