CARNAGE

This film, based on the Broadway hit play, THE GOD OF CARNAGE,  makes a few bloody points: civility is dead, passive aggressiveness rules, and love is a fancy word for loathing.

Two couples get together to discuss a fight that took place between their respective sons. And while the immediate goals are empathy and reconciliation, anger outs itself in viciously hilarious ways.

The claustrophobic film shocks you and makes you howl, hopefully by not holding the mirror up to nature.

Speech-wise, however, one point is clear: getting the last word in is not a tactic that insures peaceful resolution of conflict.

And that is what happens again and again. And when it does, calm is lost and the storm becomes more tumultuous.

Either lay everything on the table at the start, or accept the fact that compromise is just that--relenting a little. Throwing something in another's face after a settlement is counterproductive.