As aforementioned in our earlier article looking at Hayne’s early and more experimental independent work including Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven and I’m Not There. Let’s now look at Hayne’s currently most fruitful output period; the 2010’s.

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Mildred Pierce (2011)

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Previously adapted for the screen famously in 1945 by Michael Curtiz sand starring Joan Crawford, James M. Cain’s psychologically taut family drama saga Mildred Pierce was rather unlike his previously popular works. The murders and crime elements that popularised his other earlier commercial novels and their similarly successful film adaptations were all but gone, replaced with a thick web of familial betrayals and intriguing social dilemmas. Of course under the Hayes code of the time the thing that made that novel so interesting, chiefly the complexities and horrors of the pieces villains, and the fact that they got away with their wrong-doing’s couldn’t make it into the screen adaptation – and so, the 1945, still rather excellent film adaptation had to include a whole whydunnit murder confession framing device, in turn making it more like the many Cain books before and after. Haynes in his 2011 mini-series however took to adapting the novel almost exactly as it was written. Every story beat and dramatic turn is all present, bar one minor change, the decision to quite literally have every single scene and moment be told from Mildred’s point of view. Making this above anything else an absolute tour-de-force for Kate Winslet as our titular star, as she navigates over the course of five episodes (all small films in their own right) the course of around ten years of so in the life of this divorcee near the end of the prohibition era as she becomes a very popular restaurateur. Now I remember as an 11 year old who loved Joan Rivers – Yes, that’s a real sentence – and my mum and grandma watching Mildred Pierce week by week, laughing very heartily as Joan commented on one of her shows that she struggled to watch the mini-series because she got distracted by the “paint drying on her walls”. And frankly the first episode, I get it, is a little dull, not really when you see the whole thing as a piece and that introductory episode as just that, an introduction, however by the time the tragedy of episode two occurs, followed by the joys and successes of episode three, one can’t help but be immediately brought into the magnificent world that Haynes has created bringing Cain’s novel to the screen.

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First of in the case of both this and Carol, period detail is  to a level that astounds even the most passive of viewers, gone is the slight facade of work like Far From Heaven, here we revel in the grain and richness of the absolute minutia of a time. But when it comes to what makes Mildred Pierce as effective a beast as it really truly is, one can’t help but place their focus on the most effective beast of them all; in our villain of the piece Veda Pierce. Now I’m sure out there, there is some sort of revisionist article that explores how Veda is misunderstood character, however in the case of the performances of both Morgan Turner and Even Rachel Wood as young and older Veda, we get some of the most outrageous and delightfully vicious acting I’ve ever seen. Haynes in his directing has clearly made a choice to have every other performance in the film feel absolutely period accurate and staying in the world of naturalism, but such is the case with Veda that both performances remain closer to the melodrama of the 1945 film adaptation. Such is the character and such is the power of the ever-changing dynamic she has with her mother, Mildred. Winslet’s performance on the other hand is one of absolute composure at all turns almost, making her final snap all the more devilishly effective. Haynes all in all has spun a masterful adaptation out of sublime material and in many ways in its focus on the original power of the novel, has made a piece all the more effective and wonderful than that original masterpiece of a noir film. Winslet may even take the Crawford biscuit too.

Carol (2015)

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When I first left Carol at the cinema it was a winter’s evening. Perhaps its redundant or rather a little insensitive to describe the film as a warm blanket, after all it does deal with the pained troubles of a pair of women unable to be their true selves and unable to pursue a love they so naturally and instantly feel to be true and right, due to the social evils of the time – however, overall the film does give such a warm and tender feeling in its presentation of setting, performance and the total mood of a blissfully warm and tender romance being born. I personally feel Carol to just be one of the most sublime and touching romance films of the past decade and its effect and lustre over me hasn’t faded since its initial release, nor on any watch since. Similarly in the case of Cain, Haynes here adapts one of the only non-crime novels of a famous crime author, using Phyillis Nayg’s sensationally deliberate screenplay adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, released originally under a non-de-plume (due to its sensationally controversial for the time material of two lesbian women sharing an affair, without it ending in a tragedy), before it later being released under her own name, re-named Carol. Here our two lovers are portrayed by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, in two totally incredibly turns, both easily some of their finest work in their whole careers thus far. Blanchet of course only furthering her talents as a stoic and elegant figure somewhere between old Hollywood and the modern. Whereas Mara once again appears in a role completely unlike anything she’s ever done before. Every single performance she takes on is so wholly different from the previous, it’s truly stunning work. Haynes craft is all over the piece and really does make it some of the best work of his career, and a very clear pairing for me with Mildred.

Wonderstruck (2017)

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In many ways Wonderstruck returns Haynes to his earlier more experimental work, this elliptical and transcendental adaptation of Brian Selznick’s novel blends multiple storylines in multiple mediums and styles, across multiple eras. In so many ways Wonderstruck is like a child-friendly version of his early experimental work in Poison. However here for me the pieces don’t all exactly come together. On almost every level the film works well though; the film is directed beautifully with great craft in the edit also, and along with that the film looks stunning with Edward Lachman’s cinematography, and Carter Burwell’s score is a similarly whimsical and delightful effort. However all of this is unfortunately in service of a rather dull story and a very by the numbers one, no matter how much it feels as if it isn’t. The cross-cutting and multiple different styles all come together to nothing really. The film’s best moments are in its deconstructions and depictions in its sound design of what it’s like to be deaf in such a metropolis such as New York. The film was also the first time we saw the wonderful Millicent Simmonds on screen, and even here we can see where her career is going to go. However all in all  Wonderstruck does just feel like a key strand is missing bringing everything together. As a piece of visual art it’s close to sublime, however on a story level and in many cases unfortunately on a performance level the film flounders. Which is ultimately rather unfortunate.

Dark Waters (2019)

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Dark Waters is the first film by Haynes developed by a Hollywood studio and in many ways it feels like it. Now I really enjoy Dark Waters, but I knew about this film and was excited for this film for a while before it came out, however it was only the week before when I went onto the IMDB that I found out this was Haynes new film. Dark Waters still feels like a Haynes film in some ways (the grain of the film, the presentation of era, the relationship dynamics), however it also certainly feels like Haynes most ‘by the numbers’ film in his entire career. I have no information whatsoever on whether or not this was a ‘for hire’ job in anyway, but it does feel like that from an outsiders point of view. However all of this is not to say that I don’t enjoy Dark Waters a great deal, I think it’s the exact sort of film I talk about all the time on this blog as what I long to see more of. The mid-budget adult drama with a great star ensemble. Dark Waters really does feel like a throw-back in that sense, perhaps that’s also affected by the legal element to the films plotting, that makes it overall feel as if it has been cut from the same cloth as those multiple John Grisham adaptations of the 90’s. Again, I have to reiterate that none of this is a bad thing in the slightest, it just feels bizarre in the Haynes cannon. Perhaps this is a case like David Lynch and The Straight Story, with the man commenting frequently that that was his most experimental film, despite it in so many ways being his most ‘normal’. Dark Waters is a very well made film that tells its story simply and effectively, with Mark Ruffallo doing an excellent job as our lead taking us through this paranoid thriller, where the greatest horror of all is that early title card; “based on a true story”. Haynes time and time again has exemplified his craft in telling a story in a period and giving us the absolute perfect reflection of said period whilst never letting it get in the way of the story being told, Dark Waters is another such example of Haynes impeccable craft as a film-maker.

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Time and time again, whether working in period film or modern drama, Haynes has exemplified a clear deftness and ability to zone in on what is most important in a story at any chosen moment. What is most important and always what is most effecting to the characters, and in turn to the audience. Haynes not only directs films about the unsung, but when it comes complete adoration for his work, Haynes is rather the unsung himself.

-       -  Thomas Carruthers