TAR is worth watching – and hating

TAR opened in Singapore cinemas on Jan 26. And, in just one week, it’s become the movie everyone who considers themselves something of a serious movie buff is talking about. They’re talking about its six Oscar nominations and Cate Blanchett’s fine performance as an orchestra conductor. They’re talking about the directorial return of Todd Field (In The Bedroom, Little Children) after a 16-year-hiatus. They’re talking about its 2 hour and 38 minute runtime, which does not feel lengthy at all. They’re talking about the sublime, subliminal score by Hildur Guonadottir (The Joker, Chernobyl).

(Spoiler alert!) But they’re also talking about TAR’s ending which has been offending many a viewer in this part of the world. Some are calling it “regressive” and “racist towards Asians”. Others are upset, but can’t quite decide where to stand on the matter. The American film critic Amy Taubin (who is white, not Asian) called the ending “one of the most racist s**t I’ve ever seen in a serious movie”. Taubin is 84 and has been reviewing films for decades.

The story centres on Lydia Tar (Blanchett), a celebrated orchestra conductor sitting on top of the world. She is preparing to record a live performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 5 with a Berlin-based orchestra. She has a side gig lecturing at Juilliard in New York. She constantly appears in magazine features, which she duly cuts out and keeps. As an openly gay woman married to another woman, with whom she is raising an adopted Syrian girl, Tar is living proof to the world that Western civilisation has progressed significantly to recognise the accomplishments of an individual regardless of her gender and sexuality.

The twist, however, is that Tar is a sexual predator who behaves not that much differently from her male equivalents. (The film references real-life male conductors James Levine and Charles Dutoit who fell from grace after accusations of sexual abuse.) Tar grants favours to fawning young women eager to make it in the competitive orchestral world. She backstabs old hands to replace them with said women. But after years of doing so with impunity, her nasty habits are catching up with her.

Her unravelling begins when a former female protege commits suicide and accusations of impropriety emerge. In the age of identity politics, Tar’s caustic words issued to a Black pansexual student are recorded by his classmates and circulated on social media. Soon, Tar finds herself battling protesters as she’s making her way into the launch event of her own book, Tar On Tar. Oddly, for a film that addresses #MeToo and cancel culture, TAR can sometimes seem too sympathetic towards the aggressor, presenting her almost as the victim. Meanwhile, the real victims of her abuse are given short shrift – the face of her protege, for instance, is never shown.

(Major spoiler alert!) Unable to counter the accusations, Tar is fired from her position, leading to the final act of the film, which some viewers find uncomfortably xenophobic. Blacklisted by major orchestras, she goes to an unnamed city in South-east Asia where she finds work conducting a youth orchestra. The suggestion here is that what’s discarded in the West could still be accepted in the East. To add insult to injury, there’s even a scene where she goes to a massage parlour and becomes disgusted by the display of young Asian women, so much so that she leaves abruptly and vomits by the side of the road. Is this a plausible response from a savvy, worldly woman who once thought nothing of sexually manipulating young musicians?

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TAR may be one of the most daring films of 2022, tackling a hot-button issue and featuring possibly the best central performance given by any actor last year. But it ends on a shockingly bigoted note by depicting a South-east Asian city as a squalid cesspool that’s willing to turn a blind eye to sexual offenders like her. For some viewers, this plot miscalculation by the filmmakers (Blanchett is credited as executive producer) is as unforgivable as Tar’s crimes. If you still can’t see how tacky it is, imagine Tar as a male sexual predator, played by maybe Brad Pitt or George Clooney, going to Asia to find redemption.

Here’s hoping Michelle Yeoh gets that Best Actress Oscar instead of Blanchett.

TAR is showing in cinemas.