Cate Blanchett swallows Tár whole and spits out bullets in return. The role, of a fictional classical conductor somersaulting into her own downfall, was written by director Todd Field solely with her in mind. It’s a performance that functions as a total culmination, the crystallised form of all the women Blanchett’s played in the past – from Elizabeth I to Lilith in Nightmare Alley – who act like they have total control but may actually be hollow on the inside. Sometimes, all that’s needed is a single shot of those ice-blue eyes. A little tension in the muscles and they take on a self-satisfied feeling of mastery over their subject.
It’s not required that we sympathise with Blanchett’s Lydia Tàr. Her talent is plain – she’s a protégée of Leonard Bernstein and is one of the few winners of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award – but she’s also cruel, manipulative, and abusive. She belittles and dismisses her own assistant (Noémie Merlant), simply because she’s grown bored of her. Slowly, allegations of misconduct start to surface, and her rivals (including Mark Strong’s amateur conductor Eliot Kaplan) leap into self-serving action.
