Carousel Review: A Frustratingly Undercooked Romance Drama Kicks Off Sundance 2026
The Sundance Film Festival has officially begun for 2026, but the opening narrative premiere Carousel arrives with a distinct sense of disappointment rather than celebration. Directed by Rachel Lambert, this small-town American indie stars Chris Pine and Jenny Slate in what should be a compelling exploration of lost love and midlife rediscovery, but instead delivers a frustratingly static romance drama that struggles to connect emotionally.
A Festival Tradition That's Lost Its Spark
This year's festival opens amidst significant change, with grief over the loss of founder Robert Redford and its move from long-time home Park City creating a subdued atmosphere. Carousel represents exactly the sort of character-driven American independent film that has served as Sundance's lifeblood for nearly five decades. Yet as the festival landscape has evolved, these intimate stories increasingly struggle to find audiences beyond the mountain setting.
The film follows Pine as a emotionally limited doctor navigating his 40s with a struggling practice, a daughter battling anger and anxiety, and the reappearance of a long-lost love played by Slate. It's classic Sundance material - the sort of quiet, personal storytelling that once defined the festival's golden era in the 1990s and 2000s.
Beautiful Direction Undermined by Weak Script
Lambert demonstrates considerable skill behind the camera, creating lush visual compositions and employing consuming musical choices that occasionally overwhelm due to questionable sound mixing. Her previous film, Sometimes I Think About Dying from Sundance 2024, showcased similar sensory appeal, capturing the bewitching quality of small-town life through atmospheric direction.
However, direction alone cannot compensate for fundamental script weaknesses. Lambert's screenplay proves erratic and underdeveloped, confusing underwritten characters with subtlety. As the initial power of her visual storytelling wears off, viewers find themselves stuck with characters they neither know nor particularly care about, despite the actors' best efforts.
Strong Performances Trapped in Narrative Limbo
Chris Pine delivers one of his more compelling recent performances, making a convincing case for a later-career shift toward smaller, talkier independent fare. He effectively portrays a man emotionally adrift in middle age, while Jenny Slate brings her signature nuanced presence to the role of his returning former love. Their chemistry suggests they could power a much stronger film than the one they find themselves in.
Supporting players including Sam Waterston and Heléne Yorke feel notably underutilized, while Abby Ryder Fortson brings authenticity to the role of Pine's struggling daughter. The actors commit fully to their roles, but Lambert's skittish direction keeps viewers at arm's length, offering only brief, often frustratingly flat glimpses into these characters' lives.
An Emotionally Unsatisfying Journey
The film's fundamental problem lies in its inability to make viewers care about the emotional stakes it establishes. For a story centered on the headiness and enormity of love, both lost and rediscovered, the emotional core remains curiously distant. A drawn-out argument between the central couple in the final act demonstrates strong performances but leaves viewers feeling like restaurant eavesdroppers - captivated by the intensity but unclear about the substance.
Lambert introduces potentially interesting complications, including the dynamics of parenting someone else's child and processing youthful romance through mature perspective, but fails to develop these threads into emotionally satisfying conclusions. An over-egged romantic ending feels particularly unearned, leaving viewers entirely un-swooned by what should be a cathartic resolution.
A Festival Film That Spins Without Progress
Ultimately, Carousel embodies the challenges facing intimate American indies in today's cinematic landscape. Like many Sundance films that fail to translate festival buzz into broader success, it feels like a clumsily condensed miniseries with crucial scenes and character development missing. The world proves unkind to films of this particular scale and sensibility at this moment, and while one might wish for a resurgence of this subgenre, Carousel doesn't make a compelling case for its revival.
The film leaves viewers with the unsatisfying task of filling in narrative gaps themselves, as listlessness creeps from screen to audience. For all its visual beauty and committed performances, Carousel spins around and around without ever finding a meaningful destination, opening Sundance 2026 with more whimper than bang as it seeks distribution in an increasingly challenging market for independent cinema.
