It is a Hollywood staple: C meets T; they fall in love; obstacles stand in their way (a husband, a boyfriend, but most particularly the attitudes of the 1950s); obstacles are mostly overcome, and C and T march happily into the future together. In Todd Haynes's film, Cate Blanchett plays Carol, a soon-to-be-divorced, sophisticated mother of a four-year-old who falls for the younger, unworldly, besotted Therese (Rooney Mara).

The film is based on Patricia Highsmith's 1952 novel, originally and briefly called The Price of Salt before the much more satisfactory Carol. The book was and remains notable not only because the two people in love are women, but also because neither of the women must die for their love like so many lesbians in books and films, or end up lonely and grotesque like Sister George, or die for their fun like Thelma and Louise. Highsmith's novel tells of a romance, with hardship and sacrifices on the way, but a romance nonetheless.