Carol has learned that Harge is petitioning the judge to consider a "morality clause" against her, threatening to expose her homosexuality and give him full custody of Rindy.

[9][10] It had been inspired by an encounter in 1948 between Highsmith and a blonde woman wearing a mink coat, Kathleen Wiggins Senn, whilst she was working as a Christmas season salesgirl at the toy department of Bloomingdale's in New York.

[23] Film4 Productions and Tessa Ross financed the development of the film and kept it alive through the years,[17][24][25] as it "underwent a decade-plus of revision under various directors and investors"—including Hettie MacDonald, Kenneth Branagh, Kimberly Peirce, John Maybury, and Stephen Frears—until the project completely stalled.

While various directors and investors had input to the script during its long gestation period, Nagy rejected suggestions that Carol or Therese "should feel guilty about being gay and suffer some kind of breakdown scene about it.

[17] Nagy made the story more enigmatic, pruning some of the backstory in light of a significant early line that Carol says to Therese: "What a strange girl you are, flung out of space.

[32][63][64] In preparing for filming, the producers found that the cost of production in the New York City area would be prohibitive, and it was also going to be difficult to find locations there that resembled the early 1950s.

Part of the financing plan hinged upon a co-production deal with Canada, with filming taking place in Montreal, but Haynes joining the production led to a rethink.

Academic scholar Jenny M. James affirms that “the novel’s fantasy of lesbian romance relies on Carol’s loss of maternal custody and the subsequent erasure of her experience as a queer mother”.

Therese is even taught by Carol to keep their love a secret from others, illustrating the necessity for lesbian individuals to engage in "closeted public behaviours" to survive in a homophobic society.

He noted that "some cinemas will refuse to book the film", but "the controversy ... will help us market Carol to the right audience", adding that he believed it would "appeal to the public way beyond the LGBT community.

Critics praised Haynes's direction, Blanchett's and Mara's performances, the cinematography, costumes and musical score, and deemed it a strong contender for a Cannes award.

The website's critical consensus states: "Shaped by Todd Haynes' deft direction and powered by a strong cast led by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, Carol lives up to its groundbreaking source material.

In this enjoyably deliberate film, each shot and scene is carefully composed to pay homage to 50s cinema, yet infused with an emotional ambiguity which feels decidedly contemporary.

"[158] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it is "a serious melodrama about the geometry of desire, a dreamy example of heightened reality that fully engages emotions despite the exact calculations with which it's been made... "Carol's" lush but controlled visual look is completely intoxicating.

"[162] Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent said: "Todd Haynes's latest feature is a subtle, moving and deceptive story of two women (brilliantly played in very contrasting styles by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara) who refuse to live against 'their own grain' ... Phyllis Nagy's screenplay emphasises their steeliness and self-reliance.

Precise production design and a palette steeped in shades of green and red (appropriate to the Yuletide setting) make watching it seem like stepping inside an Edward Hopper painting.

From Phyllis Nagy's alluringly uncluttered script to Cate Blanchett's sturdily tremulous performance as a society woman with everything to lose, this brilliantly captures the thrills, tears and fears of forbidden love.

"[166] In Variety, Justin Chang wrote: "despite their obvious differences in class and background, Therese and Carol seem to ease themselves (and the audience) so quickly and naturally into a bond that they have no interest in defining, or even really discussing—a choice that works not only for an era when their love dared not speak its name, but also for Haynes' faith in the power of the medium to achieve an eloquence beyond words.

"[39] Francine Prose in The New York Review of Books commented on "the delicacy, the patience, and the sheer amount of screen time that it lavishes on the experience of falling in love: the hesitations and doubts, the seemingly casual exchanges freighted with meaning and suppressed emotion, the simple happiness of being together.

Working from a carefully crafted script by Phyllis Nagy, Haynes portrays two people thirstily drinking each other in, while on the outside, they sip tea and cocktails with prim decorum.

[213] The AFI Awards jury rationale read: CAROL sets the screen aglow with the light of longing as Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara transform a period piece into a timeless cry from defiant hearts.

Club said that though the film had been considered a "lock" for a Best Picture nomination, the omission "shouldn't have been a major shock" given the controversy over Brokeback Mountain's loss a decade earlier.

[226] Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair said that though its "themes of passion and heartache may be universal", the film may be "too gay", speaking "in a vernacular that, I'd guess, only queer people are fully fluent in."

[227] Dorothy Snarker of IndieWire attributed the omissions to the academy's demographics, and agreed that Carol may be too gay and too female "for the largely old white male voting base" to connect with.

"[231] In Paper magazine, Carey O'Donnell wrote that gay romances are only "Oscar surefires" when they use the tragedy-desolation-demise "equation", and that "a depiction of two strong women in love with each other ... seems to still be troubling to many".

[232] David Ehrlich of Rolling Stone wrote that the film's "patience and precision" did not conform to Academy tastes, but its legacy "will doubtlessly survive this year's most egregious snub".

[52][239] In January 2016, ABC rejected a prime-time commercial featuring a snippet of the nude scene between Carol and Therese, which caused The Weinstein Company to reedit the television trailer.

[249] It includes the original score by Carter Burwell and additional music by The Clovers, Billie Holiday, Georgia Gibbs, Les Paul and Mary Ford, and Jo Stafford.

Songs not featured on the CD include "Willow Weep for Me" performed by Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks Orchestra, "Perdido" by Woody Herman, and "That's the Chance You Take" by Eddie Fisher.

[250] "A Garden in the Rain" by The Four Aces, "Slow Poke" by Pee Wee King, and "Why Don't You Believe Me" by Patti Page are also not included, but appear in the vinyl version.