Film Review: Cate Blanchett shines in Tár

Tár is really a story about what happens when a self-created idol is obliged to acknowledge her feet of clay

Cate Blanchett in Tár

★★★★☆

The fact that the renowned composer-conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is preparing to record Mahler’s fifth symphony as Tár (15A) opens is something of a musical in-joke. The fifth symphony was where Mahler fully embraced counterpoint; Lydia, cresting a creative wave that promises to cement her already formidable reputation, is horrified when she realises that her sordid past is about to come crashing back into her life, disrupting her domestic relationship with her wife Sharon (Nina Hoss) and, professionally, loosening her iron grip on her Berlin orchestra.