Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, and Christoph Waltz. Rated PG.

Roman Polanski has considerable concern about the ability of even the most well-informed grownups to pass judgment on those at their mercy. And that’s what four would-be authority figures set out to do in his deft adaptation of a hit play called The God of Carnage. Christopher Hampton translated the Broadway version from the French. But Polanski mounted his own English-language take alongside the original playwright, Yasmina Reza, for the movie, which happens almost entirely within the tastefully decorated confines of one couple’s Brooklyn apartment.

Although actually made in Paris, Carnage offers New York–shot bookends depicting the playground interactions of two teenage boys (one is the director’s son, Elvis Polanski). Their almost random altercation causes the parents of the victim—if that’s the word—to invite their opposite pair for an extralegal heart-to-heart chat.

Prim, ponytailed academic Penelope (a fierce Jodie Foster) and working stiff Michael (John C. Reilly) are concerned about their mildly injured boy, but he’s not there when the other kid’s folks drop in. The outwardly polished Nancy (Kate Winslet) seems conciliatory, her sharklike lawyer husband, Alan (Inglourious Basterds’ Christoph Waltz), less so. Or maybe it just feels that way because he keeps getting caught up in long cellphone calls from someone at a big pharmaceutical company. (It’s hard to ignore that he’s telling the caller to stonewall in the face of increasingly lethal accusations.)

There’s a j’accuse vibe to the meeting in general, and the ostensibly civilized foursome keeps regrouping its agendas and allegiances—especially after the 18-year-old Scotch comes out. This is traditional theatrical fare, in most ways, but Polanski and cinematographer Pawel Edelman cleverly explore all the angles of the domicile our Buñuelian moderns can’t quite bring themselves to leave. The visit is a nightmare for them, but provocatively wordy fun for us, and for the cast.

Watch the trailer for Carnage.