The Human Stain (film)

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The Human Stain

Original poster
Directed by Robert Benton
Produced by Bob Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Written by Nicholas Meyer
Based on the novel by Philip Roth
Starring Anthony Hopkins
Nicole Kidman
Music by Rachel Portman
Cinematography Jean-Yves Escoffier
Editing by Christopher Tellefsen
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release date(s) October 31, 2003 (US)
Running time 106 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $30,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Human Stain is a 2003 American drama film directed by Robert Benton. The screenplay by Nicholas Meyer is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Philip Roth.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

In the late 1990's, writer Nathan Zuckerman has settled in a lakeside New England cabin following his second divorce and a battle with prostate cancer. His idyllic life is interrupted by Coleman Silk, a former dean and professor of classics at local Athena College, who was forced to resign after being accused of making racist remarks in class. Coleman's wife died suddenly following the scandal, and he wants to avenge his loss of career and companion by writing a book about the events with Nathan's assistance. The project is placed on the back burner when Coleman falls into an affair with considerably younger and semi-literate Faunia Farley, who supports herself by working at menial jobs. Their relationship is threatened by the faculty members who forced Coleman from his job and by Faunia's stalker ex-husband Lester, a mentally unbalanced Vietnam War veteran who blames her for the deaths of their children in an accident. Flashbacks reveal to the audience Coleman's secret - he is an African American who has passed as a Jewish white man for most of his adult life.

[edit] Production notes

Campus scenes were filmed at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and McGill University in Montréal.

The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival. It was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, the Bergen International Film Festival, and the Hollywood Film Festival before its release in the US.

The film grossed $5,381,227 in the US and $13,998,160 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $19,379,387 [1].

[edit] Principal cast

[edit] Critical reception

In his review in the New York Times, A.O. Scott called it "an honorable B+ term paper of a movie: sober, scrupulous and earnestly respectful of its literary source . . . The filmmakers explicate Mr. Roth's themes with admirable clarity and care and observe his characters with delicate fondness, but they cannot hope to approximate the brilliance and rapacity of his voice, which holds all the novel's disparate elements together. Without the active intervention of Mr. Roth's intelligence . . . the story fails to cohere . . . At its best - which also tends to be at its quietest - The Human Stain allows you both to care about its characters and to think about the larger issues that their lives represent. Its deepest flaw is an inability to link those moments of empathy and insight into a continuous drama, to suggest that the characters' lives keep going when they are not on screen." [2]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "We have to suspend disbelief over the casting, but that's easier since we can believe the stories of these people. Not many movies probe into matters of identity or adaptation. Most movie characters are like Greek gods and comic book heroes: We learn their roles and powers at the beginning of the story, and they never change. Here are complex, troubled, flawed people, brave enough to breathe deeply and take one more risk with their lives." [3]

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle called it "a mediocre movie . . . [that] falls victim to a fatal lack of narrative drive, suspense and drama. Kidman and Hopkins are wrong for their roles, and that, combined with a pervading inevitability, cuts the film off from any sustained vitality. The result is something admirable but lifeless." [4]

David Stratton of Variety described it as "an intelligent adaptation of Philip Roth's arguably unfilmable novel powered by two eye-catching performances . . . A key problem Benton is unable to avoid is that Hopkins and Miller don't look (or talk) the least bit like one another. Miller, who gives a strong, muted performance, convinces as a light-skinned African-American in a way Hopkins never does, which is not to suggest that the Welsh-born actor doesn't give another intelligent, powerful portrayal. It's just that the believability gap looms large." [5]

In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers said, "Hopkins and Kidman . . . are both as mesmerizing as they are miscast . . . The Human Stain is heavy going. It's the flashes of dramatic lightning that make it a trip worth taking." [6]

The Times called it "sapping and unbelievable melodrama . . . an unforgivably turgid lecture about political correctness." [7]

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Human Stain at TheNumbers.com
  2. ^ New York Times review
  3. ^ Chicago Sun-Times review
  4. ^ San Francisco Chronicle review
  5. ^ Variety review
  6. ^ Rolling Stone review
  7. ^ The Times review

[edit] External links

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