The Human Stain
2 out of 5 stars
R E V I E W   B Y   R I C H   C L I N E
human stain Based on the Philip Roth novel, this is a story laced with irony at every level, and yet the filmmakers miss it completely. Coleman Silk (Hopkins) is a tough-minded literature professor at a Boston university when he's sacked for a supposed racial slur (even though his comment wasn't remotely racial). After this and the sudden death of his wife, he approaches local writer Nathan Zuckerman (Sinise) to put his story into a book. But things begin to get a bit twisted when Coleman starts a fling with a local post office worker/milkmaid (Kidman) who's half his age and has a violent ex-husband (Harris) on the prowl. Meanwhile in flashbacks, we see Coleman as a young man (Miller) struggling with his African-American heritage.

This is such a good story, and such a gifted cast and crew, that watching the film go off the rails is a real tragedy. It was always going to be difficult, because reading a novel lets us supply the imagery that will be problematic on screen. Namely, Hopkins and Miller as the whitest black men we've ever seen! But their performances are good enough to even make this work. What isn't good enough is Meyers' screenplay, which flattens the story's delicate satire of political correctness gone mad. Everything is so obvious it hurts; the central issues are both overstated and muddled.

And while Kidman is always good, she's simply wrong for this role--far too glamorous to be a blue-collar worker, and far too trashy to be someone from a privileged background. The character needs someone with a weary worldliness who looks older than her years. But Benton seems intent on filming Kidman like a sexy porn star, complete with impeccable makeup, carefully mussed-up hair and soft-focus nudity. It's so misjudged that it brings the film screeching to a halt. It also doesn't help that Kidman and Hopkins only have father-daughter chemistry (Hopkins and Sinise have more spark!). And despite expert production quality, the film is awkwardly structured, cutting back and forth between the 1940s and today at seemingly random points. Basically it's a well-made but uninvolving mess that only works in Hopkins' eyes (his blush of attraction for Kidman is wonderful) and in his sharply played scenes with Sinise. Otherwise it's an ironic examination of racism reduced to a lifeless potboiler.

cert 18 themes, language, nudity 24.Oct.03 lff

dir Robert Benton
scr Nicholas Meyer
with Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Wentworth Miller, Jacinda Barrett, Clark Gregg, Harry Lennix, Anna Deavere Smith, Lizan Mitchell, Mili Avital, Mimi Kuzyk
release US 31.Oct.03; UK 23.Jan.04
Miramax
03/US 1h46

Last love: Kidman and Hopkins.

harris sinise
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Gareth Hughes, London: 1½ out of 5 stars "How could anyone not want to see this movie? Hopkins, Kidman, Harris and Sinise in an adaptation of a Roth novel directed by Benton. The novel deals with gargantuan themes of racism, family, sexual abuse, loss and loneliness. Great on paper but the movie is a mess. The casting is all wrong: Hopkins sleepwalks through his role, Kidman is totally unconvincing as the trailer trash girlfriend and Harris is just wrong for the part of her abusive husband. The movie doesn't work structurally and to explain why would give away too much of the plot. You know the movie is in trouble when the audience cares far more for Coleman as a young man, played excellently by Wentworth Miller. Most disappointing of all is the way in which the major issues are trivialised. Maybe it's an unfilmable novel." (27.Oct.03)

© 2003 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

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