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Customer Reviews of The Human Stain

"How far would you go to escape the past?"
Robert Benton's "The Human Stain" is a well-intentioned, ambitious but ultimately deeply flawed film. It does a masterful job of passing for a profound, Oscar-caliber film. So masterful, in fact, that for long stretches of time you don't notice that it's simply not working. <
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>It boasts an incredible A-list cast including Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris, it does indeed boast some Oscar-worthy performances. I was especially impressed by Kidman's complete transformation into a somewhat-less-than-classy janitor. In addition to the tour-de-force cast, there's Benton's artsy direction style and the even-artsier cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier's beautiful work. Escoffier died shortly after filming wrapped and the film is dedicated in his memory. And thene there's the esteemed Rachel Portman's beautifully composed score. And then there's the source material which was adapted from the brilliantly complex novel by Philip Roth. <
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>However, these glittering pieces never fit together into a movie that's worthy of its prestigious pedigree. It seems unfair, then, that all of that talent and expertise has resulted in a film that, while beautifully crafted, is so emotionally detached, remote, and confused by itself. I haven't read Roth's novel, but I suspect that screenwriter Nicholas Meyer, in his attempt to get all the main characters and events from the book onto the screen, had to leave a lot of connective material behind. That material, whatever it may be, may have seemed less important to Meyer, but without it the parts of Roth's story just drift, disconnected, in their own peculiar orbits. <
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>Hopkins plays Coleman Silk, a college professor who loses his job over a supposedly racist remark. The irony of this charge forms the base theme for the story. Silk's comment is innocent because of "the big secret" he has hidden for many years. After resigning from the college where he had worked for years, he begins an affair with Faunia Farley, played by Kidman. She has her own emotional baggage and is unable to commit to the relationship with Coleman. The affair, however, revitalizes Silk and he is finally able to confront some of his past demons. <
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>Just about the time all these conflicts are coming to a head, the whole story comes to a crashing halt. There is an extended epilogue. The movie staggers on for about 20 more minutes, but the story has been decapitated, and has nowhere to go. The ending is anti-climactic in the most extreme sense of the word. <
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>The storyline is periodically (and annoyingly) interrupted by extended flashbacks of Coleman as a young man in 1944 New York. It's in these scenes that we learn "the big secret" that Coleman has spent his life concealing. This is the hidden core of the film. And it ends up being the ultimate failing of the film. The flashbacks work fine on their own merits, but they don't feel connected at all to the rest of the film. The flashback scenes, and the secret they contain, seem to have no impact on the later scenes. If somebody told me that Hopkins was never even told by Benton what went on in the flashblacks, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. <
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>Kidman, meanwhile, takes a good many risks, playing not just seductive but lowbrow to considerable effect; her character, however, is never fully explored, and a few of her scenes are bizarrely unexplained (especially one in which she talks to a caged crow in a campus classroom, which comes out of nowhere and makes very little sense).

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The intransigence of comfort
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>Two lonely people come together, Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), a professor who quits his job after a supposed racial slur and Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman), an eccentric younger woman disabused by the harsh realities of her life. A former welterweight boxer who has turned his back on his race, Silk lives as a white man caught in an ironic twist of fate. In a fine blend of racism and religious intolerance before the gratuity of political correctness, the young Coleman makes irreversible decisions that critically affect his later years. As a deeply melancholic mature man, Coleman finds sudden happiness with Faunia in spite of her personal despondency and refusal to believe in joy. <
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>Moody and dark, played out against countryside covered with snow, the fine-tuned cinematography catches every nuance of shadow and flesh, as the movie evolves into an agonizing collision of desire vs. reality. Acting out the role of Achilles, pitted against fate and the grim determination of the gods, Silk refuses to give up the younger woman, no matter the consequences. <
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>The film is carefully balanced, shifting from present to past, exposing the painful histories of the characters, the roots of their flaws. The supporting roles are beautifully played by Gary Sinise as Nathan Zukerman, a reclusive writer and friend of Silk's and Ed Harris as Lester Farley, an ex-Vietnam vet unable to purge the violence from his life. In the end, seeking an island of comfort, Silk and Faunia gravitate to one another, sensing at least a temporary respite from an often cruel world. "The things that restore you can destroy you." Luan Gaines/ 2005. <
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A special though tragic film
Based on the novel by Phillip Roth, this is a special film, exploring issues of race, hypocrisy, relationships and the tragedy of the human condition. <
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>Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) is a classics professor at an eastern Ivy League college. During his tenure as Dean of the school, he brought the college from a mediocre one to one of excellence. In the politics of academia, where bureaucracy can be so entrenched, change is the enemy, thus Coleman Silk's efforts towards excellence, inevitably makes a few enemies. <
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>In the late nineties, during the Clinton administration, the atmosphere of so-called political correctness hovered like a spectre, censorship reigned supreme, and as one of the characters at the end of the film states, "People have become so dumb, but they all have an opinion." Professor Silk makes the mistake of calling two conspicuously absent students "spooks", in the definitive context of absence or invisibility, not in the 50's slang for black American. In fact, he never met these students, but his words are taken as racial slurs because the students are black Americans. (This proves to be a great irony as the film progresses) This is an interesting example of censorship at the time, as in so many cases, the person or people crying racism or explicit sex or whatever the issue, more often than not, is taken out of context, turning it into something other than what it actually means. Out of principle, and because, out of fear, no one supports him, he is forced to resign just before his retirement. To add insult to injury, Silk's wife dies in his arms from a heart attack on that very day. <
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>Enter Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Siniese) the "writer in hiding" and narrator of the tale. The two men forge a bond that is both interesting and touching. The scene where they dance `cheek to cheek' on the porch over a sentimental song was a work of pure theatrical genius. There is no question that both these fine actors are at the top of their art form. It is here that Silk confesses that he is involved with a thirty-four year old woman. Enter Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman) a beautiful working class girl with a legion of personal issues: sexually abused as a child; a battered wife from a psychotic husband, (Ed Harris) and two dead children due to an accident that is explained in the film but remains vague. The relationship between Silk and Farley is an unusual one as there is a vast age difference and both are so different socially and otherwise. But they connect and have an obvious need for one another, which causes the people around them to gossip, threat and make efforts to destroy them. Coleman Silk has one of the better lines in the film, in order to justify this relationship: <
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>"She's not my first love, nor my greatest love, but she's my last love." <
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>This film is about many things: the evil of prejudice and racism; the ignorance, hypocrisy and oppression of censorship; the mysteries of attraction and love between people; it is about fear and our need for revenge; it is about making choices and having to live with those choices. <
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>This is a special film and a wonderful story, intriguing and confronting but ultimately a tragedy in every sense. <
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