The Human Stain | Review

Despite Hopkins and Kidman, what transpires on the screen is hardly the stuff worth recommending.

Like breaking an egg into a pan that isn’t close to being hot, this film completely misses the point by giving us the answer to the mystery, before even beginning to ask the questions. From the director who gave us Kramer vs. Kramer and whose last spark was the forgettable Twilight, comes an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel, which is perhaps a risk worth taking for those who haven’t read the book, while those who have will be bothered by the total amount of time it takes for the film to get to its hooking point.

The Human Stain is a melodrama with top notched talent that tries hard to keep the obvious distinction of the narrative away from plot inspection for the longest time possible, the result is that it only draws our interest in one of the story lines and not the one which features the bigger-sized salaries and talents. The film commences in present time with the death of the two principle characters, one male component is played by Anthony Hopkins (Red Dragon) in the role of a prominent professor Coleman a.k.a Achilles who one day uses the wrong word for “absent student” and from there falls into a momentary downward spiral which changes directions fairly quickly. While in one inexplicable relationship to a secluded author (Gary Sinise-The Green Mile) he confides his life story and becomes a reliable gin-yummy partner, while in his another relationship his steps become lighter and his fists become tighter when he meets up with a good reason to pop a couple of the blue wonder pills. While flashbacks of at least five decades before intrude themselves into the picture they manage to offer an interesting family tree dilemma, and the sultry, plain character type of presence from one awesome actress in Nicole Kidman (The Hours) gives the film a slight kick. However, any positive effect wears off kind of like what a badly manufactured Viagra pill would do.

The film underperforms as a mystery, and rather than get transfixed into an Oscar-timed drama, you’ll end up filtering through an insignificant story and odd subplots…why the hell is Kidman’s character talking to a crow? I think what the film builds in the examination of race works well, but that the unspoken about layers of the older relationship doesn’t. The majority of the problem is the translation of the novel into script form, Nicolas Meyers’ references to Clinton Lewinsky and pole jokes forecast the ending, which might just leave you with an even worse taste in your mouth. Stylistically the film contains the requirements, tight shots of emotions, beautiful winter sceneries in one sequence and a waltz that throws the viewer off-balance. On a sad note, this is the second to last effort from D.O.P Jean-Yves Escoffier who died I believe after the post-production was completed. The performances, not excluding the younger cast, are on target, Kidman delivers a spunky, sexy performance and Hopkins is good as usual, except that it seemed very unlucky to put Hopkins in the role with his supposed background.

While there are some worthy items here to underline Robert Benton’s The Human Stain it is a film that is hard to admire since it lacks the key ability of making the big secret into, well, a big secret.

Rating 2 stars