Review

Review Date: 2-November-03
Spoiler Rating: High
Juju Judgment: Juicy

The Human Stain (2003)

"The Human Stain" lies somewhere between a "Just OK" and a "Juicy," but I'm leaning toward the more positive rating in defiance of the many negative reviews I have seen, which almost kept me away from the picture. (I usually make a point of not reading reviews until after I have seen the movie, but in this case I foolishly strayed.) This adaptation of Philip Roth's novel does have its problems, but it features excellent performances that moved me in more ways than one.

"The Human Stain" centers upon the waning years of Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), a classics professor and dean at a small New England college who is unjustly accused of uttering a racist slur in the classroom. In good old Roth, let's-all-slit-our-wrists fashion, this incident brings the walls tumbling down around him, destroying the foundations of his carefully orchestrated life and leaving him exposed to certain doubts and pangs of guilt that he hasn't felt for years. In this raw state, Silk forges new relationships and looks back on ones he left behind.

Silk's first new acquaintance is a writer named Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), the film's one-man Greek chorus and narrator. Though quite a bit younger than Silk, Nathan has also entered a desperate regrouping phase in his life, moving to a cabin in the woods to write and think and mope about two broken marriages. After Silk barges in on him one night practically raving (though in an erudite, eloquent way, of course), the two men become close friends, sharing confidences and, in an unusual and charming scene, a bit of a two-step with Irving Berlin.

Nathan is not only Silk's friend but the repository of his memories, which receive bitingly nostalgic treatment in a series of flashbacks featuring a young Coleman Silk, played by the magnetic Wentworth Miller. (If he looks familiar, it might be because of his repeated appearance during the opening credits of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Season 3.) Back in the day, Silk was a real golden child, with looks, brains, a loving family, a great girl, and sharp left hook; indeed, the world would have been his oyster were it not for the fact that he was an African American in a society that viewed him and preferred him as white (a preference he was only too happy to oblige). The tale of the handsome young man, outwardly so strong and self assured, who loses the people he loves through narrowness (both theirs and his) could provide meat enough for an entire movie of its own.

However, "The Human Stain" is not really about the losses of a young man, but the gains of an old one. At its tender heart, the film is a love story between the aged Silk and Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman), a woman just getting by in a community that views her and prefers her as its fringe element (a preference she is gratefully but painfully willing to oblige). To all external appearances, Faunia spells trouble, laden with the standard dramatic baggage of the postmodern age including a lost childhood, near poverty, physical abuse, dead kids, botched suicides, and a resulting emotional brittleness. (Not to mention a deranged ex-husband, brought to life with frightening sincerity by Ed Harris.) But although everybody warns him off (including Faunia herself), Silk keeps pushing the boundaries of their initially sexual relationship out of a paternal-erotic mix of aching compassion, proving once again that despite people's differences, they can sometimes unite through the basic need to heal and be healed.

Many critics have complained that Kidman and Hopkins are miscast because they don't look or sound like a hard-driven slattern and a light-skinned black American, respectively. But, honestly, why should we care? Two of the finest actors working today, they both deliver complex, honest performances that allow the characters to connect not only with each other but with the audience. Just as their intensity overcomes the limitations of their physiques, so too does the strength of the entire cast diminish the film's other weaknesses (such as the way the separate storylines don't exactly gel and a smattering of awkward scenes). "The Human Stain" offers a densely layered, often haunting story to viewers willing to look beyond the exterior into the complicated lives --- and bittersweet redemption --- of two tormented souls.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.