Elegy (2008)

Director:

Isabel Coixet

Writers (WGA):

Nicholas Meyer (screenplay)
Philip Roth (novel)

Release Date:

18 abril 2008 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Cultural critic David Kepesh finds his life -- which he indicates is a state of "emancipated manhood" -- thrown into tragic disarray by Consuela Castillo, a well-mannered student who awakens a sense of sexual possessiveness in her teacher. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

He only gets his rocks off when he's crying

Cast

Sonja Bennett	...	Beth
Patricia Clarkson	...	Carolyn
Penélope Cruz	...	Consuela Castillo
Antonio Cupo	...	Consuela's imagined lover
Michelle Harrison	...	Student #1
Deborah Harry	...	Amy O'Hearn
Dennis Hopper	...	George O'Hearn
Chelah Horsdal	...	Susan Reese
Marci T. House	...	Nurse
Alessandro Juliani	...	Actor #3 in Play
Ben Kingsley	...	David Kepesh
Laura Mennell	...	Cute Girl
Shaker Paleja	...	Kris Banjee
Kris Pope	...	Consuela's Brother
Peter Sarsgaard	...	Kenneth Kepesh

También conocida como:

Elegy: Dying Animal (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.

Duración:

Germany:108 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

País:

USA

Idioma:

English

Color:

Color (35 mm version)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Clasificación:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Lakeshore Entertainment

He only gets his rocks off when he's crying

I haven't read the book, but it isn't surprising that a movie based on a late-period Philip Roth novel revolves around an older man struggling to commit to a younger woman he has somehow wooed. In this case, David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is the awkward intellectual who only appears comfortable in front of a classroom or on the radio. Somehow, he's a prolific ladies' man, so much so that he woos Consuela Castillo (Penelope Cruz), a student in his class about 30 years younger.

That's all fine, but the movie focuses on Kepesh, at the expense of developing any of the other actors sufficiently. Kingsley plays Kepesh as a bag of neuroses trying to get over himself and failing, while the frequent voiceovers and certain characters (most especially Dennis Hopper's) scream "plot device". If it weren't for Cruz's beauty and skilled acting, if with a flat character, the movie would be unbearable.

A pathetic lead and undeveloped support makes for a bad movie, but the last act of the movie at least crystallizes into a message for the movie: the weakness of the male gender, and their inability to control themselves or know themselves. If this was a touch more explicit and the rest of the surroundings taken care of with more depth, Elegy might have been a nice movie. As is, it's unnecessary.