Country: United States
Genre: Drama
Director: Isabel Coixet
Year: 2008
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE
One of the curses of great intelligence and erudition is the limitless capacity to provide elaborate justification for being a complete ass.
In the case of scholar David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley), he’s so terrified of living life that he skates over the surface of it, telling himself that he’s living the dream of “emancipated manhood.” On the dark side of 60, he’s finally feeling his age, and now he’s terrified of the approaching spectre of death.
It’s in this state that he meets Consuela Castillo (Penélope Cruz), a student in one of his classes. He initially thinks of her as just the latest in a series of conquests, but he becomes obsessed with her. What’s going on with David? Is his jealousy and possessiveness just a manifestation of his insecurity and ego, or is he, for the first time in his life, really falling in love? And if he is falling in love, will he be able to summon the courage to really commit to a life with a woman less than half his age?
Probably the first thing you have to mention when explaining the success of Elegy is the literate and beautifully structured script by Nicholas Meyer. Yes, Meyer is working from Philip Roth’s novel, “The Dying Animal,” but it’s no small trick to take a literary novel, in which most of the action is taking place in the minds of the characters and to translate it to the language of film, which is visual and literal.
Meyer gets a great deal of help from the actors, who are all excellent. Penelope Cruz’s steady gaze and erect carriage allow us to see a young woman who is uncommonly grounded and secure about her own self worth. As David Kepesh’s son, Peter Sarsgaard expertly evokes the pain and bitterness of an abandoned child. Dennis Hopper is a wonderful surprise as Kepesh’s best friend, George O’Hearn. How refreshing to see Hopper play an intellectual! George and David’s banter back and forth is unfailingly urbane and witty. Patricia Clarkson, with her customary sensitivity, gives us a distaff version of David Kepesh, a successful businesswoman who avoids romantic entanglements. Ben Kingsley himself, who can sometimes be stiff and mannered as an actor, never steps wrong. He shows us Kepesh’s egotism and intellectualism, which he uses to mask his terror. Penelope Cruz’s character, Consuela Castillo, nails Kepesh when she refers to him as “infantile.” When Kepesh finally takes the first baby steps towards growing up, it’s a tribute to the combined efforts of writer Nicholas Meyer, Ben Kingsley, and director Isabel Coixet that we are moved, or for that matter, that we care about Kepesh at all. The way the character behaves is monstrous and pathetic.
Unsympathetic viewers could take the position that Elegy is an apologia and glamorization of sexist, predatory pigs, but they would be missing the point.
When you see this many good performances in a film, even with actors as competent as this, it is the sign of a good director. A film like Elegy is very tricky, completely dependent on near flawless execution for its success. Director Isabel Coixet controls the pace of the movie with nerves of steel, slowing down imperceptibly towards the climax to accentuate the suspense, so that the movie becomes a dirge. That’s a very risky strategy, but it pays off in tremendous emotional resonance.
The movie’s cinematography, by Jean-Claude Larrieu, looks great too, slick and fluid, but with a subtle use of blues and blacks and grays, to communicate an appropriately somber mood. Larrieu is assisted by lovely production design, too.
Really, Elegy is a near flawless adaptation.
There’s only one problem. Elegy is the furthest thing from trash. This is an adult story for adults. There are no cheap thrills here, with the possible exception of generous views of Penelope Cruz’s lovely anatomy. Elegy is an examination of how intellectualism can blind us and prevent us from engaging fully in life, and how age can force us to confront these issues. It will be of zero interest to people who have no capacity for self examination and reflection.
Your move.
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