HOME MOVIES: This Week's Releases
by Eleanor Ringel Cater
Georgia Online News Service
If you had any doubts that Penelope Cruz deserved a best supporting Oscar for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" at last month's Academy Awards, take a look at "Elegy."
As a demure, sheltered Cuban-born literature student, she's 180 degrees from the fiery ex-wife she plays in Woody Allen's film.
The movie is based on Philip Roth's novella "The Dying Animal." I am not a fan of Roth; never have been. So I figured I'd stay for part of the screening, then get out and let the venom pour.
But "Elegy" surprised me. It's a thoughtful, unflinching look at a selfish man's life. That would be David Kepesh, a veteran professor who teaches at the right kind of college, has won the right kind of awards, has just the right amount of fame (among the right people) and exercises a kind of droit de seigneur every year with one of his former students. With the hotline number for sexual harassment posted on a bulletin board down the hall from his classroom, Kepesh knows to keep it you-know-where until said student has graduated. Then, at his customary post-grad party, he seduces her with the sort of finesse usually granted to movie stars, rock musicians and CEOs.
This time it's Castillo (Cruz), and while all works out as usual, when he drops her (as usual), he's surprised to learn he's in love with her. The aging Lothario has caught himself in his own trap.
Perhaps one reason "Elegy" is so richly textured and emotionally acute is that the screenplay is by Nicholas Meyer, who may go to his grave known as the guy who directed the best "Star Trek" movie (that would be "Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan," of course).
However, I think a lot of the credit must go to director Isabel Coixet. Roth's male peacock strut is filtered through her female astuteness. He performs; she watches, which is the inverse of a typical Roth book in which the woman is the object and the man the observer.
There's also excellent supporting work by Dennis Hopper as a like-minded academic and Patricia Clarkson as one of his earliest former students who still drops by for a fling after 20 years.
OK, it's Saint Patrick's Day and you need a break from all the green beer you've sloshed down. Why not a popcorn break with one of these Erin-Go-Bragh DVDs:
"Into the West" — Mike Newell's astonishing fable of two Irish gypsy kids and a horse from the sea.
"Darby O'Gill and the Little People" – Leprechauns and a very young Sean Connery.
"The Crying Game" — If you know the Big Mid-Movie Surprise, don't tell.
"The Field" — A rip-roaring Richard Harris is picky about his property.
Eleanor Ringel Cater has been a Georgia-based movie critic for 28 years. She has been a regular contributor to CNN, MSNBC, Entertainment Weekly, Headline News and WXIA, Atlanta's NBC affiliate, and a columnist for TV Guide. [full bio]
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