The Human Stain (film)

The Human Stain
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Benton
Produced by	Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein Gary Lucchesi
Written by	Nicholas Meyer Novel: Philip Roth
Starring	Anthony Hopkins Nicole Kidman Gary Sinise
Music by	Rachel Portman
Cinematography	Jean-Yves Escoffier
Editing by	Christopher Tellefsen
Studio	Lakeshore Entertainment
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	October 31, 2003
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States Germany France
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$19,379,387

The Human Stain is a 2003 American drama film directed by Robert Benton. The screenplay by Nicholas Meyer is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Philip Roth. The film stars Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman.

Plot synopsis

In the late 1990s, writer Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise) has settled in a lakeside New England cabin following his second divorce and a battle with prostate cancer. His idyllic life is interrupted by Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), a former dean and professor of classics at local Athena College, who was forced to resign after being accused of making racist remarks in class. Coleman's wife died suddenly following the scandal, and he wants to avenge his loss of career and companion by writing a book about the events with Nathan's assistance.

The project is placed on the back burner when Coleman has an affair with Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman), a considerably younger, semi-literate woman who supports herself by working at menial jobs. Their relationship is threatened by the faculty members who forced Coleman from his job and by Faunia's stalker ex-husband Lester (Ed Harris), a mentally unbalanced Vietnam War veteran who blames her for the deaths of their children in an accident. Flashbacks of Coleman's life reveal to the audience his secret—he is an African American who has passed as a Jewish white man for most of his adult life.

Cast

• Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk
• Nicole Kidman as Faunia Farley
• Gary Sinise as Nathan Zuckerman
• Ed Harris as Lester Farley
• Wentworth Miller as Young Coleman Silk
• Jacinda Barrett as Steena Paulsson
• Mimi Kuzyk as Delphine Roux
• Clark Gregg as Nelson Primus
• Anna Deavere Smith as Mrs. Silk
• Phyllis Newman as Iris Silk

Production

Campus scenes were filmed at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and McGill University in Montreal.

Release

The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival. It was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, the Bergen International Film Festival, and the Hollywood Film Festival before its release in the US.

Box office

The film grossed $5,381,227 in the US and $13,998,160 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $19,379,387.

Critical reception

In his review in the New York Times, A.O. Scott called it "an honorable B+ term paper of a movie: sober, scrupulous and earnestly respectful of its literary source . . . The filmmakers explicate Mr. Roth's themes with admirable clarity and care and observe his characters with delicate fondness, but they cannot hope to approximate the brilliance and rapacity of his voice, which holds all the novel's disparate elements together. Without the active intervention of Mr. Roth's intelligence . . . the story fails to cohere . . . At its best - which also tends to be at its quietest - The Human Stain allows you both to care about its characters and to think about the larger issues that their lives represent. Its deepest flaw is an inability to link those moments of empathy and insight into a continuous drama, to suggest that the characters' lives keep going when they are not on screen."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "We have to suspend disbelief over the casting, but that's easier since we can believe the stories of these people. Not many movies probe into matters of identity or adaptation. Most movie characters are like Greek gods and comic book heroes: We learn their roles and powers at the beginning of the story, and they never change. Here are complex, troubled, flawed people, brave enough to breathe deeply and take one more risk with their lives."

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle called it "a mediocre movie . . . [that] falls victim to a fatal lack of narrative drive, suspense and drama. Kidman and Hopkins are wrong for their roles, and that, combined with a pervading inevitability, cuts the film off from any sustained vitality. The result is something admirable but lifeless."

David Stratton of Variety described it as "an intelligent adaptation of Philip Roth's arguably unfilmable novel powered by two eye-catching performances . . . A key problem Benton is unable to avoid is that Hopkins and Miller don't look (or talk) the least bit like one another. Miller, who gives a strong, muted performance, convinces as a light-skinned African-American in a way Hopkins never does, which is not to suggest that the Welsh-born actor doesn't give another intelligent, powerful portrayal. It's just that the believability gap looms large."

In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers said, "Hopkins and Kidman . . . are both as mesmerizing as they are miscast . . . The Human Stain is heavy going. It's the flashes of dramatic lightning that make it a trip worth taking."

The Times called it "sapping and unbelievable melodrama . . . an unforgivably turgid lecture about political correctness."

Awards and nominations

• American Film Institute Award for Best Movies of 2003 (winner)
• Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (Anna Deavere Smith, winner)
• Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (Smith, winner)
• Black Reel Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Wentworth Miller, nominee)
• Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance (Miller, nominee)

External links

• Official website
• The Human Stain at the Internet Movie Database
• The Human Stain at Box Office Mojo
• The Human Stain at Rotten Tomatoes
• Anthony Hopkins interview
• Movie stills