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The Human Stain (2003)
Director:
Robert Benton
Starring:
Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman
Studio:
Miramax Films
For showtimes, head to Fandango.
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There's a term bandied about in high-falutin' literary circles called "willful suspension of disbelief".
The expression refers to a reader's willingness to disregard the kind of obvious facts that make a story seem utterly impossible. In cinema, such moments occur when you're forced to swallow the idea that, say, Charleton Heston is really a Mexican in the Orson Welles noir classic "Touch of Evil". It's when you simply disregard the fact that a pair of glasses and a tie will be enough costume to separate a bumbling Clark Kent from the Superstud himself. It's what's required to get you through a season of "24" without wondering whether Kiefer Sutherland has the bladder of a camel.
Nearing the end of its local run after opening the Chicago International Film Festival to a packed house, "The Human Stain" asks the viewer to accept a situation so over the top, so preposterous, that it's pretty much impossible to willingly do so.
Based on a Philip Roth novel, the film concerns Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), a professor at an east coast university. Falsely accused of racism based on some fairly ridiculous P.C. misinterpretation, Hopkins' character is ostracized from the academic world and forced to go outside his comfort zone, turning to the arms of Nicole Kidman's trashy janitor gal Faunia Farley. While Farley gladly hops in the sack with Silk, she's not interested in his "Pretty Woman"- style attempts to toss a little culture into her life.
Also entering Silk's life are writer Nathan Zuckerman (a recurring character in several of Roth's novels), played by Steppenwolf Theater fixture Gary Sinise and Farley's ex-husband Lester, a convincingly disturbed nutcase played by Ed Harris. Both Sinise and Harris put in fine supporting roles for the film, with Harris in particular doing a great job of inspiring fear as a violently abusive veteran.
Director Robert Benton has been involved in some of modern cinema's finer moments. Feted at the CIFF opening series with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Benton has been behind the camera for classics like "Bonnie and Clyde", "Kramer and Kramer", "Places in the Heart", and "Nobody's Fool".”
The Philip Roth novel on which the film is based is above reproach. Roth took most of what he wrote about from his days as a graduate student at the University of Chicago where he first "really felt, saw, registered, the black presence in an American city".
The cast of "The Human Stain" is also certainly top notch. Hopkins is quite believable as a man well-entrenched within the Ivory Towers of an elite academic institution and Kidman tries her best to work things out as a coarse, loose uneducated woman.
So what's the problem?
It's just that the secret of "The Human Stain" is (plug your ears) that Anthony Hopkins, who is so white that I just made a mistake by not calling him "Sir", plays a black man.
That's it. That's all. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
Was the available pool of multi-racial and light-skinned African American males particularly busy the day they cast the role of Coleman Silk? Because of the current overwhelming demand for actors of color? Wentworth Miller was perfectly cast as the younger Coleman Silk. Why not aim for someone who at least vaguely resembles him in older years as opposed to the outrageously talented but completely off-base Sir Anthony? "The Human Stain" has a lot going for it, but tossing a "big name" guy into this role simply for the sake of box office receipts is a big shame.
Willful suspension of disbelief is one thing, but "The Human Stain" is one premise that’s just way too hard to swallow.
...
Written by Richard Sharp
Review Date: December 16, 2003
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