Review: The Human Stain

Rated R | 106 mins

Now here’s a movie that’s got a great story, superb acting, and deep characters, but has one sole flaw. Even though the pacing isn’t horrible, and the film flows, the tempo in which director Robert Benton chooses to use is abominable. However, this is nothing that four Oscar nominees, two of them being winners, can’t save.

And aside from the interesting and involving screenplay, it’s really only the acting that saves this one. The real highlight of the film is Ed Harris, who plays the psychotic ex-husband of Faunia Farely (Nicole Kidman), a mysterious and closed woman who begins to have an affair with Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins). He is widower, twice her age, and quit from his profession as a Classics professor, after being accused of using a racial term, derogatorily. Coleman’s secret is the movie. Before it is unraveled, we feel as though the film will be conventional and dull—two things that this twist doesn’t allow. The Human Stain is really spectacular mostly because of Harris, Kidman, and Hopkins, as well as Wentworth Miller, who plays Coleman, in his college years.

It’s also absurd that Benton tells us that Faunia and Coleman end up dying, in the very first scene. While he clearly wants to put emphasis on the material that comes after this event, and I can clearly see why, it wasn’t, by any means, an inspired move. However, the fantastic adaptation of the screenplay, by Nicholas Meyer, helps maintain the poignancy and punch of the final minutes of the movie. The Human Stain is an imperfect picture, with an effective story and bold performances. This is just enough for me to recommend it, without hesitation.