Elegy – DVD Review

It’s hard to imagine that a film like Elegy could be even slightly accessible to it’s audience. In layman’s terms, the film is about a perverted old man who scores one night stands with his students. Meanwhile, we’re treated with that familiar self-aware and masturbatory narration, and scene after scene of whispered discussions about art and literature. It is, however, the performances of Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz, as well as the director, Isabelle Coixet, that make Elegy a moderate success.

 Adapted from a short story by Philip Roth, Elegy tells the story of David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley), a professor at Columbia College in New York. In voice over narration, David tells us his method for satisfying the lustful temptations of his classroom: once the semester is done, he will throw a party and entrance his prey in intellectual discussions of Kafka and Goya. He’ll then take the young woman to bed, only to discard them for another student the following semester.

 When we meet David, his prey in question is the Cuban beauty Conseula Castillo (2009 Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz), a sophisticated and inviting temptress. What he did not expect from the anticipated one night stand, however, was the love that had blossomed from it. As weeks go by and the couple is still together, David vents his romantic insecurities to George (Dennis Hopper), a poet friend. George’s advice is to let Conseula go, and that David needs to grow up.

 Ben Kingsley is about the only actor in the world who can pull off dialogue like “this girl will never tell me she yearns for my cock” with a graceful elegance. It’s a huge testament to director Isabelle Coixet that this film, given it’s subject matter, was able to remain gentle and homely. Her camera is steady and quiet, and her restraint makes even the most erotic of material comfortable and unpornographic. In a lesser director’s hands, I expect that Elegy would resemble your standard softcore porn film.

 Not everything in Elegy works, however. I didn’t buy David’s relationship with his son (Peter Sarsgaard), nor did I feel that David’s mistress, Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), was a big enough presence to become in any way compelling. The film also has a hugely dramatic turn in the second half, which I will not spoil here, and the harder it attempts to make us cry the more it pushes us away. There are a few powerful and intimate moments, but perhaps the idealization of Conseula was the reason behind the unsatisfying dramatic conclusion.

 Although Elegy is a fairly recyclable melodrama, it’s worth seeing for the performances of Kingsley, Cruz, and Hopper. NetFlix subscribers can watch it on Instant View.

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