*** (three stars)
Two things immediately hit you after watching “Elegy,” probably the best adaptation of a Philip Roth novel ever committed to screen.
(Yes, there’s not much competition for that honor, but this isn’t a matter of damning with faint praise.)
One: Stars Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz have done their part here and in their other movies (Kingsley’s “The Wackness” and Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” to make the summer movie season a little more palatable for those who prefer their explosions to come from emotions and not pyrotechnics.
And two: There is no big-screen profession more saddled with unhappiness these days than the ranks of college professors.
Kingley’s David Kepesh teaches literature at Columbia, has a regular gig on NPR and frequently livens up the “Charlie Rose” television show with his candid and enthusiastic endorsements of unbridled carnality. David practices what he preaches, regularly sleeping with his students without apology. One, Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), has been returning for regular trysts for the past 20 years.
David uses sex to stave off the passage of time, though, at his age, he has an acute awareness of the ticking clock. When he meets the Cuban-born Consuela (Cruz), an elegant, self-possessed graduate student, he ardently pursues her, enthusing that her body is “a work of art.”
David becomes obsessed with Consuela. And even after he wins her, even after they develop what could be considered a loving relationship, he can’t stop thinking of the day when she’ll leave him for a younger man. Reason has nothing to do with this.
David, in fact, sabotages the relationship by refusing to offer a future and by neglecting to appreciate that Consuela’s beauty goes far beyond her physical attributes.
“Stop worrying about growing old,” poet friend George (Dennis Hopper) tells David. “Worry about growing up.” Fat chance of that.
“Elegy” is taken from Roth’s 2001 novella “The Dying Animal.” The title change speaks to the differences between the book and this adaptation, written by the gifted Nicholas Meyer and directed by Isabel Coixet.
David’s explosive ego and primal energy remain, but they are modulated by an emphasis on his self-awareness toward his own imminent, inevitable mortality.
This, along with Coixet’s penchant for long scenes of dialogue, gives the movie a meditative quality, made doubly potent by the raging despair Kingsley brings to his role. Cruz matches him in her best English-language performance.
“Elegy.” R for sexuality, nudity and language. 1 hour, 48 minutes. Directed by Isobel Coixet; written by Nicholas Meyer; from the novella by Philip Roth; photography by Jean-Claude Larrieu; starring Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard. Open at the Esquire Theater
