Elegy

Movie title: Elegy (2008)
Grade: B+ (3 ½ stars) (Recommended!)
Rated: R
Directors: Isabel Coixet
Producers: Richard Wright (VII), Eric Reid (II), Terry A. McKay
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard, Dennis Hopper
Genre: Romance/drama
Summation: A well-known scholar and college professor falls in love with a beautiful young student and a flare ensues.
Spoilers ahead: No
In a word: Philosophic

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One big thing about porn movies is that they have the sorriest storylines. Ok, so maybe you don’t watch a porno for the storyline, but you can’t tell me that at least once in a while, a good storyline would be complimentary. It’s no porno, but Elegy is an erotic film where the story manages to add to its highly erotic value—and may I add that it’s nice to see an adult movie where the woman isn’t afraid to stay topless in partly non-sexual scenes!

Elegy is the story of professor David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) and his student, a beautiful young girl named Consuela Castillo (Penelope Cruz). The two fall into each other’s arms, but their being at different places in life doesn’t make things easy. Kepesh is always at variance with his family, dishonest with his more-than-friends, and has but one friend, fellow scholar George O’Hearn (Dennis Hopper). Kepesh doesn’t open up well. Consuela is beautiful and smart, but she hasn’t found herself yet. And she’s thirty years younger than Kepesh. What will become of them?

Likable and well acted, Elegy has some powerful performances. And Elegy is not cheap, but philosophic and sophisticated. It is quite capably directed and was even nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear award. It has depth, plus excellent dialogue that’s worth listening to. It also adds a fine and absorbable level of life wisdom. I liked the saying: “When you make love to a woman, you get revenge for all the things that defeated you in life.” Nice!

Elegy highlights the not-so-uncommon fact that people of great intelligence and accomplishment are often lousy at many things too, like being unable to let someone get close. “Commitment issues” is a real thing to contend with in any relationship. And one cannot help but appreciate the movie’s acknowledgement of the fact that the power of a woman over a man is great power indeed. A woman can leave the sanest and most collected man feeling possessive and unsettled, much like Kepesh in the film.

Elegy is a love story, a reflection of old age, a look at the primal drives of a man, but more than that, it says a lot about love. Sometimes taboo and unexpected love can indeed last. It is in our power to make love work. We can create love, but are we willing? Do we tell ourselves it won’t work, that it’s not to be at our joy’s peril? Are we willing to let love guide us? That’s the big question.

Elegy is full of many lessons, like how people can connect over time and not realize it, and how life will remind us, again and again, of how short it is every time we lose someone close to us. As an adult film, Elegy is excellent. The chemistry is absent at times, putting a little distance between Cruz and Kingsley on screen, but overall, it plays out nicely.

What might at first come off as typically cliché is not on second thought. For instance, frequent drinking of wine and liquor are not just romance precursors, but signs of denial, reminders of how it is easier to not think on the things that cause us pain. The film does contain some banal clichés, like multiple scenes of your typical romantic strolls on a beach. But a few such infractions are not unbearable. Kepesh’s son was an element of the story that didn’t work. It tried to be a positive addition, an inner source of conflict, but it proved to be nothing but a distraction. It didn’t hurt the film, but it gave nothing back.

A number of critics have faulted the film for failing to identify more with the novel by Philip Roth from which it is based, “The Dying Animal,” where Kepesh was more abrasive and less confident in himself. Be that the case, it doesn’t take from the accomplishments of the movie Elegy. Credit goes where credit is due, and it must be kept in mind that the evolution of books into movies is sometimes a big transformation. Between books and movies, some differences should be expected—and for what they are worth, welcomed.

Elegy does fizzle a little. What starts out as a remarkably stunning movie begins to simmer down towards the end. The spontaneity of the script dies and we are left with struggling romance dynamics. At that point, the interest level drops off. It doesn’t redeem itself either, not with the ill-placed and clichéd tragedy at the end of the film. Becoming more drawn out, the movie loses its affect and waxes slightly overplayed. It does, however, remain a good movie and a strong tearjerker, definitely moving and wonderfully deep.

(JH)