Elegy (2008)

All Critics (119) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (30) | DVD (2)

With his fierce, impeccable craft Kingsley shows us around David's tortured, preening, desperate psyche.

November 10, 2008 Full Review

Jonathan F. Richards

Film.com

Top Critic

Sparse, low-budget drama, helmed by Spaniard Isabel Coixet, intelligently translates Roth's meditation on lust and mortality without soft-pedaling its narrator's brutally honest, unabashedly sexist views.

October 18, 2008 Full Review

Leslie Felperin

Variety

Top Critic

Penelope Cruz is outstanding in an otherwise lame male fantasy.

October 18, 2008 | Comments (3)

Ray Bennett

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

Elegy is a rare treat: a serious film that, thanks to Kingsley and the rest, doesn't seem to take itself too seriously.

September 4, 2008 Full Review

Bill Goodykoontz

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

A remarkable example of the actor at his best -- conveying wounded hurt or burning hunger with a glance.

August 29, 2008 Full Review

Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

Elegy gives Ben Kingsley one of the best roles of his career.

August 22, 2008 Full Review

Andrea Gronvall

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

A proven favorite, the Horny Old Devil Professor - Ben Kingsley in Isabel Coixet's intelligent but weepy drama.

August 15, 2011 Full Review

Kelly Vance

East Bay Express

Your final affection for this literary treat of sorts is how well you accept the finale, which is touching, and intellectually potent, yet possibly one depressant too many.

July 29, 2011 Full Review

Brandon Judell

GreenCine

There are moments when the story sags, as it postures and revels in its own eloquence, but with strong performances and a moving final act, this is still a fine, thought-provoking film.

October 23, 2009 Full Review

Mike Scott

Times-Picayune

No se ubica entre lo mejor de la directora Isabel Coixet, pero es de todos modos una interesante y sensible reflexión sobre la soledad, el amor, el sexo y la madurez. Gran trabajo de Ben Kingsley.

April 13, 2009 Full Review

Enrique Buchichio

Uruguay Total

A film which stays and stays.

April 10, 2009 Full Review

Julie Rigg

MovieTime, ABC Radio National

An intelligent tale of aging, beauty, love and loss.

April 10, 2009 Full Review

Jenni Dawes

FILMINK (Australia)

Coixet has blunted the impact of the novel's ending just as she has softened Roth's misanthropic depiction of Kepesh and, as a result, she's taken flak for being over-polite. I didn't care.

April 10, 2009 Full Review

Sandra Hall

Sydney Morning Herald

Ben Kingsley is extraordinary, but Penelope Cruz is just astounding as Consuela. It is really a beautiful film.

April 3, 2009 Full Review

Margaret Pomeranz

At the Movies (Australia)

Beauty, obsession and longing are the central themes of this hypnotic but ultimately flawed drama in which Ben Kingsley's ageing college professor falls in lust with Penelope Cruz' stunning and vulnerable student.

April 2, 2009 Full Review

Louise Keller

Urban Cinefile

A carefully observed, well acted autumnal character study that plays nicely on the small screen, in a dimly lit den, with a nice glass of wine.

March 20, 2009 Full Review

Brent Simon

Shared Darkness

Penelope's gullible college coed swoons when the lecherous lecturer played by Ben Kingsley confesses that he's fallen in love with her breasts. You've come a long way backwards, baby. Penelope Cruz Boob Fetish Blues.

March 14, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

Penelope's gullible college coed swoons when the lecherous lecturer played by Ben Kingsley confesses that he's fallen in love with her breasts. You've come a long way backwards, baby. Penelope Cruz Boob Fetish Blues.

March 14, 2009 Full Review

Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

runs out of ideas, and efforts to jog the proceedings can't get it back on track

February 19, 2009 Full Review

Pete Croatto

Filmcritic.com

• 1. George: Beautiful women are invisible.
  2. David Kepesh: Invisible? What the hell does that mean? They jump out at you. A beautiful woman stands out... stands apart. You can't miss her.
  3. George: But we never actually see the person. We see the beautiful shell. We're blocked by the beauty barrier. Yes. We're so dazzled by the outside, we never make it inside.
  – Submitted by Andreea T (10 months ago)
• 1. David Kepesh: Why all this talk about Kafka, Goya and her Cuban family? Don't get me wrong, it's great that her family's Cuban and she enjoys my class. But I go on yakking away mainly because I want to fuck her.
  – Submitted by Andreea T (10 months ago)
• 1. David Kepesh: Old age sneaks up on you, and the next thing you know you're asking yourself, I'm asking myself, Why can't an old man act his real age? How is it possible for me to still be involved in the carnal aspects of the human comedy? Because, in my head, nothing has changed.
  – Submitted by Andreea T (10 months ago)
• 1. David Kepesh: I think it was Bette Davis who said: 'Old age is not for sissies'. But it was Tolstoy who said that 'the biggest surprise in a man's life is old age'.
  – Submitted by Andreea T (10 months ago)
• 1. David Kepesh: Times passes when you're not looking.
  – Submitted by Hamish A (22 months ago)
• 1. David Kepesh: When you make love to a woman you get revenge for all the things that defeated you in life.
  – Submitted by Hamish A (22 months ago)

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