A scathing indictment of politically correct America and at the same time, a clear-eyed examination of the insidious evils of racism.
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10/31/03
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The Human Stain (2003)
41
%
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Reviews Counted:144
Fresh:59
Rotten:85
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: Though the acting is fine, the leads are miscast, and the story is less powerful on screen than on the page.
Theatrical Release:Oct 31, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $5,311,526
Synopsis: Director Robert Benton brings Philip Roth's 2000 novel THE HUMAN STAIN to the screen in this lavish production, with expert cinematography from Jean-Yves Escoffier. Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins)... [More]
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Anthony Hopkins, Gary Sinese, Ed Harris
Director: Robert Benton
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Reviews for The Human Stain
Here are complex, troubled, flawed people, brave enough to breathe deeply and take one more risk with their lives.
10/31/03
Top CriticBenton, miraculously, has achieved the worst of both worlds. He has laid bare a great author's creaky plotting only to deliver a melodrama with bookish pretensions.
10/31/03
[T]oo much that’s vital to our involvement in and understanding of the tale occurs offscreen, and we’re left floundering to find an emotional foothold.
10/31/03
Driector Benton deftly juggles many of Roth's themes to render a full portrait of a false hero.
10/31/03
Kidman...offers a lot of smoking and exhausted lounging on furniture, but not much characterization.
10/31/03
The Human Stain makes good use of its assets, yet the final product feels as soulless as Bad Boys II.
10/31/03
Fails to offer insight into [Hopkins and Kidman's] relationship, opting for the less interesting mechanics of the erotic thriller genre.
10/31/03
The most emotionally authentic love affair portrayed on the screen in recent years
10/31/03
The best part of the movie happens in flashback when we meet the young Coleman Silk (Wentworth Miller).
10/31/03
Every scene set in the present day is somehow off... This contrasts the flashbacks, which are lush, rich and often heartbreaking.
10/30/03
Finds its most malicious moment of levity in the slow-dawning revelation that all of Coleman's women like their coffee black.
10/30/03
A laughable story that continually contradicts it’s own paradoxes.
10/30/03
The filmmakers explicate Mr. Roth's themes with admirable clarity and care and observe his characters with delicate fondness, but they cannot hope to approximate the brilliance and rapacity of his voice.
10/30/03
Top CriticMeyer's screenplay fails to capture the intricate subtleties of its subject and replaces Roth's moral scope with a moralizing tone.
10/30/03
How does one even begin to list the imperfections of The Human Stain?
10/30/03
The best thing the movie has going for it is Kidman's performance.
10/30/03
The movie is fully worthy of the book, and will reach many people who might not have enjoyed the delightful experience of gliding through Mr. Roth's trenchant and zestful prose on the human condition.
10/30/03
Top CriticBenton and Mayer have gutted the novel's uncivil, discomforting viscera -- including Roth's pokes at political correctness -- and delivered an uninteresting, at times comically inappropriate 'tasteful' story.
10/30/03
Add to the mess confusing and manipulative plot points and the "Human Stain" becomes just another trite and troubled film.
10/30/03
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