The Human Stain (2003)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The Human Stain is a movie that deals with racism and trying to pass for being white in the U.S. Wentworth Miller was a flawless actor in this film. Not only did he play his part well, he was not miscast as Coleman Silk. Coleman Silk is supposed to be a light complexion black American male who can pretend to be a white American man. Wentworth Miller is actually part Black American even though he has Syrian and Russian ancestry in real life. Wentworth Miller is very handsome and I thought Wentworth was a perfect choice for this part. However, I thought the producers should have selected a mixed race actor to play elderly Coleman Silk. Anthony Hopkins is an excellent actor but he was miscast for this role. I do not know who they could have picked, but there are tons of actors always looking for work so why not give someone else a chance? The cinematography was an 8/10. The plot was 7/10. Overall acting from the entire cast 8/10.

It's 1998. Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) is a Jewish classics professor at Athena College. He comments that two students are spooks for missing class. It turns out that they're black and complains are filed about its racist connotation. Coleman is incensed and his wife dies from the stress. He hires fiction writer Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise) to write about his life. He recalls his early life (Wentworth Miller) and his love Steena Paulsson (Jacinda Barrett). He starts having a fling with a much younger Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman). Her ex-husband Lester Farley (Ed Harris) is unstable and stalking her. Coleman's lawyer Nelson Primus (Clark Gregg) tries to talk him out of his relationship.This struggles to gather any speed. The Hopkins Kidman romance holds the potential of something compelling. Based on the novel, this movie is all about the secret. I'm willing to swallow Hopkins' casting. The flashback to Wentworth Miller is problematic. It stalls the movie every time. It also reveals the secret right away which lessens any shock value. The flashbacks should be pushed further back in the film so that his rejections in both time periods happen at the same time. There is a passionate affair at the center but all around it, the movie keeps working to drain away the tension.

Robert Benton's "The Human Stain" stars Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk, a university professor. Accused of making "racist remarks", Silk is fired from his job."The Human Stain" was written by Philip Roth, an author renowned for needless "cleverness". In "Stain", Silk is revealed to be "actually an African American" who just "happens to be white". Because he is ashamed of revealing his ethnicity, Silk accepts the aforementioned charges of racism. Via flashbacks, we are then granted a glimpse into Silk's younger years. Steeped in self-hate, and occasionally victimised, Silk's life is mirrored to the travails of Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman), a woman whose own self-hate stems from years of physical and emotional abuse. All other characters in Benton's film, including those played by Ed Harris and Gary Sinise, wrestle with similar problems. They all view themselves as "human stains".Though interesting in theory, "The Human Stain" mostly embodies all of writer Philip Roth's worst qualities. It's too writerly. Too filled with overly "clever ideas". And like most of Roth's books, it's simultaneously obsessed with themes of racial prejudice, self-hate and misplaced guilt, whilst having very little to say about such things. Consider one of Roth's best novels, "Nemesis". Written in the style of 1950s modernism, rather than the self-conscious postmodernism of his other works, "Nemesis" is about a young Jewish man who, during the 1940s, blames himself for an outbreak of Polio, an outbreak which kills Jews and so echoes the Naziism of WW2. For Roth, religious and racial persecution resides primarily in the realm of the mind. Your typical Roth victim blames himself for problems which Roth insists would be overcome if only these characters were capable of ditching their self-loathing. For Roth, prejudice is never a product of class, economics, systems or social institutions. Condescendingly, it's a product of inferior will power. I think I am unequal, therefore I am.7.5/10 - Ranges from excellent to hokey.

This film tells us about the confrontation with the past of two different characters. I really like this part because Faunia (Nicole Kidman) has a soul living with a bundle of very tragic episodes needing to be shared about her life. It's not only about Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins)'s secret here. Coleman indeed realizes has 'two bloods' in a time when realizing that involved intolerance and lack of respect; so he stays away of it even this decision involves his own family. On the other hand, Faunia realizes her new family environment is negative for her and she decides to stay away from this but she gets involved in an abusive relationship later on, so again she's being chased from what she's escaping from. Coleman, many years later, sees himself being accused of what he didn't confront many years earlier, probably just a coincidence, probably just something else. Thus, those two characters met each other and I think that's the most positive way had to go for them. They had stories to tell and eventually, you need someone to share your stuff no matter how tragic is your story... perhaps you find someone that not only can listen to you but also, give you love and... as a plus, he's got a secret for you.