Elegy
date:Thursday, October 16, 2008 time:7:30 PM venue:Cinestudio address:300 Summit Street Hartford, CT 06106 View map from:Cinestudio
(2008) Director: Isabel Coixet. Screenplay by Nicholas Meyer, based on
the novel "The Dying Animal" by Philip Roth. Cast: Ben Kingsley,
Penélope Cruz, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard.
One of this year's best performances is by Academy
Award-winner Ben Kingsley, who exposes a professor's obsession for his
ravishing student for what is really is: a battle against old age and
death. Kingsley's character - one of novelist Philip Roth's most
complex creations - is a wry intellectual driven by his desires, and a
charismatic rebel secretly longing for "something a little more safe."
Caught in the path of Kingsley's emotional hurricane are his former
lover (Patricia Clarkson,) best friend (Dennis Hopper), and his
neglected son (Peter Sarsgaard). And thanks to the sensitivity of
Spanish director Isabel Coixet, Penélope Cruz is not merely the
professor's object of desire, but a young woman with a rich inner life
of her own. 108 min.
