reviews
Dir. Isabel Coixet
Rating: 5.7 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
The fear of old age takes on a whole new meaning in this dark, cynical love story directed by Isabel Coixet. Your standard plot around this theme would involve a character that grows to accept his fate and races against time to better his diminishing life. Suffice it to say, this film isn’t Bucket List. In this story, based on Philip Roth's The Dying Animal, David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley), a professor, hides behind his fear of aging by having a sexual relationship with one of his students, Consuela (Penelope Cruz). Kepesh is a feeble, insecure man who can’t hold a relationship, either with a lover his own age, Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), or his own son, Kenneth (Peter Sarsgaard). It is not until he meets Consuela, a student in his practical criticism class who falls for his intelligence, that his insecurities become manifest. Almost instantly, she becomes the object of his obsession which helps to mask his overpowering fear of being alone. What catches him by surprise is his growing fear that this stunning creature could actually love him back. Coixet uses Cruz’s almost overpowering physical beauty to manipulate both Kapesh and the rest of the audience to good advantage. The film can be slow at times but just before it lurches to turgidity, it nimbly adds a few graceful notes of comedy. Dennis Hopper, playing Kepesh’s friend, thankfully breaks into Coixet's more mannered approach, (“Why don’t you take her to the prom!” he bellows to Kepesh at one point) which helps the film from tumbling into Kepesh's own bleakness. Unfortunately, after establishing a promising premise, Coixnet chooses to focus on other aspects of Kepesh's life, and Consuela's sudden and extended absence from the story is palpable. The separate subplots don’t really match up with the emotional love story, which makes you wish Kepesh would just learn his life lessons and get on with it, already.
0 User Reviews
Add A Review
