Human Stain

Release Date: 2004-07-20, Rating R (Restricted),

A light-skinned black professor passes himself off as being Jewish.

DVDs. Human Stain

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 is a light-skinned African-American college professor who has kept his true racial identity secret for the majority of his life. His career comes to a sudden halt when he makes a comment that is misinterpreted as a racial slur. Soon after he is fired Silk hooks up with young Faunia Farely Nicole Kidman a local janitor. The affair with Farely who is almost half Silk's age becomes small-town gossip and attracts the attention of Farely's psychotic ex-husband Lester Ed Harris. As Lester seeks vengeance still angry at his ex-wife Silk must make some tough decisions about his affair with Farely leading to the film's nail-biting conclusion. Benton draws incredibly convincing performances from his two lead actors. Hopkins ably transcends his Caucasian ethnicity to play an African American. And Kidman fully embraces her characte

Psychological Drama DVD - Theatergoers enjoyed little opportunity to embrace this powerful drama, a serious adaptation of Philip Roths provocative novel. But the strong performances of Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman alone merit critical reappraisal of The Human Stain. Hopkins portrays Coleman Silk, a college professor forced from his tenured position, following the furor caused by an innocent remark interpreted by oversensitive black students as a racial slur. The irony is that Silk is himself an African American whose light complexion has enabled to him to pass as white. The dislocated academic soon begins an affair with Faunia Farley (Kidman), a school janitor half his age, and eventually comes to grips with the fact that he has nothing in common with her. Director Robert Benton, no stranger to dramatically complex character studies, demonstrates a solid understanding of the human values involved in this story. Coleman and Faunia have perhaps been drawn to each other by their mutual disillusionments: He