Review of The Human Stain (2003) by Peter H — 15 Jul 2008

The film The Human Stain is based on one of Philip Roth's best novels. The story is set in 1998, the time in which President Bill Clinton's affair with his much younger intern, Monica Lewinsky, was the country's biggest scandal. It tells the story of an elderly college professor, Coleman Silk, who is fired from his beloved profession after a student accuses him of making a racist statement. His life as he knew it comes to a tragic end following his dismissal. His wife dies and he develops a relationship with a much younger troubled woman. He is unfairly scrutinized by his entire community. What is unkwnown to everyone in his life, including his children, is that he is hiding a dark secret that would shock them all. His secret would especially embarrass the administrators at his college who decided to fire him.

The Human Stain is probably one of my top five favorite stories of all time, however its film adaptation will not go down as a favorite. It lacks the insight into the backgrounds of the characters Les Farley, Faunia,Nathan Zuckerman, and Delphine Roux that the book provides. Of course that is to be expected as it is rare that any film is as good as the novel on which it is based.

What bothers me the most of about this film though, is the director's choice to cast Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk. SPOILER: Coleman's secret is that is he a black man, a light-skinned one who passes as Jewish, but neverthless he is BLACK. Can you get any WASPier than Anthony Hopkins? Sir Hopkins is no doubt one of the best actors but he was not believable as Coleman. Why couldn't the director have cast a mulatto, Jewish, Latin, Middle Eastern, or Meditteranean actor in his seventies to play the lead? Oh I get it, its all about the name.

Now I must say that aside from Anthony Hopkins, the casting was done rather well. Nicole Kidman was very believable as Faunia Farley and Ed Harris did an excellent job playing her disturbes ex-husband. It's funny, when I was reading the book I imagined the character, Steena Paulson, as the actress Jacinda Barret (when I read a novel, I always imagine the characters as Hollywood actors and I had just seen the Jacinda's film "The Namesake" ) and to my surprise Jacinda just happened to be the actress who played her. Wenworth Miller was the perfect choice to play Coleman Silk as a young man and unlike Anthony Hopkins, he IS of mixed descent.