Elegy (2008)

Adaptations of Philip Roth novels don’t generally fare well on the big screen (Goodbye Columbus, anyone?), but Elegy is the rare beast that gets it just about right. Based on Roth’s The Dying Animal, about an aging college professor grappling with inner demons and an obsession with a younger woman, Elegy avoids the pitfalls typically associated with translating highbrow literature into cinema.

Sir Ben Kingsley portrays David Kepsh, a prickly, misogynous college professor fulminating against the unrelenting creep of old age. He makes for a challenging protagonist. Years ago, David abandoned his wife and young son; he now makes a practice of seducing his more attractive female students once the semester winds down. “When you make love to a woman,” he confesses in voiceover narration, “you get revenge for all the things that ever defeated you in life.” Not the sweetest sentiment, but David is unapologetically candid about who he is.

David’s defense mechanisms offer no protection when he falls hard for Conseuela Castilla (Penélope Cruz). The Cuban-American beauty adores David, but the May-December romance stirs a well of insecurities lodged deep inside the professor. Director Isabel Coixet and screenwriter Nicholas Meyer (who also adapted Roth’s The Human Stain) display surgical skill dissecting the white male psyche.

It helps to have such an outstanding cast. Kingsley is effective, but he is only part of an exceptional ensemble cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Peter Sarsgaard and Patricia Clarkson. Cruz’s heartbreaking performance stays with you long after the end credits.