The Human Stain is the story of Coleman Silk (Hopkins), a classics professor with a terrible secret that is about to shatter his life in a small New England town. When his affair with a young troubled janitor (Kidman) is uncovered, the secret Silk had harbored for over fifty years from his wife, his children and colleague, writer Nathan Zuckerman, fast explodes in a conflagration of devastating consequences. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. [TRAILER]

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DAVID JOHNSON'S REVIEW

Any good film will rely on the talents of a large number of people in order for that movie to be a success. Unfortunately, if any piece of that chain is missing it can spell disaster for a film. And while most of the elements for a great film are present in “The Human Stain,” director Robert Benton and film editor Christopher Tellefsen have ruined this movie.

“ The Human Stain” is the story of Coleman Silk, a Professor of Classics and Dean of Faculty at a small liberal arts school in western Massachusetts. One day in class, he calls two kids who have NEVER shown up in class “spooks.” However relatively innocuous this term may seem, it was also a slang term for African Americans during the 50’s, and apparently these two students where African American. When Coleman is accused of being a racist, he gets extremely angry and immediately resigns. The resulting shock of the event causes his wife to have a stroke and she dies.

This is where the story behind “The Human Stain” begins. Coleman seeks out the aid of a young writer, Nathan, to tell his story -- how he became dean of faculty and the story of his life. Coleman also meets a younger woman, Faunia, at the post office and begins an intimate relationship with her.

“ The Human Stain” is told almost exclusively with flashbacks. Almost every scene begins with a conversation with Nathan and then flashes back to either Coleman’s childhood or his current life with Faunia. There are some brilliant parallels possible with this type of story telling. Perhaps the most telling are during his scenes of seduction, when we see Coleman at work. In two separate time periods, and with two different women, his actions have remained relatively the same in the bedroom. Hopkins and first time feature film actor Wentworth Miller do an excellent job of mimicking each others body language and subtle phrasing.

“ The Human Stain” also offers a somewhat unique perspective on race and discrimination. While the accusations against Coleman are rarely discussed in the film, we realize how important race has been for Coleman throughout his life. It does not to create clear lines between victims and repressors.

Often in movies that deal with discrimination film makers feel the need to create a clear victim in the movie. They feel the best way to portray issues of discrimination is simply to show people crying because they do not have the same opportunities as others. Here we start to see some of the other issues of discrimination and segregation. Coleman is most certainly not a victim in the traditional sense. He has a great job, went to Oxford and has more than enough money and clothes. And yet at the same time race has become the single most important factor in his life, simply because he has decided it will not be. This strange duality creates far more interest than clearly creating an obvious victim. Race like everything else in life, is not so clear cut.

See Coleman Silk is black. He happens to have light enough skin that being jewish is enough to explain his black curly hair. Coleman however has decided to completely ignore his past. He has decided that because of the lack of opportunity for blacks in America, he will simply reject being black at all. He has taken the extremist position that race and ultimately his past or where he has come from doesn't matter. In the past we see the damage revealing his secret has caused, so he chooses to not reveal it in the future. Not to anyone. In fact the characters in the movie only find out about his race when his sister shows up at his funeral.

Yet, while he may seem a victim of discrimination, he is a creepy sexist character. Specificaly in his dealings with women, we realize that Coleman is not without his own prejudices. He has an almost creepy guy trying to pick up young girls feel to him at times.

Everyone in this cast delivers exceptional performances. Kidman's performance isn't original, but she plays it well. It's the same tragic heroine that she seems to play in every movie. Hopkins delivers a solid performance, doing an excellent job of walking many of the fine lines his character walks throughout. Wentworth Miller is the biggest surprise. Capturing a character at the most fragile time in his life.

In creating a film that takes place in several different time periods and in a complete nonlinear manner, there are some basic directorial and editing challenges that must be addressed. In this particular film they have not been. While the script (written by Nicholas Meyer of Star Trek fame) seems solid, the film simply does not flow well. Scenes are often just a few seconds too long, and very often we find ourselves awkwardly jumping from one time period to another. Each time we switched scenes it took me several seconds to adjust, and while I was intrigued during the entire middle part of the scene, near the end I simply felt like the last elements had no reason for existing.

It may seem like a small aspect of the film, but it simply ruined the film. Regardless of how interesting or how well acted a film is, there is an important almost technical aspect to film making that must be taken care of in order for it to be suitible for viewing.

Perhaps on the DVD someone will offer a re-edited version. If this were a play I would expect there to be a whole slew of rehearsals devoted to transitions. Here it doesn’t look like they took to the time to even bother to consider them.

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