Elegy

Aroview: Following THE HUMAN STAIN comes another effort to translate revered American writer Phillip Roth to the screen. This time it's his novel "The Dying Animal", with Ben Kingsley as his surrogate - a not-so-young college professor who falls for a beautiful Cuban-born student of less than half his age.

Penelope Cruz delivers her best English-language performance to date, but Kingsley's limited charisma can't compensate his character's inherent charmlessness, and Roth's celebrated prose is surely lost in translation here as scenes consistently fall flat or feel insufficiently motivated. It's hard to know what attracted Spanish female director Coixet to Roth's middle-aged misanthropy, but she did manage to convince a roll-call of pedigree actors to go down with her ship. Rubberneckers enjoy...

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