The stain could have stained more

The human stain is a movie that was far from a huge commercial success. The idea was obviously to make it one on video and DVD. The film features four big names : Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is one of the best actors in the world, Nicole Kidman, who is everywhere right now, Gary Sinise and the always excellent Ed Harris.

The film touches the topic of racism. Hopkins incarnates Coleman Silk, a university professor forced to resign his position because of a thing he says that could be interpreted as being racist. The touchy part is that Silk is part of an African-American family but is born white. A fact that he hasn't told anyone and that he refuses to state because of potential prejudice. He first gets friendly with hidden author Nathan Zuckerman (Sinise) and then Faunia Farley (Kidman), whom he ends up having an affair with. Unfortunately, she happens to have a dark past and a stalking maniac for an ex husband (Ed Harris) who never stops searching for her.

The Human Stain shows flash-backs from Silk's memory. One bizarre thing about it is that the young man who is meant to play the younger Silk has this huge American accent while Hopkins still sounds like a British. The young man in question, Wentworth Miller, plays the part quite well and prevents the drop-off you would expect from someone sharing a character with Hopkins. Miller does well as he goes through Silk's struggles with his family and his love life.

Hopkins' performance is ground-breaking, as usual. Both Sinise and Harris have rather short parts, but are very good when you do see them. Kidman's outing is when the whole deal gets tricky. While she has developed a nice capacity to transmit her character's emotions, she sometimes whispers so awfully that I had to rewind the movie to understand certain things she said (or attempted to say). Making it worse is Hopkins, who is always crystal clear. Despite these shortcomings, Kidman and Hopkins have surprisingly good chemistry and the viewer will feel the weight of certain scenes that are meant to give such impressions.

The scenario is quite well-written. Transitions between the two time lanes are effortless and few ambiguities will make your eyebrows raise. In to top it all, The Human Stain is one of few movies that you can't criticize for being too long.

The movie unfortunately fails to maintain a level of interest from the viewer. The film starts with thunderous momentum (and acting) as Hopkins goes through the incident at the university. After that, the movie settles on a rhythm that does not sustain the momentum that can be observed at the beginning.

The Human Stain is a movie that keeps the viewer interested more with great acting and good structure than with a poignant story. In this area, the film probably doesn't do justice to the book (which I haven't read) and could have used some improvement. However, the acting is solid enough that The Human Stain can be enjoyable just because of it.