The Human Stain 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Supporting performances aside, The Human Stain leaves little impression. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It's a dry, intellectual exercise better suited to tea and crumpets than soda and popcorn. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... solid but not great. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: There are moments ... that find both truth and lyricism, touching on what it means to be alive, and on what we owe to the ghosts of the past. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The Human Stain has those qualities we often want but rarely see in our films: intelligence and ambition, decency and humanity, poetry and pity, fire and ice. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The filmmakers explicate Mr. Roth's themes with admirable clarity and care and observe his characters with delicate fondness, but they cannot hope to approximate the brilliance and rapacity of his voice. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Roth may be a brilliant writer -- he's got the prizes to prove it -- but he doesn't create brilliant characters (especially female ones), and his plots work better on the page than on the screen. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Benton, miraculously, has achieved the worst of both worlds. He has laid bare a great author's creaky plotting only to deliver a melodrama with bookish pretensions. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Benton and Mayer have gutted the novel's uncivil, discomforting viscera -- including Roth's pokes at political correctness -- and delivered an uninteresting, at times comically inappropriate 'tasteful' story. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: It's a respectable effort that doesn't quite gel, but not for lack of trying. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Rushes from the personal to the universal in an exhilarating victory for storytelling. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Between the labors of simplifying the story for the screen and accommodating the stardust of world-class actors, an essentially, uniquely American tragic hero and heroine are bleached of real American tragedy. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Even when miscast, [Hopkins and Kidman] are capable of spellbinding performances. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Develops a restless, shifty rhythm wherein, too often, only the story's most incendiary, polemical aspects -- the ones where you feel like Roth is chastising you from some post-liberal, Jewish-intellectual Parnassus -- come bubbling up to the surface. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: What's shattering is the utterly graceless way the book has been adulterated, condensed, simplified and made rather pointless. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: But audiences truly fascinated with the issues it touches upon -- class and sex, race and identity -- would be better off to search out the source material that delves into them deeply. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Nicole Kidman as a milkmaid leading a hardscrabble existence? If you say so. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The movie is fully worthy of the book, and will reach many people who might not have enjoyed the delightful experience of gliding through Mr. Roth's trenchant and zestful prose on the human condition. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: When Kidman's on screen, the film catches fire. Otherwise, it remains unignited. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Undemanding viewers will probably find enough intriguing material here to make it worth a look, but I was too disappointed by the wasted potential to be enthusiastic. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Here are complex, troubled, flawed people, brave enough to breathe deeply and take one more risk with their lives. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: The Human Stain takes a complex work of literary art and reduces it to tasteful melodrama. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Falls victim to a fatal lack of narrative drive, suspense and drama. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: One of those films that makes you say, 'That was powerful. Now what the hell was it about?' Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Human Stain strains too hard for profundity and comes up borderline pompous. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It neatly illustrates the perils of kidnapping a decent novel from its rightful home and exposing the vulnerable thing to the glare of a Hollywood camera. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The stain of seriousness spreads over everything in this movie, eventually blocking out everything but the effort. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: How does one even begin to list the imperfections of The Human Stain? Read more

David Stratton, Variety: An intelligent adaptation of Philip Roth's arguably unfilmable novel. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The nerviest prestige picture of the season is fatally undone by a Clintonian mixture of misplaced care and bizarre expediency. Read more