The Human Stain

Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, and Fred Harris are three of my favorite actors, so I believed that this film couldn't miss. I was wrong. Despite the heroic efforts of the cast, the film ultimately fails to convince.

First of all, despite his outstanding talents, Hopkins is miscast. He convinces me that he is African American about as much as he convinces me he is Jewish-not very much. The fact that he is playing an African American pretending not to be African American doesn't help. I just couldn't get around his character and see him as anything but-Anthony Hopkins.

The idea that a person like Nicole Kidman would throw herself at a stranger more than twice her age also stretches credibility. I could see nothing in either of their characters that could convince me that that they would give each other a second thought. It is not just that Kidman is extremely beautiful and that Hopkins is old, but they play people of such completely different classes that it would take more than a chance encounter for them to develop a relationship. The movie simply doesn't create the moments needed for them to be plausible.

Fred Harris is the most convincing of the three, but he exists as little more than an ominous presence. He could have been done away with completely and the movie could still have had the same outcome.

If you want to see great actors, they are here. Their performances are worth seeing for that reason alone if you are a fan. However, when it all boils down, even they can't make this movie work.