Men get old; stop being sexy beasts; boo-hoo.

That's the general turf in Elegy, a very self-conscious meditation on the passage of time and the role of passion in all things. It all unfolds from the point of view of a fabulously selfish man, giving the film a special talent to annoy.

David Kepesh (Sir Ben Kingsley) is a middle-aged professor of literature and a local celeb -- he writes theatre reviews for the New Yorker and has a weekly PBS gig. The good professor likes to think of himself as highly cerebral and completely independent; he has plenty of affairs with plenty of his students, and one on-going relationship with a former student (Patricia Clarkson) that doesn't seem to mean much to him. His only marriage is in the distant past, and he is estranged from his adult son (Peter Sarsgaard).

A student named Consuela (Penelope Cruz) attracts his attention, and to his surprise, she agrees to go to the theatre with him. They begin an affair, and though their 30-year age difference would seem to make the end of the affair fairly predictable, Professor Kepesh is surprised to find that he has fallen in love. This leads to jealousy and bad behaviour, and plenty of conversations about women with his best friend George (Dennis Hopper). Sadly, for Kepesh, it's all about him: his yearning, his fears, his insecurities, his inability to tell the truth, his trouble with relationships, his fragile ego, blah, blah, blah. You'll want to slap the guy.

On her side, Ms. Cruz gets to look thoughtful, appear topless and talk about past love affairs. There is almost nothing said or done by either character that would lead you to believe, even for a second, in their relationship.

As the title suggests, Elegy is a film about mourning and melancholy and loss -- loss of youth in particular. Kingsley and Clarkson have a conversation about wasted time that is fairly devastating, and there are moments of brilliance in this movie, to be sure, but none relating to the central love affair. Regardless of the sad events that the simple passage of time introduces into his (and every other) life, Professor Kepesh sees only himself and his situation. As the story moves toward a philosophical cheat of an ending, wherein there is suddenly a bang instead of the inevitable whimper real life would provide, the general narcissism of the piece becomes infuriating.

Elegy involves plenty of pretty pictures. Its faults are related to the writing. And despite the material, director Isabel Coixet gets some remarkable performances from a very strong cast, and particularly those on the sidelines. Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson are wonderful, for example, and Debbie Harry, although only in the film for a moment, is terrific. Too bad about a script based on a Philip Roth novel.

(This film is rated 14-A)
More Movie Reviews