ELEGY (Seville, 2008) D: Isabel Coixet, w/ Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz. Rating: NNN DVD package: NN Rating: NNN
It’s a good thing Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz are such brilliant and likeable actors, because for the first hour they’re all you get.
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He’s David, the womanizing professor she’s Consuela, the student. They fall in love, and while we wait for their inevitable crisis, director Isabel Coixet sucks all the air out of the proceedings with leaden pacing, endless images of isolation and a chilly Bach soundtrack. To be fair, it’s a good depiction of David’s arid inner life, and Kingsley delivers infinite gradations of pain, but it’s tough going.
Cruz’s Consuela isn’t the clichéd free spirit you might expect. We don’t learn enough about her, but Cruz plays her as fully adult and fully present.
Things pick up in the second hour, when David’s best friend (Dennis Hopper, having fun), his casual bedmate and estranged son take a bigger part in the drama.
Strangely missing is any mention that David might be afraid of death. It’s implicit in the story and a reasonable concern for a man his age.
There are maybe two minutes of interesting insights in the five-minute making-of doc.
EXTRAS Widescreen. Making-of doc. English, French audio.
