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Plot Summary
Respected cultural critic and author David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is a middle-aged college professor who, for years, has lived in a state of "emancipated manhood." His romantic conquests are many; his lasting commitments, few. But when a stunning young student named Consuela Castillo (Penelope Cruz) enters his life, her otherworldly beauty captivates him to the point of obsession. Soon, their erotic relationship evolves into an undying and passionate love in this gripping drama that explores the power of love to blind, reveal and transform.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
75%- Reviews Counted: 115
- Fresh: 86
- Rotten: 29
- Average Rating: 6.7/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Sparse, low-budget drama, helmed by Spaniard Isabel Coixet, intelligently translates Roth's meditation on lust and mortality without soft-pedaling its narrator's brutally honest, unabashedly sexist views.
Rotten: Penelope Cruz is outstanding in an otherwise lame male fantasy.
Fresh: It's nicely done.
Fresh: Elegy gives Ben Kingsley one of the best roles of his career.
Customer Reviews
Stunning Performances
A thinking movie, exceptional script. Brilliant performances by both Cruz and Kingsley. The movie gives you a slightly uncomfortable feel as their relationship develops with the May/December thing. However, Cruz is outstanding and while both charachters evoke some sympathy; your heart breaks for her. Incredibly full of passion and some nudity. We know Kingsley is talented, now we know Cruz is not just a pretty face. A huge leap forward for her as a respected actress; a deserving year for her!
I used to love this director, since elegy she is just another director. elegy is just another movie.
Well I'm afraid that Isabel Coixet felt in mediocracy. She became one of the best directors of her generation with two excelent movies, that I strongly recomend, the secret life of the words, and my life without me. I hope they will sell them on itunes one day I will buy them for sure. This film is a tipping point in her career, it's not an awefull film, actually if you see it without knowing the director and without knowing the novel you could say that the film is good, not excelent but good, the problem is that she is a lot better than this cloying adaptation of Phillip Roth's novel. Penelope Cruz as latelly in all her films she is fantastic, and it's probably the main reason you can still find that the film is good. Before this film I used to think that noone could understand the human soul better than Isavel Coixet, also in all the films the photography and the music were always so excelent, I disvered Anthony and the Johnsons because of her, she was always having this kitch vision that in any other director you had hate it but in her was always poetic, always beautiful. But in this film she had transformed a sordid story about the human being, about the meaning of our lives in just a too sweet, beautiful, but too sweet drama, with not her usuall deepness. Since she broke with the Almodovar brothers, who were her friends and producers, she is not the same any more, they were like the catalyst to make her being a lot better director, I guess we have lost a wondeful director and I hope she will fix her problems with the Almodovar brothers. Also the novel is sordit, it's sexual, there's something wrong in this movie, if this is an adaptation of the book she did not understand Phillip Roth, I would accept it as a personal version of the same story, but Phillip Roth is nowhere in this film, his world his pesimistic vision, his coldness and his sadness vision of the human being is not anywhere. I would deeplly recoment a simillar story but a lot deeper and more intense, I know it's very different story but it has a lot of conections and you can find it here in Itunes "the visitor" .
Excellent
I loved Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but in my opinion her role in Elegy is outstanding. Loved her character and the chemistry between her and the great Ben Kingsly. Great Great passionate film
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- $12.99
- Genre: Drama
- Released: 2009
- © 2008 Lakeshore Entertainment Group LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Also Available
- Elegy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
- Various Artists