Name: The Human Strain
Released: November 2003
Produced by the Stone Village Production Company and Lakeshore Entertainment.
Director: Robert Benton.
Screenwriter: Nicholas Meyer.
Rachel Portman wrote the score.
Jean Yves Escoffier was the director of cinematography.
Filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Rated R.
Running time: About 2 hours.
Stars Nicole Kidman, (Faunia Farley), and Anthony Hopkins, (Coleman Silk).
Co-Stars: Wentworth Miller, (the younger, Coleman Silk), and Ed Harris, (Faunia Farley’s Husband)
Also in the film are Gary Sinise, Jacinda Barrett, Phyllis Newman and Anna Deavere Smith.
The Plot
This movie was made from a book that was written by Phillip Roth.
It takes place in New England, in a small college town. Coleman Silk, is the Dean, (he is an older man, who is an African American). He is so light skinned that he passes himself off as a white man.
Two of his students have been charged with racism. We don’t know if the charges are true, but Silk’s career is ruined, because he called these students ’’spooks’’, (ghosts, because they never came to school). There were ten African Americans in the class that day, and ’’spooks’’ is a racial slur, to them.
His wife has a heart attack and dies, because off the stress of it all. After 40 years of wedded bliss, Silk finds him self alone.
Enter Faunia, a beautiful young woman, who is much younger than Silk. She is rough, tough, and comes from the wrong side of the tracks, (the worse place to live in any American town, or city), is working as a janitor.
Silk and Faunia begin to date but she warns him when she says, ’’Don’t fall in love with me, we are just a woman and a man, alone in a room together).
We find out that Faunia’s ex-husband has been staking her, and there are some flash back scenes that show us how he grew up and a secret that he hasn’t told anyone.
Will Silk and Faunia stay together?
What lurks in the dark past of Coleman Silk and Faunia Farley’s past?
What I thought
I thought that Nicole Kidman was brilliant in her role, but felt that Hopkins wasn’t as good as he usually is.
I did feel the chemistry between them, but when they weren’t together Hopkins role was flat.
Nicole Kidman has always been thin, but she’s so thin, now she almost anorexic. I’m sure the men will love to see her in her panties!!!
The music went well with the scenes and blended in so well, that I don’t remember what songs they were.
The costumes weren’t special, (normal cloths).
The cinematography was very good, (there didn’t seem to be any special effects). I loved the out door scenes.
The best parts were the flashbacks into the lives of Faunia and Coleman.
My conclusion
I thought this movie was good not great, but it is good enough to see go see it in a theatre.
For more information on this movie the link is:
https://angelfire.com/film/horrorbox/humanstrain
Thank you for reading my review. :)
©LL2003