Customer Rating: 
Summary: An Unraveling Life...
Comment: A man has achieved great success academically, and then, while enjoying the fruits of such as a dean in a prestigious college, he makes a casual remark - something seemingly innocent - which is then perceived by two students as a racial slur.
Thus begins the unraveling of the man's career. In the stress of the aftermath, Professor Coleman Silk's wife Iris is felled by a heart attack and dies. And then, Silk (portrayed brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins) begins an unusual friendship with a reclusive writer, Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), who lives in a cabin by a lake on the outskirts of town. As Silk reminisces - the goal is that Zuckerman will write a book about Silk's life - many secrets, held inside for more than fifty years, are revealed to the viewer. But not to Zuckerman, apparently, because he is startled by the secrets at the very end of the film.
Some of what Silk confesses is portrayed for us through flashbacks; the secrets are portrayed via flashbacks as "memories". Then, almost as an aside, Silk describes an "affair" with a younger woman (Nicole Kidman): she is someone down-and-out, a former rich girl who ran away when she was being molested by a stepfather; and then, she becomes the abused wife of a Vietnam vet (Ed Harris), who stalks her and threatens her repeatedly. In the midst of this, Silk is the perceived redemptive hero (to himself, at least), but when townspeople learn of the affair, he is scorned again.
In the end, a surprising dramatic turn reveals, finally, to the characters in the story, the "secret" Silk kept close to him for all those years.
The Human Stain is a compelling movie that is based on the Philip Roth novel of the same name.
Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
Web of Tyranny, etc.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Human stain...
Comment: Very thought provoking.
It is about a man leaving his family (and color) to start a new life. For some reason he only falls for white women. Supposedly, he is so light that no one else can tell he is black. He only sneaks around to see his family.It is a strange movie but still thought provoking and deep.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disconnected
Comment: I have not read the book, but I will assume for now that it is much more balanced than the film. Overall, it was interesting but not as good as it probably could have been. Though I really enjoyed the flashbacks and think that Wentworth Miller is a great actor, the scenes didn't seem to have any connection to the scenes set in 1998. They were randomly placed, for the most part, so I felt like I was watching two different movies. Though I love Anthony Hopkins, I do agree that he should not have been cast as Coleman. He's just not believable as a black man passing for Jewish, and to top that, he and Wentworth are absolutely nothing alike. Some books aren't made to be adapted into films, and I'd have to say that this one falls under that category.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Comment: A very underated movie - this should be a classic of all time. Bought it for our inter-racially married daughter. Hope my "squidlings" will watch it when they are older and understand how far we have come.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No, No, No!
Comment: ***SPOILER ALERT!***
Anthony Hopkins, with his distinctive Welsh accent, plays a black man(!) posing as a Jew (huh?). I guess he developed that Welsh accent as he got older, because it was totally missing in his younger years. Then there's the exquisitely beautiful Nicole Kidman, who does her best to look plain and bedraggled. Both premises are essential to buying into the movie. Both premises are also utterly unbelieveable. Hopkins and Kidman are superb actors, but I could not suspend my disbelief. There is simply NO WAY to believe that Hopkins is even the lightest-skinned black person ever to walk the earth; nor can Kidman hide her radiant beauty behind a frumpy look. No, no, no!
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