Well, talk about movie twists! This one didn't wait until the end of the picture to reveal that Anthony Hopkins' character was a black man who had turned his back on his roots to garner success as an educator and dean of fictional Athena College in the equally fictional town of Athena, Massachusetts. I'm not certain about how I'm to react to that bit of information. Story wise it becomes a compelling element when we first learn that Coleman Silk (Hopkins) is called on the carpet and loses his job over a politically incorrect remark taken as overt racism. In a different picture, he could have sued the pants off the college and probably come away with a bundle with the help of a competent lawyer. Instead he takes a more destructive path by hooking up with one of the local trailer trash citizens named Faunia Farley. Even in her flaunty attire or working class janitor uniform, it's a tough sell making Kidman look any less glam than she really is, so that part of the picture required a good suspension of disbelief. But not as much as her taking up with Hopkins' character who was easily twice her age, whether the relationship was one of a sympathetic nature or not. It might have been better to substitute the high profile celebrities in this film with those of lesser name recognition, since the entire exercise becomes one of wondering how in the heck any of this could possibly happen. This was one of those pictures I talked myself into a lower rating than what I was originally going to give it just because of the incongruity of it all.
Review of The Human Stain
