From my English lessons in high school, I recall that an elegy is a poem of mourning. Yet nothing should be mourned about the movie Elegy. This film based on Pulitzer Prize winner Phillip Roth’s book The Dying Animal is a masterpiece to say the least.
Ben Kingsley superbly played David Kepesh, a college professor who shuns commitment. Then he had Penelope Cruz’s character Consuela Castillo as a student and he can’t keep his eyes off her. He did what is right and courted her when she’s not his student anymore. That’s how they started their May-December love affair.
But what’s special about Consuela? David must have seen a lot of pretty girls in his time but he found something much deeper than beauty in her.
Yet, his unwillingness to commit got the better of him. I don’t want to give out the story here but let’s just say that I would have done it differently if I were him.
Overall, Elegy is powerful enough to touch the viewers’ emotions. The director and writer have effectively projected the right performance from the actors that the audience is left with nothing but to be empathic with the characters. This is a love story that should not be missed.
George O’Hearn (Dennis Hopper): Beautiful women are invisible; we’re so dazzled by the outside that we never make it inside.
Penelope Cruz is not invisible at all in this movie.
*Spoiler*
They separated and after two years Consuela came back with the news that she has breast cancer. Movie ended with her recuperating after the surgery and David is at her side.
