Elegy R

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Format:  DVD
item number:  XTXB 06335D
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DVD Details

  • Rated: R
  • Closed captioning available
  • Run Time: 1 hours, 52 minutes
  • Video: Color
  • Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
  • Released: March 17, 2009
  • Originally Released: 2008
  • Label: Sony Pictures

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring &
Performer: , , &
Directed by
Screenwriting by
Original story by
Produced by , &
Executive Production by , &

Entertainment Reviews:

Certified Fresh74%

TOMATOMETER
Total Count: 121

Upright61%

AUDIENCE SCORE
User Ratings: 72,713
True to its title, ELEGY is a spare, meditative and melancholy film. It is a deeply affecting and profoundly observed saga about love, art, beauty and, especially, mortality.
USA Today
Aug 14, 2008
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.
Variety
Oct 18, 2008
Rating: 3/4 -- A finely crafted, intelligently written work, featuring some exceptional performances by Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz. Full Review
From the Front Row
Jul 6, 2019
My main disappointment is that it takes a predictable, tragic turn in the third act, which drags out the pathos and gives the romance more credence than it deserves. But in art, as in love, two acts out of three ain't bad. Full Review
Maclean's Magazine
Dec 15, 2017
Rating: 4/5 -- Coixet has blunted the impact of the novel's ending just as she has softened Roth's misanthropic depiction of Kepesh and, as a result, she's taken flak for being over-polite. I didn't care. Full Review
Sydney Morning Herald
Apr 10, 2009
When Ben Kingsley gets hold of a role he really connects with, he has no need to create fireworks; he lights up a character from within....There's a poetic irony to the idea that it took a female filmmaker to finally do justice to Philip Roth on screen. -- Grade: A
Entertainment Weekly
Aug 15, 2008
Rating: 2.5/4 -- As far as it goes, it's enjoyable enough. Full Review
Washington Times
Dec 12, 2018

Product Description:

Like director Isabel Coixet's previous film MY LIFE WITHOUT ME, ELEGY is consumed by the ideas of love and mortality. But while that film focused on a young protagonist, the hero of this drama is an aging writer and professor played by Ben Kingsley. David Kepesh (Kingsley) is a minor literary celebrity in New York City who shies away from commitment, happy with his casual relationship with a businesswoman (Patricia Clarkson) who is rarely in town. But a date with a stunning grad student named Consuela (Penelope Cruz) surprisingly turns into a long-term romance, changing David from a confident Lothario into a jealous boyfriend. His age and her beauty haunt their romance until David begins to push her away.

As its title suggests, ELEGY achieves a perfectly somber tone. Adapted from the Philip Roth novel THE DYING ANIMAL, the script from Nicholas Meyer (THE HUMAN STAIN) doesn't try too hard for the audience's tears. But much of the credit goes to the cast: Kingsley and Cruz make for a sexy, affectionate couple with their layered performances, and Clarkson (THE STATION AGENT) is wonderful as always. Dennis Hopper is nicely cast as David's philandering friend George, and Blondie frontwoman Deborah Harry is very non-rock-and-roll (but incredibly genuine) in a small appearance as George's longsuffering wife. The largely classical soundtrack further adds to the film's contemplative mood.

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Product Info

  • Sales Rank: 115,758
  • UPC: 043396274396
  • Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
  • International Shipping: 1 item

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