The Human Stain (2003) - Stellar cast drives Benton's Roth adaptation

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Two major stars drenched in sensual blue make up this poster for Robert Benton's The Human Stain

 

Coleman is a college dean who lectures in classical literature, until he is one day accused of racism and decides to quit. His wife passes away, but he finds a young, exciting woman - with a heavy personal baggage. It turns out that he is also carrying around quite a load himself.

 

The Human Stain is written by Nicholas Meyer (Medici (2016-18)), based on the same-titled 2000 novel by Philip Roth (Exit Ghost (2007)), and directed by Texan master filmmaker Robert Benton (Bad Company (1972)), whose 10th feature it is.

Anthony Hopkins (Chaplin (1992)), Ed Harris (Virginia (2010)), Gary Sinise (Bruno (2000)) and Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole (2010)) is a tremendously strong cast, and they carry this stained drama home. Kidman's character suddenly evolves to an incredible degree; and the entire storyline with beautiful Wentworth Miller (Underworld (2003)) is mysterious and may seem overly American to some audiences.

Related posts:

Robert Benton: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) - Benton's amazing, truthful divorce drama

What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Screwball comedy revived for a wonderful show (co-writer) 

Watch the 2-minute 'accusation' scene from the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office: 22.9 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.76 times its cost)

[The Human Stain premiered 29 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from March - May 2002 in Massachusetts, Illinois, including in Chicago, and in Québec, including in Montréal. The film opened #15 to a 1 mil. $ first weekend in 160 theaters in North America, where it widened to 388 theaters but never attained a higher position, grossing 5.3 mil. $ (23.1 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was Italy with 6 mil. $ (26.2 %); North America was the 2nd biggest, and Spain was 3rd biggest with 2.4 mil. $ (10.5 %). The film won an AFI award. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Benton returned with Feast of Love (2007). Hopkins returned in Shortcut to Happiness (2003); Kidman in Cold Mountain (2003). The Human Stain is rotten at 42 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Human Stain?

Fatal Attraction (1987) - Stepping out has dire consequences in Lyne's spectacular blockbuster

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The iconic poster for Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction, which effectively combines the erotic with the fatal

A successful New York lawyer, who is bored in his marriage, steps out of it to enjoy another woman from his office. Unfortunately, she turns out to have a screw loose!

Fatal Attraction is written by James Dearden (Rogue Trader (1999)), with script doctoring by Nicholas Meyer (Time after Time (1979)), and directed by great English filmmaker Adrian Lyne (Foxes (1980)).
Michael Douglas (The In-Laws (2003)) somehow manages to get his lead, who appears an unscrupulous prick for large parts of the film, to become deeply sympathetic in spite of this, which requires a great, rare actor. He is helped in the task by Glenn Close (The Safety of Objects (2001)), who is spectacularly psychotic as Alex, the character who became every (straight) cheating man's worst nightmare with Fatal Attraction. She is outstanding. Also good is Anne Archer (Short Cuts (1993)) as the poor, wronged housewife.
Lyne stages the erotic thriller carefully and shows an admirable knack for suspense and visually oppressive atmosphere. Fatal Attraction is a tremendous, - and implicitly totally conservative, (which was fought over by, among others, Close and the studio), major hit.

Watch a clip from the film here

 
Cost: 14 mil. $
Box office: 320.1 mil. $
= Blockbuster (returned 22.86 times its cost)
[Fatal Attraction premiered 16 September (New York) and runs 119 minutes. It is based on Dearden's 50 minute film Diversion (1980). Close consulted 3 psychologists to get insight into her character's incestuous background and resulting borderline personality disorder. Shooting took place in New York from September - October 1986 with reshoots in July 1987. The original ending has Alex slashing her own throat, making her suicide appear a murder by Douglas' character: Close fought against the more vengeful ending eventually in the film and successfully attained the self-mutilation aspect in it to underscore Alex's self-destructive tendencies. The film opened #1 to a 7.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it maintained its #1 status for the following 7 weeks, before spending the next 5 weeks still in the top 5 (#2-#4-#4-#3-#5), ending up with a gigantic 156.6 mil. $ gross (48.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 20.7 mil. $ (6.5 %) and Germany with 20.5 mil. $ (6.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this one. The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actress to Cher in Moonstruck, Supporting Actress (Archer) to Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck, Director to Bernardo Bertolucci for The Last Emperor, Editing also to The Last Emperor, which also took Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay (Mark Peploe, Bertolucci). The film was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes, won 1/3 BAFTA noms, was nominated for 2 David di Donatello awards, a Grammy, won a National Board of Review award and many other honors. Lyne returned with Jacob's Ladder (1990). Douglas returned in Wall Street (1987), Close in a voice performance in Gandahar (1988), in Stones for Baharra (1988, TV movie) and theatrically in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Dearden adapted the film into a stage play in London in 2014. Fatal Attraction is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.74/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Fatal Attraction?