The Human Stain (2003)

Just a few weeks ago I finished the novel The Human Stain by Philip Roth and I loved it. It seemed to me though the kind of book that you just couldn't adapt well into a movie. I rented the film version largely to confirm my suspicions but to my surprise this is a rather good adaptation. The plot is complex and the kind you don't want to spoil so I'll try and leave that be. The film adaptation while of course simplified conveys a good deal of the essence of the novel, it even manages to make the shifting narrative and POV of the book work in film form, which impressed me as being concertedly novelistic in a film usually results in failure. If I had to single out a performance it would be that of Wentworth Miller, playing our protagonist Coleman Silk as a young man (Anthony Hopkins plays an older Silk in 1998 portions of the film). Anyway this was good, though I suspect that my reaction to it was boosted by recent familiarity with its very impressive source novel. I don't know how good or bad I would have thought this film was if I hadn't read the book, but to me now its simply the next best thing. Grade: B