The Human Stain

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The Human Stain ★★ 2003 (R)

Anthony Hopkins is a professor in the middle of a racial controversy who's passing as a white Jew and Nicole Kidman is the sorrowful, down-on-her-luck janitor with whom he becomes involved in Benton's watered-down adaptation of Philip Roth's 2000 novel. The book is an angry expose of America's struggles with issues of race, age, and sexuality, but the film falls short of conveying that anger. Excellent cast does what it can to compensate. 106m/C VHS, DVD . US Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Wentworth Miller, Harry J. Lennix, Anna Deavere Smith, Jacinda Barrett, Phyllis Newman, Kerry Washington, Margo Martindale, Ron Canada, Mili Avital, Mimi Kuzyk; D: Robert Benton; W: Nicholas Meyer; C: Jean-Yves Escoffier; M: Rachel Portman.

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