Movie Review

Film Review: Elegy

Elegy is a film that houses the classic older man, younger girl scenario. In Elegy, that older man is David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) and the younger girl is Consuela Castillo (Penelope Cruz). Consuela is one of David’s students in his criticism course at a university. Consuela is a woman from a traditional film who wants to make more of herself and has decided to obtain a college degree, which brings her to the class of Kepesh. After the semester is over, David makes his move on Consuela during a class get-together and they begin to see each other. The situation soon becomes serious between them.

Consuela is no dunce when it comes to the way men are. She wants to be part of David’s life and wants him to be part of hers. She struggles for this, fights for this. What she can’t combat is David’s own insecurities about himself and their relationship. The more David examines his relationship with Consuela with his friend George O’Hearn (Dennis Hopper), the more apprehensive he becomes about it coming to light. Consuela has the complete opposite reaction, could not care less about their age difference and wants the world to know they are together. Because of this situation, Cruz gives one of the best dramatic performances I’ve seen from her, if not the best. The viewer believes her when she is sad and when she is showing emotion on her face. The same can be said for Kingsley’s David. When he finally realizes what he wants, he finds out that he can no longer have that for reasons he didn’t expect, could never have foreseen. He loses it emotional, breaks down and it is authentic. The viewer feels for David almost more than they do for Consuela and her piteous predicament.

Elegy is the type of film where its characters examine truths about themselves and how others perceive them. Everyone is self-aware and that self-awareness breeds the conflicts in the film. It powers the characters’ story arcs and fuels some of their personal growth. This growth is not complete or whole in Elegy, it’s at its beginning, the seeds have been laid down for the eventually growth but the viewer can see their tell-tale signs. Characters begin trying to do better, to be better than they have been up to this point in their lives.

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Isabel Coixet’s Elegy is based on The Dying Animal by one of my favorite authors, Philip Roth, hence the self-evaluation prevalent in its characters and the situations they find themselves in. It is not an uplifting story told within Elegy’s runtime but there is a mature, satisfying journey to be taken with its protagonist and the characters he interacts with. There are very few dramas that have this distinction.

Rating: 7.5/10

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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