Rotten
One of those films that makes you say, 'That was powerful. Now what the hell was it about?'
David Edelstein, Slate
The Human Stain
How far would you go to escape the past?
2003 · 1h 46m · R
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Robert Benton
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The Human Stain
Overview
Coleman Silk is a worldly and admired professor who loses his job after unwittingly making a racial slur. To clear his name, Silk writes a book about the events with his friend and colleague Nathan Zuckerman, who in the process discovers a dark secret Silk has hidden his whole life. All the while, Silk engages in an affair with Faunia Farley, a younger woman whose tormented past threatens to unravel the layers of deception Silk has constructed.
Director and cast
- Robert Benton Director
- Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk
- Nicole Kidman as Faunia Farley
- Ed Harris as Lester Farley
- Gary Sinise as Nathan Zuckerman
- Wentworth Miller as Young Coleman Silk
- Jacinda Barrett as Steena Paulsson
- Harry Lennix as Mr. Silk
- Clark Gregg as Nelson Primus
- Anna Deavere Smith as Mrs. Silk
- Lizan Mitchell as Ernestine
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
41%
Tomatometer
Fresh
... solid but not great.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Rotten
It is hard to buy what The Human Stain is peddling.
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic
Fresh
The Human Stain takes a complex work of literary art and reduces it to tasteful melodrama.
Charles Taylor, Salon.com
Rotten
Works wonderfully as an actor's movie. The trouble is, that's the only way it works.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
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