The Human Stain

Everyone has skeletons in his closet: incriminating photos…one-night flings…skeletons. The Human Stain, based on Philip Roth’s novel of the same name, picks two such troubled souls and drags us along for their meandering journey through love, rebirth, and poor editing. Gary Sinese, playing a writer named Nathan Zuckerman, narrates as deception begets sex begets plot holes when a slinky college campus janitor, Faunia Farely (Nicole Kidman), slides her way into bed with recent widow Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins). His troubled past (he’s never told anyone he’s a light-skinned black) and her troubled present (a psychotic ex, played by Ed Harris) are poised to send us on an erotic thrill-ride. But the shuffled timeline muddles matters, leaving us neither eroticized, nor thrill-rode. (Do you want to see Anthony Hopkins flouncing about without any clothes on?) Stain might have made a great read, but as a screenplay it rumbles between a young Silk, a current Silk, and everywhere in between without a coherent thread. And brief glimpses of Kidman in the buff don’t even salvage the story. Next time, they’d do better to keep their secrets to themselves.