elegy

elegy - any poem, song or piece of art, in a mournfully contemplative tone.

the melancholy of ageing lay not in the acknowledgement of a certain future doom but in the realization of the slow deterioration of what was once so perfect and pristine. in isabel coixet's film based on a short novel by phillip roth, (the dying animal,) death is the backdrop to the myriad pains of the human condition.

like the pains, flaws, and inconsistencies of the body, mind and spirit, elegy provides poignant reminders of human frailty like a series of surprise aches.

ben kingsley plays david kepesh, a writer and professor of some renown, who also narrates the story about a relationship he had with a beautiful girl 30+ years his junior, a couple of years prior to the telling. penelope cruz plays the vibrant young beauty consuela, who comes to genuinely love the older kepesh without reservation or condition.

kepesh, for his part, is beyond surprised at his ability to woo consuela. as the relationship matures and the two become fully intimate with one another, it comes to resemble a leonard cohen song in as much as kepesh seems to love consuela's perfect body with his perfect mind. consuela is drawn in by kepesh's familiarity with all things art, while kepesh is enraptured by her physical beauty, which is displayed fully and tastefully by coixet.

initially the relationship makes kingsley light as air. he is ebullient at regaining some amount of youth even if in the form of a lover, one who he confesses to his best friend, a poet played by dennis hopper, is more stunning in her physical presence and beauty than any he had ever known. in time however, the relationship becomes an albatross and kingsley becomes an insecure high wire walker.

everything he wasn't, he becomes. kepesh was a man's man. he waxes philosophical about his marriage much earlier in life as if it was a big mistake he would never repeat. he enjoys his single life, has a regular lover who merely stops in for sex every couple of weeks and has had a history of wooing beautiful coeds once classes end. he stays fit and seems to continue to stay abreast of current art and academia. he is in a word; secure.

out on the wire that is his relationship with consuela he tends to look down. he becomes nervous and expects consuela to wake up any minute and realize he has nothing to offer her. she can read the same books he has read, take in the same plays, go to the same museums, all of this she can get on her own and in fact, she exhibits every inclination to do just that. her personal security only exacerbates his increasing madness. ultimately, kepesh's behavior foreshadows a doom for the relationship that never actually materializes.

coixet seems to arrive as a director as this story is told in tense and mournful tones. the lighting is exquisite as it embraces a richness of shadows. the pace is as consistent as a metronome, and the story actually conjures a metronome as a device to foreshadow the events to come.

in the end elegy is a multi-layered exploration of human mortality and the fragile nature of man. it is sumptuous to look at and delightful in its slow, tense pace. if the movie is painful like the aches of mortality, perhaps there is a lesson present which is to embrace that which hurts as it is also that which teaches us and readies us for all that is left to come.