If you dig dark, deep, and intelligent love stories or if you have ever loved and lost and don’t mind the memories, Elegy is for you. The new film by Spanish director, Isabel Coixet starting Penélope Cruz and Ben Kingsley is one of those you need to take a minute to digest after the last credits roll. Not so much for its bland ending but for everything that led up to it. The story of a literature professor who falls in love with a student (played by Cruz) includes several layers about the emotional commitments we face over a lifetime and how we chose to shape these.
Elegy is based on the short novel, “The Dying Animal” by Philip Roth is slow paced and invites the viewer to simply watch and indulge in the selfish existence of literature professor David Kepesh (Kingsley). Cruz and Kingsley play a believable couple despite their age difference, the only detail that ruined the story for me was making Cruz’s character Cuban when her accent clearly remained Spanish. In case you were wondering, Elegy is a type of poetic meter used for mourning or a reflection on death- that alone should cue into the type of film this is.