Elegy

Ben Kingsley plays David Kepesh an aging professor who is facing the reality of old age. He has been for much of his life a perpetual bachelor seducing young women at his university and trying to act younger than he is. He has a good friend played by Dennis Hopper and friend with benefits that he sees every couple of months played by Patricia Clarkson. As the film begins he becomes interested in new student Consuela (Penelope Cruz). The film follows their relationship and Kepesh's struggle with his sense of getting older.

There seem to be a great deal of films dealing with aging professors coming out of recent. Some are better than others and although I should not try to judge a movie based on another I can't help but think the themes here have been done much better. Part of it may be that I don't care about Kepesh as a character. He isn't compelling. His problems are not universal and he's largely immature. And since I don't care what happens to him what is the point of caring about the movie?

There is present a sense of old age and growing old but its shallow and rarely at the front and center. There is nothing to suggest any real issue of age. He is not ailing in health. His mind is sound. Its merely his own perception that he is not the young seducer that he once was. I prefer Peter O'Toole's lecherous old man in Venus to Kingsley's Kepesh in terms of insight into old age and performance. And as far as aging intellectuals and problems that are real last year's Starting Out in the Evening is a better investment of your time.