The Human Stain is about the denial of identity and self destruction. The writer who isn't able to write and retreats himself in the woods. The by her stepfather sexual abused woman who repeats history and falls for elder man and wants sex without affection. The white professor who denies the fact that his mother is a negro and looses his black family and his job paradoxically being charged of racism. Despite all the personal drama, it is hard to get emotionally involved. The fact that the movie is non chronological doesn't make it clear what exactly happened to everyone. The personal history has to be reconstructed rationally thus creating emotional distance. In movies like Momento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spottless Mind the reversal of time is not only a formal technique but essentially related to the story itself, opposed to The Humain Stain. Unfortunately the movie is more an intellectual challenge than a moving image.
Review of The Human Stain
