Elegy

Melancholic and moving, Elegy -- based on a book by Philip Roth -- is a Trojan horse of the best kind: It's a deeply emotional film masquerading as an intellectual exercise. Kingsley is masterful here; his David is empathetic -- despite the fact that he's a cad who makes no apologies for his choices. To watch him grapple with foreign emotions when he finally succumbs to Consuela is to witness an unraveling so convincing that it's painful. The rest of the cast is inspired, too, especially Cruz, who turns in a variegated portrayal of a woman so willing to love but unwilling to accept less than what she expects. In fact, hardly anything is off with this movie; it's as pensive visually as it is thematically, and the pacing is exact. Even a twist near the end doesn't cheapen the film but rather enhances it, throwing David -- and the audience -- into wildly divergent (though still believable) emotional terrain.

One objection: Director Isabel Coixet spends a lot of time exploring the idea that beautiful women aren't seen because too much attention is paid to their beauty, but despite Cruz's robust rendering of Consuela -- she says so much with as little as a shrug -- the film keeps her character at arm's length, too. She's the object, and the camera's gaze is as fawning as the professor's.