Elegy

(112 min, 2008)
Director: Isabel Coixet
Writers: Nicholas Meyer (screenplay), Philip Roth (novel)
Stars: Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson

The biggest surprise in a man's life is old age.

(spoilers)

David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is growing old. He's a professor of literature, a student of American hedonism, and an amateur musician and photographer. When he finds attractive Consuela (Penelope Cruz), a 24-year-old Cuban and his student, he sets out to seduce her.

Isabel Coixet makes the most beautiful movies about dying. “Elegy” is based on the novel “The Dying Animal” by Philip Roth – it is centered around older man who is aware of his age and how fast the life is running away from him. Kepesh is self-centered, hedonistic and arrogant man who at first just wants to sleep with Consuela. But with time he will be enchanted by her – in the first few weeks he will treat her as any other trophy – he adores her, calls her “work of art”, is jealous of her, follows her. He behaves as “child being possessive of its toys”. But it's only after losing her, because of his fear, immaturity and the lack of courage to face the real world consequences of being with someone, he will realize how much she meant to him.
The character of David is not very likeable, but because of terrific work from Ben Kingsley you really want to know what will happen to him and at some points of the movie, you wish what will happen is good. He may be egoistic, but which one of us isn't. He is frustrated with the passing time so he creates his life to be as pleasurable as it may be. Can he blamed for that? No. At least he is being honest – he leaves his marriage when it stops working out for him, which is not a good thing, but at least it's an honest thing. But he doesn't realize he escapes one prison to build another one, one he will not even know he's locked up in – his own illusion of control. He creates the “perfect” relationship with his friend Caroline (amazing Patricia Clarkson), with whom he was sleeping for the past 20 years. It works for him and for her too. But this haze, this illusion of things working out must perish at some point and it does. That's when David and Caroline have their first real conversation – real because they don't hide they fears and regrets, because they finally are honest to each other.

The Secret life of Words

(115 min, 2005)
Director: Isabel Coixet
Writer: Isabel Coixet
Stars: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins and Sverre Anker Ousdal

“Is that why they call me a sullen girl -- sullen girl
They don't know I used to sail the deep and tranquil sea
But he washed my shore and he took my pearl
And left an empty shell of me
And there's too much going on
But it's calm under the waves, in the blue of my oblivion
Under the waves in the blue of my oblivion”
Fiona Apple, “Sullen girl”

Measuring the pain.

Hannah (Sarah Polley), who wears a hearing aid, is forced to go on holiday. On holiday she manages to find a job: caring for Josef (Tim Robbins), a burn victim on an oil rig who temporarily lost his sight, until he's stable enough to be transferred. There is almost no one on the rig, except a cook, an oceanographer and a few others out at sea. Hannah tends to Josef and he slowly breaks her shell of silence

I only saw three movies by Isabel Coixet but she is slowly becoming one of my favorite directors. She portrays the stories in her films so tenderly and beautifully that I have fallen in love with each film of hers I saw. First it was “My life without me” also with Sarah Polley that dealt with the story of terminally ill girl who prepares herself for death and tries to make sure her family will be happy after she is gone. Then it was “Elegy” about strange and passionate love between a student and older professor, also with a lot of undertones of death, passing and pain. And now it's “The secret life of words” stunning and powerful tale of two hurt people who slowly discover each other and learn to trust others.

What immediately grabbed my attention was the main character – Hannah. She behaves in a very peculiar way – she doesn't talk to anyone, she doesn't wanna go on vacation. She uses the same bars of gray soap and she constantly eats the same things – chicken, rice and apples. Her apartment is incredibly modest and she seems lonely, sad and it's obvious from the first scenes that her behavior is a result of something horrible that happened to her. She calls a woman (Julie Christie) and doesn't even talk to the phone. Who is that woman? What happened to Hannah? Those questions rise quickly and we're going to have to wait for a long time before we find answers.

My life without me

(106 min, 2003)
Plot: A young woman conceals the fact of her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before.
Director: Isabel Coixet
Writers: Isabel Coixet, Nanci Kincaid (book)
Stars: Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman and Mark Ruffalo

Dream up a heaven for me

(slight spoilers)

Ann, 23 years old, lives a modest life with her two kids and her husband in a trailer in her mother's garden. Her life takes a dramatic turn, when her doctor tells her that she has uterine cancer and only two months to live. She compiles a list of things to do before she dies.

This movie is beautiful, warm and heartbreaking at the same time. And it's remarkable in its heroine, simple girl, ordinary one, who suddenly finds out she only has little time left. Ann (Sarah Poley) doesn't tell anyone about her illness. When she receives the news she takes them calmly, shedding only few tears. She carries on with her life as if nothing happened – she takes care of her little daughters and her husband Don (Scott Speedman). But she also decides to do all the things she wanted to do, so she makes a list. It's not a list of unimaginable and glamorous things as in horrible “The Bucket List”, but something all of us can relate to and dream of – to make someone fall in love with you, to find new wife for your beloved husband after you'll be gone, to record messages for birthdays of your daughters.

As Ann carries on with her simple life she meets Lee (Mark Ruffalo) and starts affair with him. Some people may call it selfish, this and not telling her family what's going on with her. But Ann's husband was her first love and she never experienced anything else – they met on the concert, they had kids, they got married. Everyone is entitled to a little selfishness when one knows how little time is left. Lee falls for her and they spend magical moments together, something that gives Ann strength and takes her mind off her condition for a while.

She also tries to rebuild her relationship with her mother and her dad, who's in prison. She doesn't let anyone suspect that's she is seriously ill – she tells them she has anemia. She doesn't want her family and loved ones to see her in hospitals and she wants them to have only happy memories with her. If anything, I admired the heroine of the movie. The fear of death is the worst kind – if we won't die in some accident, we have great chance of sitting at doctor's office one day and finding out that soon we'll be gone and we're going to left everything behind, everything and everyone we love. Ann not telling anyone about her cancer only shows her incredible love and care – not so long ago I thought it was it for me, fortunately it turned out I was fine. But I couldn't carry that burden, that fear all by myself. Ann conceals the truth and has to face it by herself – in the voice over we get to hear her thoughts, about death, about how people try to cheat it and no one succeeds. But she is calm, peaceful.

As everyone she has regrets about how her life turned out, about all the things she once dreamed of that didn't come true, just as her mother. But does out best dreams, the ones that would bring us the greatest happiness ever come true? But Ann is happy – she tells her daughter that when she gave birth to her, it was the happiest day of her life. Ann has a neighbor, also named Ann, who after traumatic event isn't sure if she wants kids or not. Comparing to her Ann is the lucky one, her life was a happy one, even if ordinary, even if soon to be over.

The movie has light, magical soundtrack and raw yet very beautiful cinematography. There are so many gorgeous scenes in “My Life Without Me” and poignant observations Ann tells us in her voice over. Everyone of us can relate to the heroine, even if our life is very much different. Her plan on how to deal with dying and leaving everyone behind is touching and inspiring. “Your whole life's been a dream and it's only now that you're waking up” Ann says in one scene. It's only after she finds out she's going to pass away she starts to make her only, little dreams come true. Little, but great in everyone's life – family, love, fun. She can't do anything to change her path so she makes her peace with it, bravely and without complaining. Her husband says in once scene that despite their simple life she never complained. Ann's character is built so well, that as odd as her peaceful reaction to horrible news may be, we understand it.

Sarah Polley delivers wonderful performance – she's very versatile actress and I saw her in many movies, but that is her best work. The viewer sympathizes with her immediately and whenever she cries, we cry too. Everyone else is doing great job too – Scott Speedman and Mark Ruffalo are well cast and the latter one is doing very good job at creating a character we feel for, although we don't know much about him. I was also very impressed with Leonor Watling's performance as Ann's neighbor.

“My Life Without Me” will make you cry, reflect on things and for 100 minutes put you in the place of the heroine – how would you cope? What would your list look like? And it teaches us to always tell the people we love that we love them. After all, we never know how much time we have left.

88/100