Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Adrian Lyne’s Lolita - Review

I looked and looked at her, and I knew, as clearly as I know that I will die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth. She was only the dead-leaf echo of the nymphet from long ago - but I loved her, this Lolita, pale and polluted and big with another man's child. She could fade and wither - I didn't care. I would still go mad with tenderness at the mere sight of her face” Humbert realizes towards the end of the movie “Lolita”.

A controversial novel and a good adaptation into the silver screen, Adrian Lyne’s Lolita shows us a man’s illogical, desperate passion. The frozen stare on Humbert’s face when he sees Dolores 'Lolita' for the first time to the desperate attempts to isolate her from the world; the needy and disgusting love is conveyed powerfully by Humbert. Dominique Swain as Dolores “Lolita” is the star of this movie, for you understand why Humbert can stoop to such lows for a skinny, young teenager. She was 15 years at the time of filming the movie and I wonder how no one got arrested for all the love scenes in the movie. Her vivacious, childlike nature contradicts with the sexual tones throughout the movie. A sexually mature woman in an adolescent’s body is how I would describe her character.

The strangest thing about this movie is that you root for the couple to stay together. Maybe it is out of pity for Humbert, a character who really should not deserve any pity or maybe you are just looking for a happy ending in the story. In the real world you wouldn’t think twice before sending an old pervert to prison for the same offence.

A thought provoking and at the same time engrossing, the movie twists your morals in a few knots for a couple of hours. Such movies are rare to find.

4/5

1 comment:

  1. Morals have always been subject to ambiguity over time. Maybe that's why they are so easy to bend and twist to justify one's actions and thoughts.

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