I say this with no offense intended, but I feel that, GENERALLY, younger audiences won't truly appreciate this film. How can a 19 year old understand what it means to enter the "golden years?" That feeling of becoming obsolete, of vanishing, of not being vital. To confuse sexual attraction with nostalgia for an ideal youth is something one can only understand with age.
XCHRIS4039, you've met your exception, in one sense: I was 19 when I first rented Elegy back in March (I'm 20 now). I was also at the younger spectrum of a May/December romance, though nowhere near the extent of the difference in Cruz and Kinglsey's real life ages. I didn't understand the growing up that David does, nor his fear of commitment, death and feeling, but I did understand Consuela--her romantic, sexual innocence and especially Kingsley's narration "She knows that she's beautiful but she isn't quite sure what to do with her beauty" and above all the fact that David is so scared by the affection of this beautiful creature, he never believes Consuela's absolute fidelity, which Elegy gets right in so many ways; I remember sensing my partner's fear that I would leave him for someone closer to my own age, despite the fact that I was only looking at him....or that I still am even 2 months after we broke up. The insecurity and vulnerability that comes with loving someone is there on both sides of every love story--and if there isn't, something's wrong.
I've heard negative criticism about Coixet's film and maybe one day I'll become more sophisticated and understand most of it, but I related so emotionally to this film that I couldn't help but get swept up in the conflicts of the characters I cared so deeply about so quickly. It was my favorite film of 2008 and I currently have it rated as a 9.
Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
reply
share