What does a viewer get from this story? Is there something new in here, that a viewer won't soon forget? What is the purpose of this movie? Is it to celebrate love between a young student and her 30 years older professor? Is it to show problems between a father and a son? Is it to show the hypocrisy of a friend who gives advice, but doesn't follow them himself? Is it maybe to introduce us to people who don't have anything in life and try to find satisfaction in each other, with no expectations, no emotions added, but on the other hand, with all these feelings revealed?
What made Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Skarsgaard film this movie? Maybe someone can explain this to me. Because I don't see it.

To make long story short, we have a young, beautiful, smart Cuban art student Consuela who falls deeply and madly in love with her elderly professor David Kepesh, a writer and cultural critic admired by all of his students. He is alone, sad, he doesn't speak to his only son and the only two things that seem to make him happy are his conversations with his best friend and sexual encounters with a woman of his age. He and his young student get involved into a passionate relationship. She makes him alive, he adores her beautiful young body, her perfect breasts and it seems they can't get enough of each other. But, the story is not only about passion. It is about jealousy, sense of possession and obsession. Which eventually causes problems here. And that's where the story should have ended. But it went further and gave us an ending full of contradictions.

Maybe I'm too young and I definitely see love another way, but I don't see anything romantic in this movie. I see a jealous old man, who can't cope with his age and the fact he's in a relationship with a much younger woman. He is constantly seeking attention, he's mentally abusive, a control freak who can't understand that he made this girl fall in love with him. On the other hand, she is young, beautiful and although it seems she could have every man she wants, she has deep and sincere feelings for him. She doesn't hide it, she is constantly showing him her love, with her words and actions. But he refuses it.

I'm sure some understand his situation, but I would say he was always like that. That's one of the reasons he doesn't speak to his son. He's lacking emotions, true emotions, not the ones we find in the way he talks about art or a woman's body. He is an emotional cripple who finally in the end learns his mistakes and hopefully understands the meaning of love.

I gave this one a 6, obviously not because of the story, which made me extremely irritated, but because of the performances and especially music. Penelope Cruz is definitely the highlight of this movie. We can see sorrow, happiness, disappointment, fear and all other emotions she feels on her face. She made a perfect interpretation of a woman in love, a woman who suffers and who fears for her life and her relationship. Ben Kingsley is very good as a messed-up professor and Dennis Hopper reveals his more sensitive part, after getting used to watching him as a lunatic in many of his movies. Patricia Clarkson and Peter Skarsgaard make a good choice as supporting actors. But music is the thing that made me speechless here. It perfectly follows each situation, we can hear emotion through music, we can experience things the actors experience. Eric Satie, with his wonderful piano pieces brings this situation closer to the viewer and it is music which gets you involved into this story, whether you want it or not. Music makes it a movie worth watching and makes you understand this painful elegy.

LovelyT