Sorry, but this film just can't hold a candle to the novel. (Of course, with the exception of 'Lawrence of Arabia' and its source, 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom', I can't think of one movie based on a novel that can.) I won't dwell on its more obvious flaws, but will mention them in passing: Jeremy Irons is too old for his role; Dominique Swain is a convincing 14-year-old but not a pregnant 17-year-old; the character of Clare Quilty, a figure of black humor both in the book and in Kubrick's version, is rendered by this script as a sinister, charmless pimp. The role which has taken the most heat on this site, and which I believe is the most impressive, is the role of Lolita's mother, acted by Melanie Griffith. I've read several comments that state that this character was intended to be fat and unattractive. What these viewers may have forgotten (or perhaps they have never read the book) is that every character in the story is seen through the eyes of one person: Humbert Humbert. Therefore Lolita is described as being an enticing, irresistible nymphet, although most people who actually came into contact with her would find her to be a rather unattractive, slatternly little brat; and her mother Charlotte is described as being a 'fat cow', when the fact probably was, was that she was a normal, healthy woman who had those secondary sexual characteristics (hips, thighs, breasts) that Humbert wasn't too crazy about and which he recoiled away from as 'fat'. Nabokov deliberately romanticized Humbert's predilection for girl-children by portraying him as a man haunted by a lost childhood love (rather like Charlie Chaplin); if he hadn't done this, the reader (and viewer) could have interpreted this aversion to grown women as more of a latent homosexuality than to pedophilia. That digression aside: the movie is gorgeously photographed and beautifully scored, and the ending is as likely to bring tears as the ending of the novel. Superior in many ways to the Kubrick version--I preferred Peter Sellers' Quilty in that film, but hated the way he kept intruding so obviously throughout the movie--and inferior in others.
Plot summary
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.
Uploaded by: OTTO
November 20, 2014 at 03:37 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
I'm going to give this a wishy-washy review. . .
Emotional roller-coaster ride
Emotional roller-coaster ride that has you uncomfortably twisting in your seat. Irons Oscar-worthy performance pulls you in to the story and never lets go. Swain impresses as-well, although her performance is a tiny bit uneven. A film that is well put together - Definitely worth a watch.
A fine adaption of a masterpiece
Stanley Kubrick's Lolita wasn't Lolita. Not even close.
NOTHING can ever truly be like the book, but this is a good film. Dominique Swain plays Lolita perfectly, portraying the adolescent girl between childish but kinky complexity that is Lolita. Jeremy Irons is great too, but he is not fully Humbert. He portrays him a bit more mildly. However, this book is almost impossible to adapt.
There will never be a Lolita like Nabokov. Still, great acting and a fine script. Thank you, Adrian.