Irons is in trouble and out of luck again as Humbert Humbert, the school teacher with a passion for nymphets in the second adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita. With a portfolio including films such as Damage, Stealing Beauty and more recently Chinese Box Irons is again the ideal candidate: genteel Englishman required for illegitimate affair. Still, his glamour, like that of James Mason in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version takes the bite out of what is essentially a film about paedophilia.We're in New England, America around the 1940's and Humbert has come to lodge with a young woman before taking up a teaching position. Griffith plays Annabelle who, on showing Humbert to his quarters, introduces him to her daughter Dolores, or Lolita as she's affectionately known.
Using a generous amount of slow-motion photography, director Lyne (91/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction) lets it be known the effect Lolita has on Humbert. The effect works, but in doing so he seems to have slowed the entire film down.
The film's main success is the voice-over narration of Irons, cleverly integrating Nabokov's prose in questioning the legitimacy of the relationship.
Newcomer Swain (Face/Off) is convincing opposite Irons. Her see-sawing from little girl to young woman is disconcerting at times and together they convey the confusion over who they are and who they should be: stepfather and daughter or lovers.
Lyne gets carried away though. He piles on the symbolism: you could see the banana-eating scene a mile off and the film's tempo or lack thereof upsets the intended subtlety of the situation they're in. The ultimate letdown however is the silly ending.Although it's not quite enough to offset the strength of the two main performances, it adds farce where it isn't needed.
Despite the political furore it's caused in Australia, Lolita will not have you locking up your daughters. ---Lex Hall
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