Let me just begin by saying I love the book. Not because it's a feel-good tale but because it's tells it story perfectly. The very heart of this book is a dark, twisted and tragic one, and its poetic prose serves an important function - abuse is not always in a gritty, obvious setting, it is not always perpetuated by ugly and charmless people. Sometimes it takes a backdrop against idyllic suburbia, sometimes predators are attractive and good humoured well to do - but the impact of their abuse on the victim is no less heartbreaking for it. In my opinion this film's dreamlike cinematography and softly spoken storytelling via Irons performs that very same function. It does not romanticise the relationship between Lolita and Humpert, it does that the poetic prose of the book did. Everything about this movie from the opening music with its not-quite-right-off-notes in the otherwise romantic score to Jeremey Irons awkward, forced and humanless grind against the backdrop of an otherwise charming presentation pulls this off.
As far as the acting goes, it's pretty flawless. People seem to have an issue with Melanie Griffith, but I actually really quite liked her in the role. She had the pitiful, resentful nervous energy that the woman in the book did, Jeremy Irons is perfect in the role and Dominique Swain was a prodigy of an actress - not a lot of people her age could have pulled off what she finally did after so many missteps and misinterpretations of this character - she did Lolita's tragic character justice. She played her as a heart-broken, confused and lonely child, and that's precisely what Lolita always has been.
I've seen so many comments about how gross this movie is. It's an uncomfortable movie and it's supposed to be. It's about a man who steals a child at the most vulnerable time in her life, lies to her and forces her to be dependent on him so he can sexually abuse her. He grooms her and objectifies her, reducing her to a fantasy and imprisoning her for 3 years in his valuation of her. The subject matter is supposed to make you feel sad and angry and helpless, so if you felt like that - that was the point, I think.
As far as the acting goes, it's pretty flawless. People seem to have an issue with Melanie Griffith, but I actually really quite liked her in the role. She had the pitiful, resentful nervous energy that the woman in the book did, Jeremy Irons is perfect in the role and Dominique Swain was a prodigy of an actress - not a lot of people her age could have pulled off what she finally did after so many missteps and misinterpretations of this character - she did Lolita's tragic character justice. She played her as a heart-broken, confused and lonely child, and that's precisely what Lolita always has been.
I've seen so many comments about how gross this movie is. It's an uncomfortable movie and it's supposed to be. It's about a man who steals a child at the most vulnerable time in her life, lies to her and forces her to be dependent on him so he can sexually abuse her. He grooms her and objectifies her, reducing her to a fantasy and imprisoning her for 3 years in his valuation of her. The subject matter is supposed to make you feel sad and angry and helpless, so if you felt like that - that was the point, I think.