|
|
| Tookey's Review |
|
| Pro Reviews |
|
| Mixed Reviews |
|
| Anti Reviews |
|
| Cast |
|
| |
 |
| |
| Released: |
1962 |
| |
|
| Genre: |
DRAMA
ROMANCE
CONTROVERSIAL
|
| |
|
| Origin: |
GB |
| |
|
| Length: |
152 |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
A middle-aged man (James Mason, pictured left) falls for a very young girl (Sue Lyon, right).
|
Reviewed by Chris Tookey
|
This is one of the best-written novels of the twentieth century, but its frankly paedophile subject-matter makes it problematic for any film-maker. Kubrick tries to get round the difficulty by reducing the amount of sex to near-zero: the lovers never kiss, and the most erotic moment is one when Lolita paints her toenails. Kubrick also makes the leading lady a maturing 14 rather than a pubescent 12, as she is in the book. All this rather diminishes the effect, however, and turns it into a comedy about Humbert's sexual embarrassment. The attempts at humour aren't very funny and the script is wordy. This is a botched effort, worth watching only for the performances of Mason and Winters.
|
|
|
, Shelley Winters 
from his own novel