Lolita

How does Lyne's Lolita compare with Stanley Kubrick's, back in 1962? It's superior in balance.

Shorn of Nabokov's language, as it must be, any film of Lolita, even one as adequately made as Lyne's, must seem somewhat gaunt.

This is an intelligent, faithful reading, suffused with a heady sense of atmosphere of a post war America that's also losing its innocence. Disturbing certainly, but the worst thing you can say is that it's a bit dramatically dull.

Dominique Swain as Lolita is appropriately sulky and gawky, and she has a sudden, delayed smile which lights up the whole film whenever it appears.

[VIDEO ESSAY] Although it is considered sacrilege in some circles to say it, Adrian Lyne's 1997 film version of Vladimir Nabokov's often banned 1954 novel is a vast improvement over Stanley Kubrick's beloved 1962 version.

...the performances hit the right notes...

Irons is excellent, but the film is a real cold shower