Turning a Philip Roth book into a movie is like translating ancient Greek into modern English: Something crucial often gets lost in the translation.

Ever since Goodbye, Columbus was made into a pitch-perfect 1969 movie starring Richard Benjamin and Ali McGraw, filmmakers have struggled to make sense of Roth's works. Portnoy's Complaint (1972) is a pale, neutered version of that ribald novel, and The Human Stain (2003) suffered from the miscasting of Anthony Hopkins as a light- skinned black professor.

Elegy, a sensual, moody interpretation of Roth's novella The Dying Animal, tries mightily to capture the intimacy of his tale about an aging college professor's affair with a gorgeous student. Thanks to sparkling performances by Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, it largely succeeds.

Director Isabel Coixet takes her time - too much, I think - tracing the doomed relationship between the celebrated professor and his callow, Cuban-born paramour. There are more slow-motion shots than in a Sam Peckinpah Western and enough lengthy close-ups of the lovers' faces for several portrait sittings.

Repetitive bull sessions between the professor and his poet friend (Dennis Hopper) about age and commitment also induce torpor, but Kingsley and Cruz save the day with their raw, smoldering acting.

Elegy

A celebrated professor and his young paramour.

* Grade: B-

* Rated: R

* Running time: 108 minutes