Philip Roth’s ‘Indignation’ translates brilliantly to the big screen

PETER FELDMAN

Philip Roth’s novel about a young Jewish university student who falls in love with a beautiful blonde gentile classmate and scuppers his family’s best laid plans, is brought vividly to life on screen.

The year is 1951 and Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), a working-class Jewish boy from Newark, New Jersey, travels on a scholarship to a small, conservative college in Ohio, thus exempting him from being drafted into the Korean War.

But once there, Marcus’s growing infatuation with Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon), causes undue problems and he clashes with the college’s imposing Dean, Hawes Caudwell (Tracy Letts) who gives him sound advice.

Needless to say, Marcus is an independent soul who is determined to forge his own path and will not allow outside influences to filter through.

Director James Schamus has produced a compelling, well-crafted film with first-rate performances. Young Lerman and the worldly-wise and knowledgeable Letts give fully developed characterisations and their intense verbal exchanges, where hints of anti-Semitism creep in, are riveting.

What is impressive about Indignation is the manner in which Schamus allows the story to build, growing from a run-of-the-mill coming-of-age tale to a poetic and majestic meditation on the callous unpredictability of character. One can feel the intensity of the situation develop as the single-minded Marcus stoically pursues Olivia, and there’s a sharp twist or two fused to the outcome of events.

With a fine grasp of character and milieu, Schamus layers the story with an emotional heft and his handling of a complicated scenario is gratifyingly executed. It is bitter-sweet and heart-breaking.

Like good wines and good films, there’s a complexity to the finish. It reverberates with meanings beyond the obvious and is a work that certainly gets under your skin.