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It was a thankless task, putting Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious 1955 novel on the screen. But after Stanley Kubrick’s valiant, inventive and funny attempt in 1961 (which Nabokov himself scripted), why try again? To be fair, this 1997 version isn’t as sacrilegious as it might have been, with the flashy, superficial Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal) at the helm. However, it is Lyne’s bid for artistic “respectability” (the artful shots, the fidelity to the book) that is also the film’s undoing. It looks good, but lacks danger. Despite a compelling, tortured turn from Jeremy Irons as Humbert — and a seductive one from Dominique Swain as Lolita — it’s all a little too cosmetic and soft-focused. Although some might say that makes it even more insidiously controversial.
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