The film opens in medias res with a disheveled, bleeding Humbert Humbert (Jeremy Irons) driving erratically. He begins his confession to a jury of the dead: his life story.

The does not provide answers. It asks the audience: Why are you watching? What do you see in this story? That uncomfortable self-reflection is the point.

Jeremy Irons was 48 when he played Humbert. He brought a melancholic, patrician dignity to the role that Kubrick’s James Mason (more aggressive and comic) lacked. Irons’ Humbert is a poet trapped in a pedophile’s body. He is disgusting, yes, but Irons plays him as tragically self-deceived. His narration, lifted directly from Nabokov’s prose, is delivered in a whisper that sounds like a prayer. You hate him, but you cannot look away. Irons gives Humbert a soul—which makes the eventual destruction of Dolores even more painful.

Based on the 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the , directed by Adrian Lyne, is a psychological drama told from the perspective of Humbert Humbert , a middle-aged European professor. Plot Summary

was 15 at the time of filming—older than the 12-year-old character in the book, but still a minor, requiring adult body doubles for simulated sex scenes Humbert's Narrative : The film retains the book’s framing of Humbert Humbert (played by Jeremy Irons