Note: The Human Stain contains a significant secret about one of the characters. This review discusses it. There s no way we can contain the secret, and we re not even trying to, the film s producer, Tom Rosenberg, told me at the Toronto Film Festival. It s out there already with the Philip Roth novel. And this isn t a movie like The Crying Game, which is really about its secret. That s because the secret belongs to the character, not the movie. It is one he has lived with all of his adult life. Coleman Silk is a professor of classics at a university whose stature he has enhanced. One day he notes that two students have not attended class. What are they, spooks? he asks his students. Because they are African Americans, his wisecrack is interpreted as a racist remark, and he is called before a faculty tribunal. Rather than defend himself, he resigns in a rage. His rage is fueled by his secret: He is an African American himself.