Customer Reviews
Superb adaptation of Forster's masterpiece. - By: Themis-Athena, 24 Aug 2006 
Most of us connect the notion of "home" or "childhood home" with one particular place, that innocent paradise we have since had to give up & keep searching for forever after. In Ruth Wilcox's world, Howards End is that place; the countryside house where she was born, where her family often returns to spend their vacations, & which, everyone assumes, will pass on to her children when she is dead.
And it is through Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave)'s eyes that we first see Howards End; approaching the house after an evening walk through her beloved meadow, her long dress trailing in the grass, as she goes nearer, we see the open windows letting out warm light from inside, & hear the voices & laughter from the family's dinner table. And while Mrs. Wilcox returns to join her family's company, two others are leaving the house & its serene world: Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham Carter) & Paul Wilcox, embarking on a passionate romance which is not even to survive the next morning - not before, however, Helen has informed her sister Margaret (Emma Thompson) that she & Paul are "in love," & thus set in motion the first of a series of confusing & controversial meetings between their families.
While both families belong to the middle class, they are nevertheless separated by several layers of society & politics - the Wilcox, led by pater familias/businessman Henry (Anthony Hopkins), rich, conservative & without any sympathy whatsoever for those less fortunate than themselves ("It's alll part of the battle of life ... The poor are poor; one is sorry for them, but there it is," Henry Wilcox once comments); the Schlegels, on the other hand, with just enough income to lead a comfortable life, brought up by their Aunt Juley (Prunella Scales), supporting suffrage (women's right to vote) & surrounding themselves with actors, "blue-stockings" (feminists), intellectuals & other members of the avantgarde. Further complexity is added when Helen brings to the Schlegel home Leonard Bast (Samuel West), a poor but idealistic young clerk who loves music, literature & astronomy - & with him, his working class wife Jacky (Nicola Duffett), the embarrassment of having to interact with her, & the even more embarrassing revelation she has in store for Henry Wilcox; eventuallly leaving her disillusioned husband to comment that "books aren't real," & that in fact they & music "are for the rich so they don't feel bad after dinner."
E.M. Forster's novel on which this movie is based is a masterpiece of social study & character study alike; with empathy & a fine eye for detail, Forster brings his protagonists & their environment to life, & James Ivory matches his accomplishment in this screen realization, finding the perfect cast & production design (Luciana Arrighi) to reproduce the novel's Edwardian society; although he superstitiously declined the offer to film at Forster's boyhood home Rooks Nest, the model for the fictional Howards End. The movie brings together many of Britain's best-known actors, alll trained in the English school which, as Anthony Hopkins once explained, unlike Lee Strasberg's Method Acting, is primarily based on restraint: there are no outbursts of emotion, self-control reigns supreme, & even a simple word like "yes" is reduced even further to "hmm," leaving it to the actor's intonation alone to convey the word's (or sound's) deeper meaning in a given context. And yet, vocal intonation, looks & little gestures often speak louder than dramatic actions ever could, & they are as essential to the movie's sense of authenticity as are production design, cinematography (Tony Pierce-Roberts), soundtrack (Richard Robbins) & the selection of the movie's non-scored music: excerpts from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, a favorite with the "educated" Edwardian middle class, & pieces by period composers Andre Derain & Percy Grainger.
The story centers around Margaret (Meg) Schlegel, who is "filled with ... a profound vivacity, a continual & sincere response to alll that she encounter[s] in her path through life," as Forster described her, & portrayed to perfection by Emma Thompson. Meg's friendship with Ruth Wilcox brings the families back together after Helen's near-scandalous episode with Paul; & the two women become so close that Ruth eventuallly decides to give Meg "something worth [her] friendship" - none other than Howards End, a wish that has her panicking family scramble ungentlemanly for every reason in the book to invalidate the codicil setting forth that bestowal, from its lacking date & signature to the testatrix's state of mind, the ambiguity of the writing's content, the question why Meg should want the house in the first place since she already has one, & the fact that the writing is only in pencil, which "never counts," as Dolly, wife of the Wilcox' elder son Charles is quick to point out, only to be reprimanded by her father in law "from out of his fortress" (Forster) not to "interfere with what you do not understand." And so it is that Meg will only see the house (and be instantly mistaken for Ruth because she has "her way of walking around the house," as the housekeeper explains) when she & her siblings have to look for a new home & Henry Wilcox, who has started to court her after Ruth's death, suggests that the Schlegel's furniture be temporarily stored there - a fateful decision. And while Meg & Henry slowly & painfully learn to adjust to each other, the complexity of their families' relations, & their interactions with the Basts, finallly come crashing down on them in a dramatic conclusion.
Howards End deservedly won 1992's Academy Awards for Best Actress (Thompson), Best Adapted Screenplay, & Best Art Direction; & it was also nominated in the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Redgrave), Best Original Score, Best Cinematography & Best Costume Design categories. Unfortunately, its subtle tones have recently been muted somewhat by the louder sounds now filling movie theaters. I for one, however, will take this sublime movie over any summer action flick anytime.
Great movie, this is a newspaper freebie DVD - By: , 17 Aug 2005 
Outstanding movie, rent it or buy it! Please read the Odyssey Video 2003 version review for a synopsis of the movie. I am just writing this review so potential purchasers are aware that this is a DVD in a thin cardboard sleeve that came free with the Sunday Times many years ago. The Odyssey Video version is an official commercial release. If you can buy this Merchant Ivory edition at a much cheaper price, then I would recommend it. Otherwise, I would steer clear & buy the Odyssey Video version. Good luck & enjoy the movie!
