Customer Reviews

Howards End

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved E.M. Forester's book, HOWARD'S END, so I knew I'd love this film as well. Period pieces are my favorites and English period pieces have a special "something" about them. Maybe it's the lush cinematography or the brilliant acting. I suppose it's really a combination of many things.

HOWARD'S END is set, for the most part, in London, and revolves around two families: the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes. The Schlegels and the Wilcoxes are separated by class; the Schlegels are a middle class family, comfortable, but definitely not "old money," while the Wilcoxes are far more "to the manor born." Society, at the time HOWARD'S END takes place, dictated that the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes definitely not mix. However, mix they do, with disastrous results.

In the Schlegel family are two sisters, Margaret (Emma Thompson), the older and plainer, and Helen (Helena Bonham-Carter), the younger and more beautiful. We know trouble is brewing when Helen becomes involved, though briefly, with young Paul Wilcox. Of course, the Wilcoxes consider Helen (or any Schlegel, for that matter) to be beneath them, but the affair also distresses the Schlegels as well.

The lives of the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes are destined to be intertwined, however, and Margaret befriends Ruth Wilcox (beautifully played by the always-ethereal Vanessa Redgrave), the mother of young Paul. The lives of the two families become further entwined when Ruth Wilcox dies and leaves her lovely country home, "Howard's End," to her good friend, Margaret. Of course, this doesn't sit at all well with the Wilcoxes, who are truly shocked, and Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins), Ruth's husband, tries to cover up Ruth's final wishes and keep Margaret away from "Howard's End."

But that is far from the end of the story and far from the end of the intertwining of the lives of the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes. In a superb and tragic subplot, both Margaret and Helen attempt to befriend a poor clerk, Leonard Bast (Samuel West) and, without meaning to, cause him to lose his meager job and leave him with no hope for the future.

The conclusion to this film is surprising and explosive, but the beautiful script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is quite understated and the film, like the book, never slips into melodrama.

This is a period piece that is enhanced by flawless and understated acting from all. Emma Thompson as Margaret Schlegel is superb and she certainly deserved her Oscar for Best Actress for this film. Anthony Hopkins is, of course, flawless and Vanessa Redgrave's performance is subtle and beautifully nuanced. Samuel West, as the tragic Leonard Bast is wonderful as is Helena Bonham-Carter, though she is not the equal, at least in this film, of Thompson.

HOWARD'S END isn't a particularly long book, but this is, at two and one-half hours, quite a long film. The pacing is rather slow and deliberate, but I never got the feeling that things should have been moving along any faster and, for me, at least, the two and one-half hours passed by very quickly. The film holds your interest at all times. HOWARD'S END is a film that contains a bit of everything. While it is tragic, there are times when you laugh or smile, there are times of unsurpassed beauty and there is melancholy and regret aplenty.

I would definitely recommend HOWARD'S END to anyone even remotely interested in period pieces and even to those who aren't. Who knows, you just might find a new genre that you love.

The story opens in Edwardian England, where we meet Margaret and Helen Schlegel (Emma Thompson, Helena Bodham Carter), genteel sisters who are concerned with the plight of the poor. When they meet a lowly clerk who is struggling to get by, they try to mentor him but their advice only makes his situation worse. Meanwhile, Margaret develops a friendship with the Wilcoxes (Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave), a wealthy family whose country home, Howards End, will become an important part of all their lives.

Based on E. M. Forster's 1911 novel, this film is an insightful study of the social classes, their interaction (and lack thereof), and the highly structured and restrained manners that ruled society. Thompson won the Best Actress Oscar for her role, but it really is an ensemble piece and the entire cast is outstanding. The period is carefully recreated using wonderful costumes, sets, and cars and the photography is beautiful. The script (also Oscar-nominated) weaves together many seemingly unrelated characters and subplots, all building to an emotional conclusion at Howards End, which is the source of much desire, jealousy, and sorrow.

This is a thought-provoking and moving drama/tragedy. Highly recommended.

Excellent interpretation of the book and well cast. Had been meaning to watch this for years and was not disappointed.

Ismail Merchant and James Ivory will probably be best remembered for their gorgeous productions of E.M. Forster novels, of which 'Howard's End' is second to none. How can one fail, given their winning formula of lush period settings, perfect musical accompaniment, and flawless matching of character to actor? This particular Merchant/Ivory film was nominated for countless awards, including nine Academy Awards, among them Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress.

The story revolves around the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and their involvement with various characters including a ruthless businessman and his dying wife, and a down-on-his-luck day clerk. Margaret is the sensible sister, caring but careful, while Helen is the idealist, out to save the world, without realising how condescending she can be in attempting to do so. Their brother is almost an afterthought in the story. Margaret is portrayed by Emma Thompson, veteran Shakespearean and British actress; Helen is played by Merchant-Ivory veteran Helena Bonham Carter. Other players include Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins, James Wilby (also in other Merchant-Ivory productions), Samuel West, and the great Vanessa Redgrave. (Look for Prunella Scales, best known as Sybil Fawlty from 'Fawlty Towers' in what might be described as an extended cameo role.)

The characters show some of the principal social class divisions of late Victorian/Edwardian England. The Wilcoxes are a successful business family, unlettered and conservative; the Schlegels are genteel aristocrats with an idealistic bent but slowly declining economic fortunes; the Basts are underprivileged but yearning for more. One of the better lines comes from the aunt of the Schlegel sisters, as she explains their upbringing: 'Of course, they are British to the backbone, but their father is German, which is why they care for literature and art.' This is a world in which everyone expects to have a discernable and well defined role, but the world around these social classes is changing rapidly.

At first, Helen is engaged to the younger Wilcox son. In short order, this relationship breaks, but not before the Wilcoxes and the Schlegels are intertwined in continuing social encounters. Eventually, the elder Schlegel sister Margaret gets a marriage proposal from the patriarch Wilcox, after his wife dies of a long illness. Helen has, in the meanwhile, become pregnant from the underprivileged Leonard Bast, whose wife, we discover, had a brief fling with the elder Wilcox in the past. If this sounds like a soap opera, you might be on to something. However, no daytime drama was ever so lavishly and well appointed.

The title for 'Howard's End' comes from the country home of the Wilcoxes, in fact the property of Mrs. Wilcox, which she means for Margaret to have. She willed it to Margaret when they became friends, but Henry Wilcox suppressed the will after his wife's death. In the end, Howard's End comes to the Schlegels in a different way, as the world continues its unsteady path between Victorian/Edwardian sensibilities and the new world to come.

This is a flawless film in many ways - well acted, well designed, well directed. This is a visual treat indeed.

This story line is good enough to keep you in suspence and entertained at the same time. Anthony is perfect as usual. The greatest part of this story is the first glimpse into the cottage at "Howards End". Upon entering the house, the most glorious piano begins to play in the background music. The music is so hauntingly beautiful, so perfect for the setting that I found myself in tears throughout its playing. I had to have the movie, just for the piano alone.

Acting talent alone does not ensure a great film, but when you have a lineup like, "Howard's End", creating a bad film would be a chore. Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, and Joseph Bennett are just the start of a phenomenal cast that brings this EM Forrester story to the screen. When you then have the duo of Merchant and Ivory together with all the talent they attract to create these period pieces, the result is always special. Some of their films are better than others, but all are very worthwhile.

This film explores the results of reasonably small human actions that are greatly magnified, either through indifference or emotions that take control of common sense and a reasoned response to a given plight. The events and the consequences are exacerbated as the players come from 3 very different strata of London Society. And in this tale the three not only meet, they mix, and the results are dramatic at the very least, and tragic at their worst. The differing groups even join when Emma Thompson marries in to the highest level leaving her sister in the middle, while she, Helena Bonham Carter, insists on crashing every convention when she champions the cause of a poor couple whose plight she blames on her new in-laws. The relationship between the sisters that begins the film as warm and humorous, becomes strained, damaged, and nearly severed before the film's end.

This is one of the richer Merchant and Ivory productions as it is not confined to a few picturesque homes, but is expanded to include vast cityscapes full of period transportation people and their costumes. This is not my favorite film they have done, but is certainly excellent when compared to films in general, and very good for this remarkable team of filmmakers.

This film is remarkable on so many planes, that I find it an imposing task to outline this film and my regard for it - for it is one of the most memorable and achingly gorgeous films that I have ever had the pleasure of viewing.

Every character is sophisticated in the sense that the depth of their portrayal (from upper crust to crumb!) is so believable and absorbing that you feel as if you are not simply viewing, but participating in many of the sequences.

I loved this movie from the first moment I saw it, and each repeated viewing solidifies my fondness for it.

Emma Thompson shines - she brings a vibrance and humor to a character that could have fallen by the way-side if played by a less adept artist - to laud her would be redundant, but I do it all the same... wonderful!

The opulence of the era is vivdly, yet quietly captured, and the scenes of poverty are not simply glossed over as in other films of this genre - the disparity between the two worlds is balanced and projected very well, I think.

Jemma Redgrave gives a great performance - the brittle and disdainful character she plays is not simply a joke thrown into scenes to give them impact, but is an essential and insightful medium into the social/class distinctions of the time period - I enjoyed her very much.

Remarkable in so many ways, and equally difficult to articulate or classify (a comedy, drama, romance - ?)I recommend this film to everyone - you will truly lament the end of "Howards End".

This is a very good movie, with great actors/performances, and a bitter-sweet plot. It is especially delicious for those of us who love British period pieces.

This exquisitely crafted movie boasts wonderful performances, a rich, compelling story, and subtle humor throughout. Based on E.M Forster's story of fate, it follows two upper-middle-class British sisters and their wealthier neightbors -- the Wilcox family, headed by Anthony Hopkins, as they all move closer to an impossibly gorgeous country home called Howard's End. Vanessa Redgrave, as Hopkins' first wife, is, via her magnetic performance, the centrifugal force of the movie, though her character only appears in the first third. Emma Thompson exudes a warm empathy; her scenes with Hopkins ring of truth, and are layered with delicate humor and the social style of the day. Many scenes are truly fragrant with the bloom of a million British flowers, and Howard's End itself emerges as a character in and of itself, as you watch, with increasing interest, the flawed, loving people who inhabit this story discover that home is where the heart is.

Send a DVD that is not viewable in Canada despite shipping the product to Canada. Has not provided a refund since the DVD was returned over a month ago. Overall very unsatisfactory and unreliable.