Best movie of this year hands down!

A Disappointing Continuation

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is not a movie I would normally have gone near with a barge pole. However, It is such a visual feast and has such excellent acting that it proves I should never judge the proverbial book by its cover. A keeper.

The first major Merchant Ivory motion picture won multiple awards primarily for visual elegance, stunning period wardrobe. and a glorious score. The characters are portrayed as they are in the EM Forster novel but unlike the 2007 Masterpiece Theater A Room With a View the storyboard is not. Many famous performers are featured among them a short and memorable appearance by Judi Dench but in my opinion Maggie Smith changing the fcus of the role of Charlotte as EM Forster wrote her is the finest. The Forster them of deceiving oneself to fit in with the rules of one's society ruins one's chance at happiness is perhaps better portrayed in the tacked on ending of this film than in the Forster novel.

I will gush over this film because it is worthy of praise and a standing ovation. A Room With A View is likely one of the most perfect films to grace screens in decades. The E.M. Forrester story produced and directed by the team of Ivory and Merchant brings the tale of Miss Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter) to life in perfect Edwardian splendor. Wonderful locations of the Florence cathedral, Palazzo Vecchio, sculpture by Donatello, and an assortment of rolling landscapes are stunning visual fodder for this comic tale of Apolonian vs. Dionesian parlor manners. Exquisite young Bonham-Carter's casting as the virginal heiress is thwarted by her traveling companion, the venerable Dame Maggie Smith as her meddling biddy chaperon, Aunt Charlotte, with Dame Judy Dench as a proto-Jackie Collins author, Elenore Lavish, Daniel Day-Lewis as the prissy snobbish Cecil Vyse, and, a gorgeous, naked Julian Sands as socialist George Emerson comprises a most outstanding casting achievement. The excellent soundtrack offering of Dame Kiri Te Kaniwa's rendition of "O Mio Caro" takes your breath away as are the bits of wonderful piano solos that Lucy produces throughout the film. The cinematography is most wonderful with scenic panoramas of the far off Florence or Lucy sauntering through a field of poppies and wildflowers to receive the kiss to curl your toes from George Emerson, well, can romantic love get any better? This video is required for collectors of films of Julian Sands and Daniel Day-Lewis, however, its real value is as one of the finest of the Merchant Ivory magic touch in film making.

In the early 1900s young Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) is on vacation in Italy. There they meet young, free-wheeling George Emerson (Julian Sands). Lucy and George fall in love but she backs off being afraid. Back in England she agrees to marry self-righteous obnoxious Cecil Vyes (Daniel Day-Lewis) because he's a "safe" choice. Then George (by chance) moves near her...and sparks start to fly.This is a costume drama and, like most of them, this is slow-moving and deliberately paced but I was never bored. The script is sharp, the movie looks beautiful and the cast is full of established English actors who know how to play their roles to the hilt. The only not so good acting was by Rupert Graves, Sands and Carter--but they were all very young when they did this so they were still learning. The only bad acting is by Daniel Day-Lewis. He plays his character so ridiculously obvious that he's just annoying. It's good that he has a small role. Also you probably think this is stuffy and dull...but there is a sequence when Graves, Sands and Simon Callow all go skinny-dipping! And yes--you see everything but it's all so innocent and fun that it's hard to be shocked. I saw it in a theatre and nobody was even remotely bothered. I'd say this is a costume drama for people who don't like costume dramas! Well worth seeing. I give it a 10!