Pretty Good

Absolutely Fantastic

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Though lambasted by a minority as a Merchant/Ivory snoozer, Howard's End eventually inveigles its way into a thoughtful viewers mind with rather abundant ideas and plots about agency, good intentions in a weary/cynical world, passive cruelty, active cruelty, material transference, and cultural ascent, all stitched together in a story of class warfare, with surprising, sometimes hypocritical motivations. No one behaves as expected; as with Thompson selling out her values in preference to ascent; and the generally awful Hopkins secreting his true, malevolent nature, while fate endeavors to correct it in a roundabout way.There is far more than most films provide to digest. And the ideas put into play are far more interesting than other movies deign to investigate, and certainly better than other similar chatty, period Emma Thompson films (Sense and Sensibility) which are fatal to the life urge. It's also superior to Remains of the Day (also with Thompson and Hopkins). One can imagine a much more modern, intriguing film (not bogged down with politeness and high production values) with these ideas, but this is the film we've got; and it's fine.At no point can you guess where the circumlocutions will take you. Howard's End is a knot tied back into itself a half dozen times. I find its complexity extremely pleasing. Suffice it to say, this is 'Final Destination' for the thoughtful set.

This is one of the finest films ever made, a testament to director James Ivory's unique sensitivity and genius. Of course, he started with a great novel by E. M. Forster, which always helps. But the screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvlala does it complete justice, as was always the case with her magnificent writing for the screen. I recently watched this again for the first time in years. My seeing performances of this story began with a London stage production long ago, where Gemma Jones was so brilliant in the role of the younger Schlegel sister played here by Helena Bonham Carter. This tale is so powerful and dramatic that it lends itself to novel, stage, and screen with equal facility. The story is bitingly, savagely critical of the hypocrisy and social injustice of England a century ago. This film's luminous centre is given it from the very first opening travelling shot, where Vanessa Redgrave is seen and followed as she roams in the twilight through her beloved garden at her house Howard's End, which she had inherited from her brother who died, and where she was born. Ivory avoids needless lighting, and we can barely make her out sometimes as she looks lovingly upon the flowers, the tree branches, and smells the redolent air, taking in the scents of early night. She stands outside looking into the drawing room through the open bow window, and is absorbing the adored atmosphere of the home she loves above all else in the world. Although she dies rather early in the film, Redgrave, as Ruth Wilcox, is radiant, mystical, supernatural in her mysterious performance, and she gives that inescapable tone of an underlying reality, of a concealed fate, beneath the surface of events, which make this film so utterly magical. All of the major performances are sensationally brilliant. Anthony Hopkins is so convincing as a crisp, matter-of-fact man of business who is in denial of all deeper feelings. Emma Thompson is at her most glorious as the infectiously irreverent and joyously alive older sister to the more serious Helena Bonham Carter. But in their scenes together they convey the carefree and heedless sisterliness of a joyful and playful household, they chatter together like magpies who have known each other since birth, they play, they joke, they romp, and truly they have captured on film exactly what such people could be like in those days. I knew groups of sisters like that as late as the 1960s and even the 1970s, before that terminal social decay set in, which destroyed all real joy in people's home lives and eradicated all such spontaneity and innocent fun in the drawing room. Every scene of this film reeks of authenticity and screams out: 'I'm really happening!' Or at least: 'Such things happened once!' Every scene of this film is composed so perfectly, the costumes are so exquisite, the art direction and production design are sensational beyond even the words of E. M. Forster to describe. The music is chosen so sensitively. Every breath is choreographed in this sumptuous spectacle of a lost world. As you watch this, you keep thinking: there is only one James Ivory. And he truly is an ivory in the lapidary sense, for he and everything he touches are carved by the gods.

Generally, when I start writing my reviews, in the first paragraph I explain the movie's plot. This is not gonna be the case here, because 'Howards End' has such a complex plot that I would lost about four paragraphs talking about it. All I'm gonna say is that this movie follows the events of three families in the early 20th century Victorian England - the aristocrats and capitalists Wilcox, the humanistic and philanthropist Schlegels, and the poor and hard-working Basts, and it shows how these so-different families are related to each other.The Oscar-winning screenplay here is based on a novel by E.M. Forster. Even though I haven't read the book, the story itself is impressive, and it seems like Ruth Prawer Jhabvala took full advantage of it, making the movie extremely believable and understandable. Of course that are maybe parts of the book missing, but the overall effect is great. It's one of those movies that you don't want for it to end, it could easily have another hour. That's why I find the ending very unsatisfactory, since it doesn't explain what happened to some of the main characters, and a few things are just weird. The script has also a few flaws, but they doesn't tear up the whole experience.There's really nothing to talk about the acting in this movie. Only that its's absolutely marvelous. The cast features names like Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave and Helena Bonham Carter, and they are all great. There are also not so well-known names that do a nice job, but they don't obfuscate the glow of these stars. It seems like an acting contest, where everyone is a winner, especially the audience, that is able to witness one of the best overall cast in movie's history. Everything here feels so real and natural.This excellent acting and story really sets the mood, but it wouldn't work with a weak director. A thing that James Ivory absolutely isn't. In order to direct this great cast and conduct this incredible script, James Ivory never lefts the audience feel bored or with that feeling that the movie never ends. There are some really intelligent angles and shots here, some of which you'd never seen before. That's right, James Ivory got to be original in 1992 (!). Every other aspect of this movie is perfect. The set-decoration and art- direction put you into that period in history, and the photography, along with the soundtrack composed by an original music score and well- known classic songs, the mood here couldn't be better.Overral, this movie is an incredible adaption. The excellent script, along with a perfect acting and incredible direction, set-decoration and art-direction, makes this movie the perfect representation of Victorian England. 9/10

So subtle, yet so very clever. There are some films you watch again and again just because you like them, or something about them. Even if you don't think them among the best ever - they're one of your favorites. This is not that. There are others you really have to watch several times just to penetrate the layers of things hidden - multiple meaning and real subtext. Modern film goers aren't used to this. Many find even the idea of intelligent films that require your intelligence to watch them, a foreign concept. This is one of those.Now mind you I'm not saying this is a hard film to watch, it is not. It's extremely easy to watch, and very enjoyable - if you like people (or at least the idea of liking people). If you don't like people, you probably won't like this or any period piece. This movie actually has something to say, which is easy to miss. Meaning if you stay on the surface of it, it's very easy to take for granted - looking at the lovely and missing the principles and truths on display. Attention is something you have to Pay, and some are simply not willing to do that. They feel the price of the ticket should have covered it.If you love excellence then you'll love this film, because it it is filled with excellence. It's not fast paced like a thriller, but not a single moment of the film is wasted. All the transitions from scene to scene are seamless, and every scene is full. The language here is the language of relationships. With one of the stronger underlying themes being that of the Biblical law of reaping what you sow, and accountability for one's actions.Pay special attention to where the film begins and the offense (morally) that occurs there, where the film ends - and who is given what would have been theirs (at least in part) had the right thing been done instead of the offense, and the way that it all comes about. Which is part of what causes you to not notice it. Believe me, it is so subtle pretty nearly everyone misses it. In an almost altruistic sense the story comes full circle by ending exactly where it began. Watch how the inanimate objects of an umbrella, a sword, and a house participate in the flow of events, and thereby the direction of lives. This is probably the most nuanced film you'll ever see, and it is a masterpiece . . . fullgrownministry.com