Howards End (1992)

Directed by James Ivory. Starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Samuel West, James Wilby, Vanessa Redgrave, Joseph Bennett, Susie Lindeman, Jemma Redgrave, Prunella Scales, Adrian Ross Magerty, Jo Kendall. [PG]

Exquisitely-mounted Merchant Ivory adaptation of E. M. Forster’s novel of class strain and social rituals in Edwardian England. Emma Thompson won the Academy Award (and just about every other major lead actress trophy that awards season) playing the gentle and philanthropic Margaret Schelegel, who marries Henry Wilcox (Hopkins), the widow of a woman who passed away shortly after she befriended her, and gets caught between the wealth-minded concerns of her deceitful husband’s family and her sister’s desire to help a working-class romantic. Those who shy away from “stuffy” costume dramas have nothing to fear—these characters are drawn with detail, and the twisting schemes and ironies of the plot become involving quickly. There isn’t enough room to flesh out some of the lives on the outer edges (to be concise is sometimes to be reductive whenever the camera and dialogue stray from the main players among the Wilcoxes and Schelegels), but director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala can be relied upon to return to its stronger relationships and themes quickly enough. Acting, production details, and period dress are all first-rate. Also won Oscars for Jhabvala’s script, Luciana Arrighi and Ian Whittaker’s art direction.

85/100