Review of A Room with a View (1986) by Christina C — 07 Sep 2007
A wonderful Merchant Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster's most optimistic, fairytale-like novel. Merchant Ivory have too long been dismissed as "chocolate-box photography", often by English critics themselves with more than a little of that peculiarly English distrust of many home-grown successes. But the beautiful scenery, costumes and period evocation complement rather than detract from the real human passions and ideas in this story. In fact, I'd even say that the film crystallises its themes more clearly than the novel itself in this case.
Lucy Honeychurch is a young woman on holiday in Italy with her spinster chaperone. She meets the lovable, free-spirited Mr Emerson, and his handsome, intense son George - and the scene is set for the perfect romance, if only this were a perfect world. As it is, Lucy has to try to reconcile heart, mind, soul and body, in a society where most of these questions are not meant even to be thought.
Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, Julian Sands and Daniel Day-Lewis are all wonderful (as well as many other supporting actors). It's a typically Forsterian allegory about real-life love - and just for the record, it includes one of the most toe-curlingly wonderful kisses in screen history.
This review of A Room with a View (1986) was written by Christina C on 07 Sep 2007.
A Room with a View has generally received very positive reviews.
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