Review of The Remains of the Day (1993) by Kenneth L — 19 Jun 2009

Utterly superb. The story is much more interesting than you might think - we see the life of an extremely dutiful English butler as he serves a lord who wants England to become Allies with the Nazis in the years before the outbreak of war, not so much because the lord is a bad-man, but because he is gullible and ill-informed.

The story mainly focuses, however, on the butler, his work, and his relationships with others, especially the head housekeeper. The acting is excellent - Anthony Hopkins is perfect as the butler, who does have emotions but never, ever lets them show, Emma Thompson is moving as the housekeeper, and James Fox is quite good as the duped lord.

Christopher Reeve and Hugh Grant also have a few good scenes each. The cinematography is very good, as is the music, although it is occasionally a bit too loud and makes the dialogue a little hard to hear.

James Ivory's direction is actually a bit more lively than one might assume it would be, given the subject matter. I have not read Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, but certainly intend to. Sure it's a period piece about repressed, formal English people, but don't let that stop you from seeing this movie if you haven't.