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Howards End (1992)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
10/10, 10/25
10/10:
After seeing A Room with a View for the second time, I thought I would
get the same Merchant-Ivory treatment from Howards End.
Surprisingly, it isn't a masterpiece that I hoped for. Although there's nice cinematography, the show keeps
getting worse and worse because there's no story and most of the characters are one-dimensional. I've had
to take breaks to prevent myself from being utterly bored. Not much of what goes on connects with me;
eventually, the film is pointless.
It's painfully obvious that Emma Thompson was attempting to recapture the feel and decorum of the early 20th
century English society, but she's pretending. Yet I like Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, the
costumes, the cars, and the set pieces which have me thinking, "Maybe, that's the point of the film: the look."
One reviewer on IMDb said, "When Leonard Bast couldn't catch up with Helen in the rain, I knew we were in
trouble. All he had to do was run. Then, when she goes indoors, he waits outside in the rain and gets soaking
wet. Why not ring the doorbell? When he finally gets inside, there is a question as to which umbrella it is
that Helen has stolen. Wasn't one of them wet?" Yeah, I thought so: too much prim and proper.
All in all, Howards End...I can't believe it.
10/25:
I'm raising my rating from '3' to '6' for Howards End.
The first hour is very disengaging, but as soon as Anthony Hopkins begins to assert himself, the movie is
instantly better. Emma Thompson...oy vey. She's out of her element from start to finish. I can't believe
she won the Oscar for Best Actress. What a mighty mistake.
Helena Bonham Carter is far better than Emma Thompson and has the right deportment to handle this sort of
thing, having come over from A Room with a View and
Maurice. Therefore, she's robbed of an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting
Actress which instead went to Vanessa Redgrave (you have to be kidding me...she wasn't even worthy of it
for The Bostonians).
The biggest trouble the entire time is...who the hell cares about Leonard and Jacky Bast? There's still no
story! How everybody keeps going on about the house: Howards End, Howards End, Howards End. My
goodness...just stop! But yeah, the cinematography by Tony Pierce-Roberts is simply fantastic. So are the
costumes, the in/exterior set pieces, and the locations.
Another is the lack of importance among many secondary characters. They come and go but don't play a big
part in the drama. A lot of times, I've forgotten their names or how they're related to whoever. Ditto for when
it comes to realizing that Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter are sisters; they don't even look alike. As
Leonard Bast, Samuel West is miscast by looking well-off when he's supposed to be inferior in terms of class.
On the other hand, James Wilby takes after Anthony Hopkins extremely well and can use more screen time.
All in all, Howards End seems to be in the same league as
A Room with a View and Maurice, but
deep down, it's a flawed picture.