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Top Critics (6)
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DVD (13)
It's time for legislation decreeing that no one be allowed to make a screen adaptation of a novel of any quality whatsoever if Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala are available, and if they elect to do the job.
The film serves Forster by taking to heart the book's epigraph: "Only connect."
Merchant and Ivory have regathered many of the cast and crew from their earlier films to work on this reproduction to exquisite effect.
A film seething with anger, passion, greed and emotional violence. That the characters are generally well-behaved says less about their manners than their inhibitions.
British class conflict; ok for older teens.
Not my cup of tea. I don't even like tea.
Say "Merchant-Ivory" to most cinephiles and watch their eyelids sag.
The pairings of Margaret and Henry, and Helen and Leonard, attempt to cross fault lines widened by class, and the tragedy of Howards End is in the absolute necessity and absolute inefficacy of doing so at their moment in history. [Blu-ray]
Along with Room With a View, this films represents the best of the Ismail-Merchant literary adaptations, one in which contents and style are congruent and harmonious.
The performances are impeccable, but honours go to Thompson, who manages to make Margaret's saintliness actually seem seductive.
Hopkins and Thompson are so perfect together it's hard not to buy them as a couple
The best of the countless Merchant Ivory productions - and arguably the most appreciated by those who don't even like Merchant Ivory movies.
Marvellously well done like its predecessors, but here teetering toward prestige.
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