The movie has been adapted from the E. M. Forster novel by three filmmakers who have specialized recently in film adaptations of literary works: director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their other recent credits include "The Bostonians," "The Europeans" and "Heat and Dust." This is the best film they have made. It is an intellectual film, but intellectual about emotions: It encourages us to think about how we feel, instead of simply acting on our feelings.

It shows us a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, who is about to marry the wrong man - not because of her passion, but because of her lack of thought. Only think about your passion, the movie argues, and you will throw over Cecil and marry George. Usually, thought and passion are on opposite sides in the movies; this time it's entertaining to find them on the same side.

Roger Ebert (fin)

The story moves at a deliberate pace, with occasional dramatic interruptions for great passion. The dialogue is stately and abstract, except when all of a sudden it turns direct and honest. The perfor- mances are perfectly balanced between the heart and the mind.At the center of everything stands Lucy, who is played by Helena Bonham Carter, that dark-browed, stubborn little girl from "Lady Jane." Maggie Smith is wonderfully dotty as her companion. Denholm Elliott, the most dependable of all British character actors, steals scene after scene as George's free-thinking father.(formidable acteur!!!) 

Julian Sands is the intense young George Emerson. And Daniel Day Lewis creates a masterpiece in his performance as Cecil; give him a monocle and a butterfly, and he could be on the cover of the New Yorker."A Room with a View" enjoys its storytelling so much that I enjoyed the very process of it. The story moved slowly, it seemed, for the same reason you try to make ice cream last: because it's so good.

It's aging well
Author: pekinman from Illinois
20 December 2004

I have enjoyed 'A Room with a View' since it arrived on the scene in 1985. I have watched it many times and the video is wearing out and I fully intend to get the DVD of it soon. I saw it again the other night and am still charmed by it, in fact, I enjoyed it more than ever. Yes, it's a costume drama under glass, but it's a very well-done example of that popular genre. Films like this are greatly appealing to people like me who yearn for a gentler society and manners, though without the uptight staidness as exemplified by Aunt Charlotte (Maggie Smith) and Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). So this movie falls under the category of "comfort" film for me, and it is one of the very best.

Often Merchant/Ivory productions ring false ('Remains of the Day', for example), when they attempt to make a political statement; in that case regarding the under-current in Britain that led to the surprisingly popular British Union of Fascists created by Sir Oswald Mosley prior to WW2. But when James Ivory and his team stick to romance and the pretty manners of Edwardians, they are hard to beat.Of the performers, Julian Sands seems the most "improved" in my opinion from earlier viewings. He is wonderful as the Byronic lover and has a ton of chemistry with Helena Bonham-Carter's lovely, spicey Lucy Honeychurch. Daniel Day-Lewis's Cecil Vyse seems a bit more contrived as time passes but is in the end a touching portrayal of a type of man that I despise.

There isn't weak link in the entire cast. The Puccini arias and Beethoven piano sonatas are beautiful and enhance the story. The photography is gorgeous and the other technical aspects are flawless.This is the pinnacle of Merchant/Ivory films, I cannot imagine them producing anything better in the future, but who knows. They do seem to be in a cultural rut now, however.The fringe film crowd will probably descry this sort of populist cinema, but I think that is narrow-minded snobbery, as boorish as Cecil Vyse and his insufferable intolerance to "the plebians."