5/5

Review by John P. Harvey.

Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter, in her first major role), a young woman with her own mind, is chaperoned on holiday in Italy by her cousin, Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith).  When they express their disappointment at finding that their room in their Florentine pensione overlooks a courtyard, another English tourist, Mr Emerson (Denholm Elliott), and his son George (Julian Sands) kindly exchange rooms with them so that she and Charlotte may have a room with a view.

The entire trip gives life to Lucy’s independence of mind.  Coming to know George Emerson — who, as unconventional as Lucy is, feels an inordinate compulsion to speak honestly — and even to be rescued by him, Lucy finds herself drawn to him by a combination of his compassion, his interesting mind, and his grounding in reality, and when a misunderstanding leaves them alone, he kisses her.

This could have led Lucy to share with George a life of common interests and independent thought; but George entirely lacks the right qualifications; the feelings he arouses in her, she must of course entirely deny.  What else is a young lady to do?  So, upon her return home, she agrees to marry the terminally uninteresting idle gentleman Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis).  

When Cecil’s disrespect of Lucy’s invitation to two spinsters to lease a neighbouring home leads him to offer that home to George and his father, Lucy begins to perceive the differences between the two men in a new light.  But what will it take for George to have any chance with her?  Well, fate, as George sees it — coincidence, as she does — seems to have its own plans.

First screened in 1985, James Ivory’s A Room With a View holds up remarkably well.  The screenplay, adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster, was penned by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a past master of comedies of manners and seeming realism in human affairs who also wrote the screenplays for Heat and Dust (1983, and also screening in this festival), Howards End (1992 — from another E.M. Forster novel), and The Remains of the Day (1993).  Of course, it takes a subtle director to make a subtle film, and in fact James Ivory also directed the movies just mentioned.

Paced well, and its drama leavened with timeless humour, A Room With a View is a film to see at least once for its gorgeous scenery and amazing costumes, for the sublime acting of its principals, and for a romantic tale that has withstood the test of time.

Screening at Palace cinemas.