A/A-

Grade may improve on a second viewing since I missed the beginning and I was a bit sick/tired that day, but from what I did see, a near masterpiece. What makes this one of the most tragic love stories of all is that there isn't a happy ending, but not for the reason of a tragedy or major event that splits the couple, but rather for the reason that the two repressed themselves for their entire lives and never admitted to each other their feelings, they go until the day they die never achieving their happiness or grasping what they want in their life, a supreme and ultimate portrait of lonliness and repression... the sadness devestates me and breaks my wee little heart.

Hopkins gives one of, if not his best performance, and as good as Hanks in Philadelphia or Neeson in Schindler's was that year, he deserved the Oscar... though it was predictable that they would give an Oscar to due boy-ish Hanks or the lead in monster Schindler's over the subtle butler performance. 1993 was one hell of a year for male performances god, with those 3, Kilmer in Tombstone, and Ford/Jones in The Fugitive. Thompson also deserved it, if she wasn't double nominated and vote splitted I think she could've and would've won here easily... This movie probably should've been the second Actor/Actress sweep in 3 years for Hopkins. Reeve and Grant and the rest of the supporting performances were solid as well.

Screenplay shines, film is extremely well made and directed, beautiful score, not much more to say... excellent excellent movie. Will need to see it again to discover if it ranks among my favorites or not.

B



To start out with the positives, I found this film to be better than the other Oscar-nominateed Merchant/Ivory producion I've seen not too long ago - A Room with a View. But yet again, even if to a lesser extent, the film felt like a very lush and beautiful production with just not enough soul. I just never eally connected. I suppose I now know how the folks felt that said the same about Atonement. Production-wise, The Remains of the Day is very successful. The set decorations of the mansion is beautiful. The costumes, the sets, the scores...that was all as it should have been.

Furthermore, the acting was great. Really, just great. Anthony Hopkins easily delivers one of the Top 3 or so performances of his career (and that says A LOT about his career). He's so subtle, yet manages to play out all the represed feelings and emotions of the character. Emma Thompson is the great counterpart here. Their best scene together is probably the one when she wants to see what book he is reading. James Fox plays the naive, good-willing, yet stupid Lord Darlington pretty well too. Chris Reeve is decent, but his turn is way too short. Hugh Grant surprises in a rather unusual role here. I liked his scenes with Hopkins.

Speaking of those scenes, I enjoyed how the makers managed to insert some subtle humor into the whole thing so it didn't end up dry and overly earnest. However the part that didn't work for me was the development of the love story. It seemed to have come out of nowhere, at least I wouldn't know why the two characters would fall for each other, especially not for someone like Hopkins' Stevens. I loved the unconventional, sad ending. It was a downer, but it really fit this film. However, I think the impact would have been much bigger had I actually felt the love story between them and sadly, I didn't. Same goes for some other emotional moments in the film that simply didn't work, like the death of Stevens' father. The whole emotional journey of Hopkins' Stevens and Thompson's Mary Kenton just didn't resonate with me. I felt in a similar way with A Room with a View, so maybe it's just the way of Merchant/Ivory films that I'm not a fan of. At least both of these films were much better than the mediocre/bad-ish Le Divorce and The Golden Bowl.

The plotline of the Nazis and Lord Darlington worked much better, though, I must admit. It was an interesting to see these hisotircal facts (well, not the specific names, but you know what I mean) told here. The most interesting thing was that Darlington was simply fooled and was way too noble for his own good.

As I said, this film could and probably should have been more, but without an emotional connection to what is essentially the core of the film, I can't give it a grade higher than this.