Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson

Director: James Ivory

Screenplay: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Running time: 2 hrs 14 mins

Genre: Drama



CRITIQUE:


When you're watching British period dramas, chances are, you're very likely to find recurring themes of stiff upper-lippery, the commotions that run through upstairs and downstairs, populated by people usually in costumes, all bearing the gloomiest of faces. It's easy to be cynical, as perhaps films like these have been dulled in the contemporary age of television costume-drama fodder. But it's undoubtedly hard to dismiss the intensity of this Merchant Ivory's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's story of blind loyalty, class divide and repressed love. At its heart is a character study of a dutiful butler, the impeccable Mr Stevens, in his servitude to the Lord of Darlington Hall during the pre-WWII Britain. His faculties deny him to function as a human being, whose emotional suppression is so strong his disposition to the relationships around the hall always appear a matter-of-fact. There are moments when serious personal tragedies such as his father's demise become overshadowed and unattended due to his sense of daily servitude to his lordship. And he is even blase with his master's conspiracy with the forebidding Nazis in the house.


Anthony Hopkins exquisitely embody this painfully wretched character, with a consistent, often haunting presence. For a character that is supposedly devoid of human feelings, Hopkins is able to portray a face simmering with complex emotions, and yet also able to wither them away by a mere solidifying or blanking of his expressions. His unfulfilled relationship with the housekeeper Miss Kenton, played by a fine-cut Emma Thompson, is studied through a series of flashbacks that intercuts from Stevens' pursuit of a personal redemption in the present and his muted servitude in the past. Here the past collides with the present, so when that finale arrives, the effect is all the more devastating.


VERDICT:

Its unfocused narrative structure aside - this is a seriously contemplative study about people whose responsibilities deny them the right to their happiness. Remains of the Day has a quiet, brooding power, with Hopkins and Thompson's piercing performances, that makes it superior to many other less-accomplished British costume dramas.



RATING: A-