The Remains of the Day Reviews

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out again. Back in those days, James Ivory was pretty much at the top of his game and following the huge critical of ‘Howards End’, he was going back with pretty much the same team including producer Ismail Merchant and once again Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson playing the leads. Eventually, I really enjoyed the lovely and gentle mood, the pacing was also fine, even if nothing much happens after all. The fact that the main character never evolved probably didn’t help but it made sense though. Anyway, I was above all impressed by Anthony Hopkins who was once again so brilliant and really pitch-perfect here. Basically, after a while, I forgot I was watching Hopkins as he completely disappeared into this character. As a result, even though Emma Thompson was fine, she was slightly less convincing though (it is not an easy task to perform next to someone so good though). Indeed, when I was watching her, I was still really conscious that I was watching a bright modern woman acting as if she would be attracted to such an old-fashioned uptight man completely unable to express his feelings and thoughts. Eventually, the fact that I never really believed in their doomed romance was definitely an issue. Concerning the historical part, it was definitely intriguing, how this household, master and servants, was apparently completely sheltered from the rest of the world and basically manufactured their own views and thoughts which obviously had not much to do with what was actually going into the real world. I still think it was rather frustrating that they kept repeating the same scenes over but skipped completely WWII and its aftermath on this household. Anyway, to conclude, it is still quite a subtle feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.