{"id":6925,"date":"2017-11-03T22:03:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T02:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6925"},"modified":"2026-10-10T17:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T21:44:16","slug":"a-room-with-a-view-1986","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6925","title":{"rendered":"A Room with a View-1986"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Room with a View-1986<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director James Ivory<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #695<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed November 3, 2017<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Room with a View (1985) is one of four major films based on famed British author E.M. Forster’s novels, with Howards End (1992), A Passage to India (1986), and Maurice (1987) as the others.<\/p>\n

The four films share common elements, such as the vast English countryside and class distinctions, which lead to heartaches and passion.<\/p>\n

In A Room with a View, the film moves from artistic Florence, Italy, to a cozy village in England.<\/p>\n

The film is a period drama mixed with authentic, unforced good humor, and at its core a solid romantic drama; though, compared with the aforementioned films, it is not quite on par.<\/p>\n

It is still an entertaining watch, given the dismal year of cinema circa 1986.<\/p>\n

The film was considered one of the year’s best releases and received a handful of Oscar nominations, winning for Costume Design, Adapted Screenplay, and Art Direction.<\/p>\n

Cultured and oftentimes brooding, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) goes on holiday to Florence with her rigid and conventional older cousin Charlotte (Maggie Smith), who also serves as her chaperone.<\/p>\n

While enjoying the artistry of the European city, Lucy meets and falls madly in love with free-spirited George Emerson (Julian Sands), who is also visiting Florence with his easy-going father, Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott).<\/p>\n

The men seem oblivious to Lucy’s (and Charlotte’s) Victorian-era upbringing, which attracts Lucy and appalls Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Months later, the would-be lovers reunite in England and overcome obstacles that threaten their love, while admitting to themselves that it is blossoming.<\/p>\n

As Lucy has become engaged to snobbish Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis), a sophisticate deemed suitable by her family to marry Lucy, the pair lacks the romantic connection that she shares with George.<\/p>\n

Day-Lewis, on the cusp of becoming a breakout star and a brilliant talent, gives Cecil a somewhat comical yet endearing persona that makes him the main foil while also drawing sympathy. This is especially evident during the Lucy\/Cecil break-up scene.<\/p>\n

The standout performance in A Room with a View is Smith’s comic brilliance as the manipulative, witty Charlotte Bartlett, evident throughout.<\/p>\n

Smith injects vigor and comic wit into her character, as Charlotte seems to make one blunder after another, using her self-deprecating manner to her advantage to humorously manipulate other characters into doing things her way.<\/p>\n

A risqu\u00e9 and quite hysterical all-male frontal nudity scene occurs midway through the film and, while not advancing the plot in any way, steals the entire film in its homoerotic and free-spirited way.<\/p>\n

As the Reverend, young George, and Lucy’s energetic brother, Freddy, walk along a beautiful path, they decide to skinny-dip in a pond, where they horseplay and wrestle completely in the buff.<\/p>\n

As they chase each other around the pond, grab each other, and lightly smack bottoms, one cannot help but wonder if this scene set the tone for 1987’s gay-themed period piece based on another E.M. Forster novel, called Maurice.<\/p>\n

A coincidence? I think not. As the trio of rascals comes upon the properly dressed girls on the path, hilarity ensues.<\/p>\n

The art direction and costumes in A Room with a View are excellent; the film “looks” like a 1910 rather than 1986, with the actors donning early twentieth-century styles.<\/p>\n

Every scene is a treat from this perspective, as we wonder who will wear what next.<\/p>\n

As with the other aforementioned E.M. Forster films, class distinctions and expectations are central a A Room with a View and make Lucy and George all the more likable as a couple.<\/p>\n

Still, overall, something feels slightly amiss in the story.<\/p>\n

I did not find Helena Bonham Carter, an actor I like, very compelling as Lucy overall, and I think this makes the story slightly less than it might have been with another in the role.<\/p>\n

We may root for Lucy and George, but if the pair do not wind up together, it is more of a pity rather than a travesty.<\/p>\n

To summarize A Room with a View, the story is good, not great, and other key components of the film are much better than the central love story of Lucy and George, but they’re secondary to the main action.<\/p>\n

Given a Charlotte romance, the film’s best character would have catapulted it to an exceptional grade. Imagine the possibilities.<\/p>\n

Or more of the two, Miss Alan’s and their gossipy nature, or even a story of the rugged nude horseplay among men.<\/p>\n

Many of the aspects that could have made A Room with a View (1986) great were too often on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations: 3 wins-<\/strong>Best Picture, Best Director-James Ivory, Best Supporting Actor-Denholm Elliott, Best Supporting Actress-Maggie Smith, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (won)<\/strong>, Best Art Direction (won)<\/strong>, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>1 win-<\/strong>Best Picture-Drama, Best Director-James Ivory, Best Supporting Actress-Maggie Smith (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Room with a View-1986 Director James Ivory Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands Scott’s Review #695 Reviewed November 3, 2017 Grade: B+ A Room with a View (1985) is one of four major films based on famed British author E.M. Forster’s novels, with Howards End (1992), A Passage to India (1986), and Maurice (1987) … Continue reading A Room with a View-1986<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,440,192,261,222],"tags":[1237,9126,1313,11043,1448,1447,1548,11046,690,1449,709,11044,11045,1549,1550],"class_list":["post-6925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1986-films","category-british-films","category-dramas","category-period-dramas","category-romantic-dramas","tag-daniel-day-lewis","tag-denholm-elliott","tag-e-m-forster","tag-fabia-drake","tag-helena-bonham-carter","tag-james-ivory","tag-james-wilby","tag-joan-henley","tag-judi-dench","tag-julian-sands","tag-maggie-smith","tag-patrick-godfrey","tag-rosemary-leach","tag-rupert-graves","tag-simon-callow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6925"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24761,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6925\/revisions\/24761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}