Written by: Kazuo Ishiguro (novel), Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (screenplay)
Directed by: James Ivory
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reee, James Fox
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
A butler who sacrificed body and soul in the name of service leading up to World War II realizes too late that loyalty to his employer was misguided.
Verdict
This is an impressive movie with an incredible script superbly acted and a story boasting depth and emotion. The settings are always impeccable, but it's the characters that stick with you. You can read into them just by how they act. This is tragic romance where the two characters never get together. The movie leaves you plenty of room to delve into the minds of the characters and wonder why not while also considering what if. This is an absolutely amazing film that will leave a mark.
Watch it.
Review
Set in the 1930's, Anthony Hopkins plays Stevens, a butler for Lord Darlington. Stevens is very private and devoted to his job to a fault. Emma Thompson plays the house keeper Miss Kenton. Stevens doesn't seem to like Miss Kenton and she knows it. He gets irritated, as irritated as someone as emotionally repressed as Stevens can get, when she points out an under-performing employee. We don't know if he just doesn't want to see it or doesn't like that Miss Kenton is pointing it out.
The movie straddles the war between the '30s and late '50s where Stevens is meeting Miss Kenton, now Mrs. Benn years later.
Steven is so reserved and I wasn't sure if he was socially inept, afraid of what could develop with Miss Kenton, or just afraid of her in general with her being his opposite. She tries hard just to be friendly with no response.
At one point she asks what he's reading and he's very curt. She questions him and he retreats to a corner where she finally pries the book away and discovers it's a romance. Stevens is quick to dismiss it as purely education, but it shows that he's in part romantic or at least is interested in relationships. It's tragic, because Kenton wouldn't try so hard if she wasn't interesting and Stevens seems too unsure and too scared to state his feelings.
When she announced she's been asked to marry, asking him if he has anything to say all he offers are congratulations. She longed for him to say anything, to even begin voicing his feelings but he refuses. She even tries to provoke him to anger, but even that does nothing.
What's really impressive about this film, aside from the superb script is that I remember how the characters felt more than their lines and that just reinforces how great Hopkins and Thompson are. They convey more in mannerisms than they do in words. They really act.
They meet all these years later with so many thing that were left unsaid, and still no voice is giving to the feelings. Steven took pride in his work, but what does he get for it? He missed out on a relationship, but maybe he was never fit for it.
This is a tragic tale of love so close and never occurring, but the ending is just crushing. Steven's current employer asks him if he remembers the old days and he responds, "I was too busy serving." He missed out on life because he was too devoted to his job. Lord Darlington left the world a broken and despised man. The object of Stevens devotion, indirectly, amounted to nothing. What does that say about his devotion?
You can look at this as Kenton never admitted how she felt to Stevens, but he never shared anything personal. She pressed him hard, and he didn't really seem to even like her. You almost what she saw in him. They did have weekly or daily conversations, but one night she claims she's tired and he's quick to call off the conversations entirely. Despite her protests he presses to end it entirely. It certainly seems like he's disinterested based on that. Why would she continue with that kind of response. He certainly seems disinterested.
This is an anti-romance. Two people never admit how they feel, and they never get together. I have to blame Stevens. He was too scared to make himself vulnerable. Maybe he didn't know how to give voice to his feelings. His last line about being too busy serving is heartbreaking. He missed out on life, focused on the wrong things.
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