- Film Review
- Reviewed By Adrian Turner
-
5 out of 5
This impeccable adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning novel stars Anthony Hopkins as the emotionally repressed butler and Emma Thompson as the housekeeper he possibly loves. Framed in flashbacks, the story is an English twist on Jean Renoir's classic La Règle du Jeu, a broad view of a narrow class of aristocrats on the verge of self-destruction. Co-starring James Fox as a fascistic English lord and Christopher Reeve as an American diplomat (the past and present owners of Darlington Hall), it is as much a study in power and politics as it is Hopkins's blinkered view of the world from behind the gleaming silver salvers. The 1930s and 40s settings are immaculately staged, and, unlike James Ivory's earlier dramatisations of EM Forster, this picture has real backbone: Ivory's direction is alive to every nuance and chink of the sherry glasses.
Plot Summary
A butler in a 1930s aristocratic household has dedicated himself to serving his master, putting duty above all else and repressing his affection for the housekeeper, who also happens to be in love with him. On the outbreak of war, the nobleman's Nazi sympathies come to light, marking a change of heart in the old servant, who looks back with misgivings about the loyalty that may have cost him dearly. Period drama, with Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and James Fox.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Stevens
- Anthony Hopkins
- Miss Kenton
- Emma Thompson
- Lord Darlington
- James Fox
- Lewis
- Christopher Reeve
- Father
- Peter Vaughan
- Cardinal
- Hugh Grant
- Dupont D'Ivry
- Michel Lonsdale
- Benn
- Tim Pigott-Smith
- Auctioneer
- John Haycraft
- Landlady
- Caroline Hunt
- Mrs Mortimer
- Paula Jacobs
- Charlie
- Ben Chaplin
- George
- Steve Dibben
- Housemaid
- Abigail Harrison
- Spencer
- Patrick Godfrey
- Sir Leonard Bax
- Peter Cellier
- Canon Tufnell
- Peter Halliday
- Trimmer
- Terence Bayler
- Viscount Biggs
- Jeffry Wickham
- Scullery boy
- Hugh Sweetman
- Baroness
- Brigitte Kahn
- Doctor Meredith
- John Savident
- Postmaster
- Tony Aitken
- Elsa
- Emma Lewis
- Irma
- Joanna Joseph
- Sir Geoffrey Wren
- Rupert Vansittart
- Wren's friend
- Christopher M Brown
- Lizzie
- Lena Headey
- Harry Smith
- Paul Copley
- Publican
- Ian Redford
- Publican's wife
- Jo Kendall
- Andrews
- Steven Beard
- Doctor Carlisle
- Pip Torrens
- Prime minister
- Frank Shelley
- Lord Halifax
- Peter Eyre
Crew
- Director
- James Ivory
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