Directed by James Ivory. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
This is a quiet, subtle, emotional, and incredibly beautiful film. It's about a man who is strictly the product of his time... and what happens to him when the world moves on from his day and age. It's about responsibility, duty, honor... and what happens when a man puts those things ahead of happiness and love. It's about the intersection of two lives, the clash of ideologies, and differences in values. Though it lost all of its eight Oscar nominations (mostly to Schindler's List), Remains of the Day is in every way a masterpiece.
Anthony Hopkins plays an English butler named Stevens in the day and age where the staff of a large country manor was an elaborate tangle of people, hierarchies, and roles. Rather than just focusing on the clashes between upper classes and their servants, this film toggles back and forth between the heyday of Darlington Hall, and its more stripped down state in a time closer to the present. Like the house he once served in, Stevens, in the film's present, has been stripped of the glorious responsibilities of his post, left to reflect on the past as he drives across England to visit an old friend... Emma Thompson's character, who was Darlington's housekeeper Miss Kenton. The plot thickens, as they say, from there. As Stevens considers the past, the audience learns of his almost-romance with Miss Kenton, the maniacal devotion to his duties inspired by his father, and the Nazi-friendly leanings of the lord of Darlington.
As I understand it, the book this film was based on, (of the same title) by Kazuo Ishiguro, is largely grounded in Stevens's thoughts. How, then, to communicate the same powerful emotions in film? Rather than reaching for the usual and cliched narrative voice-over to provide insight into this reserved man, Hopkins pulls off a fiercely stoic performance. Rather than providing more insight, the audience gets less. It's as if, by holding back, he releases a floodgate of feeling. As a viewer, you are free to read onto Stevens what you will, which makes you extremely invested in the outcome of the story.
The power of the story, first and foremost, rested in the storyline between Stevens and Miss Kenton. The "will they, won't they" question in their relationship is extremely compelling. And, though I've already addressed Anthony Hopkins's acting, it's important to add that Emma Thompson is right on par. She so desperately wishes to get through his butler facade, to break his hardened shell of duty and reach the heart below, that you can't help but wish it also.
Of course, equally interesting is the political sympathies the lord of the manor displays... Though unable to label him exactly as "evil" despite his conspiring with German Nazis before WW2, he is certainly misguided. What brings this plot line to life is Stevens solid determination to refuse to see his master's guilt...even in the present. Throughout most of the film, it's unclear if he even heard what was said in Darlington, let alone considered the importance of who was talking. There's an important scene, after Darlington has played host to an international conference of sorts, when an American senator (played by the late great Christopher Reeve) stands and claims everyone has it wrong, that they all shouldn't be messing with what they don't know, and that they're all amateurs to think rubbing elbows in a country manor will prevent a war. I've been fascinated lately with different takes on what the world was like right before WW1 and 2. It's one thing to consider the wars and their aftermath... and another entirely to get a sense of the time in the months leading up to them.
In the end, this film is about what is left at the end of the life... what remains, at the end of the day. This is a film about a man who chooses the responsibility as a butler to "his" upper class family over his own happiness. The question is, can he live with this choice, many years after the fact? After so many semi-lighthearted takes on this genre (Gosford Park, the recent BBC/PBS show Downton Abbey, etc), it was nice to see one that wasn't afraid to wallow in the consequences of the hard decisions in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment