Howards End: A Review (Review #2180)

HOWARDS END

We might be giving our ancestors a bit of an unfair rap. We might look up the Edwardians as staid, emotionless, frigid figures. If one goes by Howards End, these were actually very lustful albeit more restrained individuals. This adaptation of the E.M. Foster novel stays true to the Merchant Ivory standard of repressed passion amidst the lavish production. Howards End, while I bit slow and long, still has enough to make it lush and insightful viewing.

A rushed, secret engagement between the wealthy Paul Wilcox (Joseph Bennett) and middle-class Helen Schlagel (Helena Bonham Carter) delights and surprises her family. They quickly call it off but are too late to stop the telegram informing Helen's family of that fact. Helen's Aunt Juley (Prunella Scales) unexpectedly arrives at the Wilcox retreat of Howards End to look over her prospective relations. She is shocked to find that no one knew of the engagement and is made to look foolish.

Some months later, the Wilcoxes take up an apartment across from the Schlagels. Despite their initial botched interactions, Helen's older sister Margaret (Emma Thompson) and Wilcox matriarch Ruth (Vanessa Redgrave) become fast friends. Ruth's family is not unkind towards the matriarch. They just live their lives and do not offer much in terms of company or intellectual enrichment. Margaret does. It is to where, on her deathbed, Ruth wills Howards End to Margaret. The note, however, is scribbled and barely legible. Ruth's husband Henry (Anthony Hopkins), with his children and their spouses' consent, burn the dubious will and agree never to speak of it again. 

Margaret and Helen are intellectuals who host salons with their brother Tibby (Adrian Ross Magenty). One of those is Leonard Bast (Samuel West). Helen and Leonard, who is less well-off than the upper-middle class Schlagels, meet somewhat cute when Helen takes Leonard's umbrella after a music recital/discussion. They quickly befriend Leonard, who works at an insurance company. They also have kept a connection with the Wilcox family. Turning to Henry for advice to help Leonard, he tells them that Leonard's company is in reality coming close to insolvency. He recommends that they advise him to leave and find a lower paying but safer job.

Henry and Margaret have by now married. They are content in their new relationship. Everyone else is not. Henry and Ruth's children Charles (James Wilby), Evie (Jemma Redgrave) and Charles' wife Dolly (Susie Lindeman) all find the Schlagels rather bourgeois. That does not bother Margaret or Helen as they are proudly that. Things come to a head at Evie's wedding. An enraged Helen arrives with both Leonard and his wife Jacky (Nicola Duffett). Leonard's former business did not fail as Henry told them. That left Leonard in worse financial shape, and Helen blames Henry for deliberately ruining them. Things grow more complicated when Jacky recognizes Henry and drunkenly reveals that she was his former mistress.

Despite that, Margaret forgives Henry's indiscretion. Howards End is a de facto storage for Margaret and Helen's property until everyone can decide what can be done. One thing that apparently won't be done is host Helen at Howards End. Helen and Leonard have indulged in the pleasures of the flesh. There is now clear-cut evidence of their liaison growing within Helen's body. Helen is not ashamed. Henry is enraged. Margaret is shocked by both Helen's actions and Henry's hypocrisy. Things, however, lead to murder and, after some times, Margaret receiving Howards End as her own property, fulfilling Ruth's original directive.

I think that Merchant Ivory productions have a perhaps unfair stereotype of being all posh and grandiose settings that say nothing about today. Seeing Howards End, I think we see how the more things change, the more that they stay the same. The same issues of class, of the heart versus the head, are really not that different from the Edwardian era to today. Granted, the out-of-wedlock situation that Helen has might not carry the same stigma that it would in the early 1910s. However, it would still be something of a scandal since Helen did get knocked up by a married man.

Something that did surprise me about Howards End is how, under James Ivory's direction, the film played a bit like an Edwardian screwball comedy. This is particularly true when the thoroughly befuddled Mr. Bast crashes the Schlagel tea party. The dialogue has an amusing manner when the Schlagel siblings and Mr. Bast discuss scones. 

In the film, we see the conflicting worldviews of the Wilcox and Schlagel families. The former is proper, restrained. The latter is more informal and curious about the world. That is not to say that the Schlagel sisters see things alike. Margaret remains within the boundaries of Edwardian society. She is an intellectual, aware of the world. She also does not approve of Helen's indiscretions and is shocked when her sister crashes Evie's wedding with the Basts. She is obedient to her husband, but she is also quietly forceful in pointing out his hypocrisy and cruelty. "You had a mistress, and I forgave you. My sister has a lover, and you drive her out of the house. Why can you not be honest for once in your life. Why can't you say what Helen has done, I have done", she tells Henry.   

What makes this scene more impactful is more than just Margaret pointing out Henry's double standards. It is in Emma Thompson's Academy Award-winning performance. James Ivory, who was nominated for his directing, led Thompson to not make this a big, dramatic moment. Instead, as Thompson plays the scene, it is of a woman genuinely hurt, confused and determined to have things exact. She does not shout or rage at Henry. Her declaration is not one of fury. It is one of pain and puzzlement. Ruth tells Margaret, "You're so clever, yet so good". That is an apt a descriptor for Margaret as one can find. 

Margaret Schlagel Wilcox is a fascinating character. She is thoroughly Edwardian in behavior, yet far more progressive in outlook. She is direct but sensible. She supports suffrage but will not go against her husband on most matters. Emma Thompson gives a magnificent performance.

Everyone in Howards End gives excellent performances. That is a major credit to James Ivory as a director. Anthony Hopkins is not overtly cruel as Henry Wilcox. Instead, he is a man trapped by his own worldview, one where one can feel for the poor but think it is the way of the world. Vanessa Regrave, who was the other nominated performance (Thompson as pointed out winning), is moving as the dying matriarch who is seeing her world shift in ways that she does not understand. Helena Bonham Carter excels as the passionate Helen. She is moral outrage and morally outrageous. 

The film is appropriately sumptuous visually with its Oscar-nominated costumes and Oscar-winning art direction. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Oscar-winning screenplay adaptation has some wonderful mise-en-scene. When Leonard and Helen finally give in to the temptations of the flesh, it is as they row down the river. We see them metaphorically and literally flowing into dangerous waters.

Howards End might be a bit longer than some viewers may like, clocking in at almost two-and-a-half hours. It might also be a bit too posh for some. That, hopefully, is not something to keep viewers away from an intelligent, well-acted and well-crafted film. Howards End moves well and tells its story of repressed and open passions with great power. 

DECISION: A-