The Remains of the Day

You haven't really seen acting until you've seen Anthony Hopkins trying to explain The Birds and the Bees to a young Hugh Grant. Ivory's film is an absolute masterwork of cinema performance.

my girlfriend said it was such an unsatisfying watch, especially since they wouldn't even "end up together". sometimes i hate her.

A very subtle and moving film extremely faithful to the source material. The ending perfectly embodies the 'mono no aware' style of narrative. Perhaps Merchant/Ivory's greatest effort.

It is surely remarkable that this movie appeared in the same year as THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, two films with the peculiar characteristic in common of being essentially event-less romantic narratives. This may not reach the levels of Scorsese's effort, but it remains a well-made and generally effective exploration of parallels between the entwined lives of its protagonists and the historico-political catastrophe preparing itself around them. But not quite as interesting as its reputation suggests.

What an excruciatingly brilliant performance by Anthony Hopkins... Love is long-suffering...