Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad but could have been much better., 7 Nov 2007
A Room with a View is E.M. Forster's most optimistic and romantic novel. Davies' adaption, sadly, manages to ignore both these elements. It is neither optimistic nor romantic. The first is a failure in structure, the second a failure in characterisation.
Davies' script is structured around Lucy's return to Florence, years after her first visit when she met the love of her life, George Emmerson. This story, the romantic backbone of the book, is told in flashback. The ending is out of place and depressing. Instead of the optimism Forster initially intended, we are left feeling melancholy and empty.
Also I failed to empathise fully with any of the characters. Generally it was well acted, but I felt that the cast were not giving one hundred percent and not emotionally engaging with the characters as envisaged by Forster. Elaine Cassidy was good as Lucy, but her portrayal was not as good or as convincing as Helena Bonham-Carter's. Timothy Spall was particularly disappointing, as was Sophie Thompson, two character actors who I normally admire very much. And the contrasts between the liberated George and the repressed Cecil were simply not well drawn - in many ways they were too alike.
One scene that was particularly badly done was the bathing scene at the magic lake. In the original film, this scene is charged with homoeroticism and does not shy away from male nudity. In contrast, there is a prudishness to the Davies' version, surprising for a writer who usually extracts every ounce of sexuality from a story.
All and all, a disappointment. Not bad, just not as good as it could have been, and poor in comparison to the peerless 1985 original.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unconvincing wig!, 12 Dec 2007
I found most of the characters unconvincing, and somewhat 2-dimensional. Unintended humour was there though - how bad was that wig?! - I sincerely hope it was a wig! - worn by the Lucy Honeychurch actress for the scenes set in the 1920s. This adaption lacked the emotional conflict, the depth, the characterisation, the acting, and the beauty of the Helena Bonham Carter version. Compare for instance the scene where Mr Beebe is a silent witness to the passionate piano-playing of Lucy. Helena Bonham Carter looked stormy, immensely frustrated, and ultimately exhausted by her efforts. The sombre, richly-coloured setting added drama and intensity to the scene. The modern version was too restrained, too light, and wholy unconvincing. I gave it 2 stars because it isn't actively offensive - just a rather slight easy-watching, but unsatisfying adaption.
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
good fun, but not good, 6 Nov 2007
I enjoyed a good deal of this adaptation, certainly the first half, but it is a broad and liberty-taking version of Forster's novel. I greatly admire Andrew Davies's sometimes bold approach to 'the classics', but is this case he takes, for me, a step too far. Generally the acting is good ; generally it is visually very pleasing. But as the DVD goes on, it becomes harder and harder to take seriously. The earlier stages, in Florence, do not really capture the breathless 'otherness' of the place in which Lucy can be swept away by her feelings, though the portrayal of the English travellers abroad, cooped up eccentrically in a little pension, is amusing. It's difficult to say why, but the central concern of the novel, the conflict between natural emotion and stiff English 'correctness' in a class context, never really convinces. The ending goes beyond the novel and in one feel-good respect (involving an Italian coach-driver) seems far too good to be true. So, a pleasant film but not a great one.
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