A Room With A View poster & wallpaper

Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emerso...( read more  read more... )ns could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

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86% liked it

18,744 ratings

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100% liked it

21 critics

R, 1 hr. 57 min.

Directed by: James Ivory

Release Date: December 1, 1985

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DVD Release Date: July 4, 2000

Stats: 1,257 reviews

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A Room With a View Daniel Day-Lewis in A Room with a View A Room With A View A Room With A View A Room With A View Judi Dench & Maggie Smith in A Room with a View A Room With A View A Room With A View A Room With A View A Room With A View Maggie Smith in A Room with a View Maggie Smith in A Room with a View Maggie Smith in A Room with a View
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Flixster Reviews (1,257)

  • organgrinder136
    October 11, 2008
    organgrinder136
    a quaint and charming witty romance made easy on the eye with my favourite actress helena bonham carter as the leading lady. judi dench is superbly cast as the author who can't get enough of everything italian. daniel day-lewis is also cast diligently and manages to play a comple...( read more)te putz to perfection. i reckon i should mention maggie smith is also in this although i don't know why i mention it. she's good at being toffee nosed? elegant at worst
  • hypathio7
    July 15, 2008
    hypathio7
    A Merchant/Ivory production based on a novel from earlier in E.M. Forster's career, the common themes of Forster's writings are clear. A young woman accompanied by an older woman in British society before either of the world wars, encounters something exotic and wants to burst o...( read more)ut of the stuffy tight collared restraint that polite society of the time required. In this case Florence Italy is the hot-blooded location where the British characters vacation. The young woman meets a young man who discovers the bohemian code in the Italian countryside. She is wisked away home to an arranged engagement with a very unpleasant man who does not appreciate life. The main difference between the young men is that one KNOWS how to kiss, the other does NOT. Again because the young woman has been taught not to give in to impulses she tries for awhile to avoid the feelings that unleash her. It is the slowly paced style of these type of productions that bore some audiences. Ironically this tight lipped proper culture is what the main characters rebel against, and what audiences who do not like it or do not see it rebel against too. I LOVE Forster's themes but was bored by this one more than A Passage to India.
  • FangsFirst
    October 14, 2007
    FangsFirst
    It was only after I bought this film that I finally looked into what on earth the phrase "Merchant-Ivory," which I'd heard a fair bit, meant. Of course, it is director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. What they seem to be known for is beautifully produced period films of...( read more), around or about England and the English. This is certainly no exception, being based on E.M. Forster's novel of the same title.

    I must admit it was difficult for me to settle into this film--I've never been much of a fan of novels set in this kind of environment, finding them tedious, difficult to get through and exceedingly hard to identify with. Whatever character traits are shared between generations and centuries seem to be lost in Edwardian and Victorian England for me. Still, the film eventually settled its liquid weight into the correct channels and fit more comfortably with my sort of viewing and appreciation. Certainly I could not complain about that which Merchant-Ivory is most known--the production design was quite flawless, costumes, architecture, set design and props were all quite thoroughly attractive and real, and perhaps most impressive, the streets of Florence felt very much real, not so choreographed nor unrealistically chaotic as such depictions usually are.

    The story here is that of Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter), a young English woman who is, at first, visiting Italy with her cousin Charlotte Bartlett (Dame Maggie Smith). Lucy is somewhat freethinking, especially in contrast to the very "proper" and uptight Charlotte, who fears engendering "obligation" to two men who offer to exchange rooms with them, so as to give them rooms with views, rather than the one they find themselves in, looking out onto an alley. These two men are Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his son George (Julian Sands), fellow tourists, but less restrained in all ways. George finds a free, chance moment to embrace and passionately kiss Lucy, which she seems to relish, then immediately attempt to bury when Charlotte is horrified to find this happening.

    Shortly thereafter they make a return to England, and there to their small village home, with the reverend Mr. Beebe (Simon Callow) and Lucy's family--Mrs Honeychurch (Rosemary Leach), her mother, and Freddy (Rupert Graves) who is her younger brother. There she sets off on an engagement to Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis) who is the opposite of George Emerson, uptight, interested purely in art and the things he finds "important," and almost more than anything else in himself. He purports to support democracy and the mingling of classes, but turns his nose up at things he feels fail to meet the quality of his taste--which Lucy eventually points out to him.

    Here we are left with the conflict between Lucy's desire for the man she has shared some passion with, and the man with whom she shared a first kiss that frightened him--and he paused to ask permission for. Overall, of course, this is a conflict between Victorian values and the forms of thinking that began to shine through beginning in these times. More than likely, this is why the film began to appeal to me, as I saw more clearly that there was no support for the figures like Charlotte Bartlett, who became a source of comedy for her hypocrisies, deceits, false modesties, claims to morality and general ease of horror. Instead, we are treated more to those like novelist Eleanor Lavish (Dame Judi Dench) who write of passionate things instead.

    Performances in this film were sort of confusing. Carter is quite solid in most of her scenes, and certainly more than anything is in physical control. I suppose, in fact, they all have excellent physical control, but there is some verbal slippage in smatterings throughout the film. Some lines come out awkward and feel mis-read, as if the actors are unsure how they were supposed to say them or what they mean. This ends up slightly confusing on an instinctual level to the viewer--or, at least to me as a viewer. Carter and Sands were the two greatest sufferers of this, though both improved quite a bit after a single major faux pas in a scene regarding photographs Lucy had with her. From then one it appeared more that George was scattered by his attempt to declare and prove his love and to respectfully hold it back--without denying it--in other situations, and that Lucy was doing the same, even if for other reasons, like the uncertainty she felt herself in even thinking of choosing the lower class option over the wealthy and respected one--dull and irritating though he was.

    Julian Sands I've known for years primarily for his role in Warlock (which is actually kind of funny, because I've never seen that movie) and so I associated him with that and other similar low budget genre pictures. I'm not one to write someone off in the least for performing in such films, but it then always shocks me to find them in films surrounded by actors like those he is surrounded by here, in productions like this one. I was pleased beyond the above quibbles with him.

    Maggie Smith was fantastic as the almost bumbling, occasionally clumsy and unreasonably "polite" but self-interested Charlotte, which simply adds to an existing strength in her talent I've noticed--no flawed performances I've witnessed to date. Dame Judi I feel I know far more by reputation than anything else, as I cannot think of anything else--minus a silly James Bond film--which I have seen her in. I was not at all let down here, and it was nice to see these two, as such disparate characters, interact.

    Most surprising, though (and yet not) was Daniel Day-Lewis. While I've had quite a bit of faith in his acting talent from the performances I've seen him in, the only ones I've clearly and definitively seen are as Hawkeye in Last of the Mohicans and Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York. Both are sort of "action" roles, though I saw the extreme differences in approach, character, motion and overall craft he took in either performance--but here, here he is a prissy nerd, to put it simply, and it was almost shocking. I kept expecting him to realize himself and back down. Not because he seemed uncomfortable and unnatural in the role, but because it was not at all what I expected of him. It was a nice surprise to see a greater chameleon hiding in him than I was previously aware of.
  • thmtsang
    August 18, 2007
    thmtsang
    A young woman meets an eccentric young man on a trip to Florence.
  • sainttom93
    March 31, 2007
    sainttom93
    The VERY best of the Merchant/Ivory period pieces -- I put it in regularly just for the delight!
  • Arianeta
    October 4, 2009
    Arianeta
    The film is based upon the novel A Room with a View by E.M. Forster and stars Maggie Smith (Charlotte Bartlett), Helena Bonham Carter (Lucy Honeychurch), Denholm Elliott (Mr. Emerson), Julian Sands (George Emerson), Simon Callow (Mr. Beebe), Judi Dench (Miss Eleanor Lavish), Dani...( read more)el Day-Lewis (Cecil Vyse), and Rupert Graves (Freddy Honeychurch).
    Lucy (Elena Bonham Carter), won't admit her true feelings and lies to everyone about it. She gets engaged to Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis in a great early performance) who is really annoying and stuffy. However she is really in love with George, who is much more laid back and romantic. There is really funny scene of three men running around totally naked in the woods and also a passion kiss between Lusy and George in a wheat field. James Ivory directed a realy poetic, charming, funny, romantic and sensual film with characters full of life, passion, love and hope. A great story about the courage to face our true feelings and to risk intimacy, fully knowing and being known by another person. The musical score on this movie is beautiful, especially in the last scene.
  • dredzag
    September 22, 2009
    dredzag
    I'm such a sucker for beautifully produced period pieces and this being a Merchant/Ivory Production, it does not dissapoint.

    Helena loves Julian but is promised to Daniel. Thank heavens love is a little easier these days!

    To top it all off.....amazing cast.
  • hossein13
    August 17, 2009
    hossein13
    Feb 09 - An early Ivory-Merchant production which doesn't really measure up to the later successful projects. Yet it was fun watching it after listening to the book.
  • SageSlowdive
    August 16, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Simply a good movie.
  • BurtHarbinson
    July 25, 2009
    BurtHarbinson
    A period piece about "genteel characters who suffer from disillusion and tragic entanglements." Which more or less sums up your typical Merchant-Ivory picture. One of the several movies of theirs that was adapted from an E.M. Forster novel.

    This was a very charming movie. It is...( read more) very pleasing visually and audibly, as well as emotionally. The story is quite romantic, and is tied up very nicely at the end. On a very cute, and subtle level, I found this movie to be quite hilarious as well.

    The awesomeness of the wardrobe and the sets in this movie are hard to describe. I loved the hairstyles, the dresses, the suits and the way the gents tied their ties. I love going back to this portion of history. Very genuinely recreated, with lots of time and effort put into the history of the era. The vernacular, and general etiquette of this period is very attractive for some reason, which is why I imagine that most Merchant-Ivory films are created in this era.

    (Plot details below)

    What I loved about this semi-entangled romance story, is the irony of the circumstances, and how life is so crazy! People always try to play by certain codes, and ethics when it comes to love, but we often get disconnected from the real meaning of love. I think the fact that no one knows for sure, is an example of we can never judge love or a person based on a set standard of guidelines and codes. So with that being said, back to the irony, which is, if Lucy had not been stuck in her ways of what she believed to be proper, according to her parents, and elders, then she might have never know how to love. She might have never figured it out, and just settled for a lesser, yet more comfortable life.

    Whew. So, aside from the craziness of life, and happenstance, and "fate". The theme most commonly noted on this story, is the repressed sexual energy. How amazing love could be if we were all this repressed. I think in current times, sex and love are taken and regarded so lightly. I like the idea of preserving this level of etiquette, and wholesomeness. I'm on board.

    Recommended for the older movie goer, history buff, hopeless romantic, general movie head or film freak. Anyone with a finely attuned appreciation for history and film will love this one.

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It is an intellectual film, but intellectual about emotions: It encourages us to think about how we feel, instead of simply acting on our feelings. full review

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A Room With A View Trivia

  • In which movie did Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench play a "lady novelist?"  Answer »
  • She starred in A Room with a View, Ladies in Lavender and Gosford Park. Who is she?  Answer »
  • He was in "The Madness of King George", "A Room With a View", "Mrs. Dalloway" and "V for Vendetta". Who is the actor?  Answer »
  • Which actor starred in all these movies: A Room with a View; The Unbearable Lightness of Being; The Boxer; My Beautiful Launderette and Gangs of New York?  Answer »
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