This film is based on the book by E. M. Forster and is a favorite of my mom’s. In fact she had been wanting to own it for years and went on Amazon and ordered it all on her own. So proud of her being tech savvy. Anyways, as soon as she bought it we had to watch it. And I have to say it was better than I expected. You have a young Helena Bonham Carter and the always interesting and expressive Daniel Day-Lewis.
So onto the summary. So the year is 1908, Edwardian time. Miss Lucy Honeybunch (Helena Bonham Carter) is from Surrey but on holiday with her much older, restrictive, and buzzkill (for lack of a better word) aunt. As they visit the sights they meet Reverend Beebe, the two spinster Miss Alans, the author Miss Eleanor Lavish, the nonconformist Mr. Emerson and his handsome, philosophical son, George. Now these men are very forward thinking, with George especially. As Lucy and her aunt had wished for a room with a view, George offers his instead. Lucy’s aunt thinks that it is scandalous! But they are both convinced to take it.
George and Lucy are attracted to each other, and thanks to a carriage driver’s interference, George manages to score some time with her unchaperoned. While they are alone, he kisses her. As they are kissing, Lucy’s aunt comes upon them and stops it. She warns Lucy that this act could destroy her entire reputation and not only bring shame on her and her family, but also make it so that no one wants to marry her. They agree to keep the whole thing a secret and return home.
When they get back to England, Lucy becomes engaged to an old, boring sod: Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). She’s not super into him, but doesn’t abhor him. But then to her surprise George and his father take a cottage not too far away. As George tells Lucy how he feels, her feelings of interest come back.
By the end Lucy realizes how she feels and breaks off her engagement with Cecil, instead running off to Italy with George.
For me the most romantic moment is when George tells Lucy what he thinks about Cecil and how he feels.
George Emerson: He’s the sort who can’t know anyone intimately, least of all a woman. He doesn’t know what a woman is. He wants you for a possession, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display. He doesn’t want you to be real, and to think and to live. He doesn’t love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms.
I love that moment! He loves her and respects her individualism, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. He doesn’t want to control her, he doesn’t want her as a trophy; and for the early 20th century England? That’s HUGE! HUGE! Women weren’t treated as equals or individuals, but property! And here this guy loves her mind and everything about her.
I mean when he says intimately he means her whole brain and soul not just body. Oh George! What a man! What a keeper!
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