Howards End

Billed as a romantic drama Howards End is really just a hard look at class distinction between the upper, middle and lower classes as viewed through the eyes of the heads of three families, the Wilcox family, the Schlegels, and the Basts. Throughout the course of the story a clear distinction is made between the three as well as how each group views the others, relating better with the group they are closest to than the one on the opposite spectrum. The title comes from the name of the home the Wilcox family owns and the Schlegels adore. It plays a key role in bringing the families into each other’s spheres. 

The story begins with Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham Carter) getting engaged during a moment of passion to Paul Wilcox (Joseph Bennett), while staying at the Wilcox family’s country home, Howards End. The Wilcoxes are a conservative, wealthy family while the Schoegels are intellectual bougeoisie. Paul and Helena quickly decide not to get engaged after all but Helena has already sent a telegram to her family announcing it. This causes an uproar when her Aubt Juley (Prunella Scales) arrives and causes a scene. 

Many months later in London the Wilcoxes take a flat across the street from the Schlegels. Margaret (Emma Thompson) resumes her friendship with the frail and elderly Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave), the wife of Henry (Anthony Hopkins), head of the family. Howards End belongs to her through inheritance and, when Ruth hears the Schlegels will be losing their longtime home once their lease is up she, without telling Margaret, wills Howards End to her. After her death this new deathbed wish is quickly dismissed by the family as inadmissible and not lawfully binding. They tear up the paper it was written out on and burn it.

Meanwhile a third family, Leonard Bast (Samuel West) and Jacky (Nicola Duffett), a woman of dubious origins, become acquainted with the Schlegels, specifically Helen who accidentally steals Leonard’s umbrella while attending a musical performance. While Helen and Margaret are talking with Henry about Leonard’s position at a bank he recommends the young man leave his employment there as he has heard it is headed for bankruptcy. Leonard does so, taking a different, less paying job elsewhere only to find the information was incorrect and now he can’t get his old job back. He holds Henry accountable for the bad information but Henry is dismissive, unwilling to do anything to assist the struggling young man. When Henry and Margaret get engaged she uses her influence to try and persuade him to help Leonard find better work. 

Howards End may be billed as a romantic drama but there is very little romance on display. The most passionate moments happen at the very beginning with Helen and Paul and then just as briefly late in the film between Helen and Leonard who cheats on his wife with her. There’s no real sense of love between Henry and his dying wife Ruth. Later, when Henry is asking Margaret to marry him it feels less like romantic attraction and more like a business merger. Henry is depicted as stuffy and emotionless, only getting excited when a dirty secret from his past comes back to haunt him.  He had a romantic encounter years before with Leonard’s wife Jacky but beyond the fact that it happened nothing more detailed is revealed including how the two would have ever gotten together in the first place. Henry has nothing but disdain for the lower class, dismissing Leonard as someone beneath his consideration. He has no remorse that his advice for the man, given to Margaret without having met Leonard at that time, led to a dramatic decrease in his wages and station in life. It’s simply not his problem.

Helen takes up the cause, championing Leonard and urging her mother to intercede on his behalf. When that fails Helen sleeps with Leonard, then leaves the country secretly carrying his child. She will eventually return, very pregnant, to Howards End. Margaret legitimately tries to assist the struggling family but Henry won’t help Leonard, especially after finding out Jacky is married to him. Later, when Leonard returns wishing to see Helen he is assaulted by one of Henry’s sons, Charles (James Wilby), for “dishonoring” Helen. This causes Leonard to have a heart attack and die. Charles may be facing manslaughter charges. Margaret plans on leaving Henry as well so she can help Helen raise the baby. 

This is a plot heavy film that spends a great deal of time examining how the various social classes interact with, and view, each other. It’s a very British film in nearly every aspect of the characters and story. The very concept of an ancestral home is getting more and more foreign as people move on average every few years. Living as an adult in the same home you were born in almost seems like a foreign concept anymore. Howards End has the threads of those by-gone traditions and ancestral places. These themes are here but, to be honest, it plays better having read the novel by E.M. Forster which is far richer in atmosphere and character. 

This could have been a stuffy period drama, the type of film sarcastically referred to as Oscar bait. It does have all the elements of this kind of film. But it is much better than that. Anthony Hopkins, fresh off his performance as Dr. Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs delivers a truly nuanced performance here. Watch his eyes when presented with the letter from his recently deceased wife Ruth. He is not reacting like a man who is greedily trying to hold on to the country house and land that belonged to his late wife. He is conflicted by doubt over the validity of the note, whether Margaret manipulated Ruth into signing it over like this, or if Ruth was out of her mind at the time she wrote it. The reactions of the rest of his family only further leaves him conflicted. When he reveals to Margaret in the final act that he did what he thought was right there is no deceit in that statement. 

Matching him beat-for-beat is Emma Thompson who was mostly an unknown at the time. Her brief on-screen moments with Ruth as she speaks sorrowfully about losing her home thanks to a landlord wishing to kick them out so the place can be upgraded and upsold to someone else shows just how much it pains her to be forced out of a home where she’s always lived. The two women go Christmas shopping, Ruth insisting Margaret’s name be at the top of the shopping list and Margaret skipping past it repeatedly showing she is not in this friendship for gain. These two are old friends who care deeply for each other.

This is a well crafted film with some truly amazing performances, beautiful visuals and glimpses at a world not too long gone. It was considered one of the best films of 1992 and was consequently highly decorated at that year’s Oscars. It deserved to take home the Best Picture trophy but a little Clint Eastwood western overtook it come voting time. Unforgiven is a great movie in its own right and history remembers it better than it does Howards End so perhaps the voters got it right in the end. Still, Howards End deserves to be seen again and remembered as the great movie that it is. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Ismail Merchant

Best Director: James Ivory

Best Actress: Emma Thompson (won)

Best Supporting Actress: Vanessa Redgrave

Best Screenplay - Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (won)

Best Art Direction: Luciana Arrighi and Ian Whittaker (won)

Best Cinematography: Tony Pierce-Roberts

Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan and John Bright

Best Original Score: Richard Robbins

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Release Date: March 13, 1992

Running Time: 142 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, James Wilby, Samuel West, Jemma Redgrave and Prunella Scales

Directed By: James Ivory