Masterpiece Theatre: Room With a View
by Nicholas Renton
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DVD details
Actor: Elaine Cassidy, Elizabeth McGovern, Laurence Fox, Sophie Thompson, Timothy SpallDirector: Nicholas Renton
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: WGBH BOSTON
DVD Reviews of Masterpiece Theatre: Room With a View
DVD Review: I quite hated it
Summary: 1 Stars
Where to start. I am not one of those "they didn't stay true to the book" people. But (and spoiler alert) when you kill off characters simply because you want to... that is ridiculous. The whole film doesn't even make sense in this version. It was a waste of time; a classic turned into mediocre rubbish. Don't bother with it. Read the book. Or rent the 1986 Merchant Ivory film. Or just go for a walk; but certainly don't watch this.DVD Review: At Least I Shall Now Buy the Book...
Summary: 3 Stars
for myself and read the story as it was written. I have never read EM Forster, although I have had every intention of doing so. I have never seen the Merchant/Ivory production either. And so I decided to watch the Andrew Davies version to see if I had been missing anything. Not knowing the story, the opening sequences were quite confusing, and the production as a whole took a long time to get going, so much so that part way through I almost gave up. But perserverance won through, and I found myself enjoying the story at the end, not knowing at that stage that the bedroom and final scenes are the additions of the producer. One can understand the pathos and sense of loneliness when Lucy returned to the place where she and the young Mr Emerson had taken their first kiss, but there was the underlying assumption that perhaps Lucy, now a widow, was going to take up with the Italian who had driven their carriage to the fields 10 years previously! It all seemed out of place somehow, and didn't ring true. I found the acting of the person who played Lucy irritating in the extreme, and wished Mr Vyse had been advised to shed his grimy looking over-jacket much earlier in the piece. I am looking forward to reading the story as it was writ!DVD Review: Nudity Gets Airbrushed!!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
If you loved seeing Simon Callow and those two other guys naked in the 1980s version, you will be deceived here. Though they recreate the same, they airbrush out the male nudity. E. M. Forster must be rolling in his grave at this! If you want to see man action, see Forster's "Maurice" instead. Trust me: you don't want to sit through this boring, stuff, bourgie work and not get its famous reward at the end. It's one thing to airbrus something on public TV, but why do it on a DVD that's going to be watched in one's private residence? This is ridiculous as the nudity here is technically done in a non-sexual setting and fashion.DVD Review: Extremely Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I was so excited to hear that Masterpiece Theatre was doing "A Room With a View." It is one of my favorite books, partly because the writing, story, and characters are wonderful, and partly because I just feel good at the end of it. I don't want to trivialize a wonderful piece of literature, but it is a feel good book.
This adaptation took most of the joy out of the story. The filming was good, the scenery was beautiful, and the acting wasn't bad, but it lacked anything that made me happy to be watching it. I won't give away the ending, but it killed the whole thing for me. I just left feeling sad. It isn't just that it was not part of the book. I understand when things get changed a little bit because it is a movie and not a book. This however, added nothing to it. It revealed nothing more about the characters or the main themes of the story. It just sapped all of the joy out of the film. Watch the Merchant Ivory production, it was so much better.
DVD Review: Could have been so much better...
Summary: 3 Stars
I didn't hate this version of Room With a View. Yes, I have seen the Merchant Ivory version. Yes, I have read the book. Although I thought the cast of the Merchant Ivory production was magnificent, I actually like a great deal of the cast in this adaptation as well, so I was prepared to view this with an open mind and not hate it instantly because it wasn't Merchant Ivory. I have seen several of this cast (Cassidy, Cusak, Thompson, Spall) in other productions and thought they were wonderful. The aspects of this production I found most disappointing were the script and direction. I found the dialogue to be lackluster, and the interpretation of some of the characters (primarily Cecil) just plain dull. I have admired some of Davies' adaptations in the past, but his more recent works seem to have an underlying conceit in them that I find distasteful, as though he would deign to "improve" the works of the authors he is adapting. Davies is, indeed a gifted and talented man, but is he really so lofty that he feels capable of enhancing Austen, Forster, and Waugh? He had a wonderful cast of people to work with for this adaptation, but their performances were never going to reach the stellar level they were capable of when the script they were given to work with was second rate. I know there was a time limitation, but the story was just diluted and unnecessary additions were made (the additional meeting with the gig driver, George's death, etc)that seemed to serve no purpose other than to needlessly outrage the audience. I don't understand why Davies feels the need to shock a response out of his audience, rather than impress them with quality. That cheapens the whole production. This production wasn't awful, but if could have been so much better.
Description of Masterpiece Theatre: Room With a View
Made for Britain's ITV network, this Masterpiece presentation of A Room with a View introduces a fuller version of E.M Forster's 1908 novel. If it isn't as romantic as Merchant Ivory's 1985 film--with that picturesque kiss at the end--Nicholas Renton's adaptation offers its own unique charms. For one, it provides a look at the self-possessed woman Lucy Honeychurch (Elaine Cassidy, Felicia's Journey) a decade after her Italian sojourn. The action alternates, somewhat confusingly, between 1912 and 1922. In both cases, Lucy travels from Surrey to Florence. On the first trip, she and her companion, Miss Bartlett (a fidgety Sophie Thompson) are both taken aback by the left-leaning Mr. Emerson (Timothy Spall) and his railway clerk son, George (Rafe Spall). Not only are the men outspoken in their views, but George is Lucy's social inferior. Despite the obvious attraction between them, she accepts a proposal from the bookish Cecil Vyse (Laurence Fox, giving a more sympathetic performance than Daniel Day-Lewis). For the tragic ending, screenwriter Andrew Davies (Bleak House) draws on notes the author left behind, but didn't incorporate into his book. Ideally, Davies should've turned to Forster's more upbeat 1958 epilogue A View without a Room. Further, it takes awhile to warm up to the central character (previously portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter), though Cassidy ultimately rises to the occasion--especially in the post-war sequences. It's unfortunate Davies didn't support her efforts with stronger material. --Kathleen C. FennessyGeneral DVDs
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