The end of Howards End
When the movie “Howards End” came out, my response to the question “How’s ‘Howards End?'” was this:
“Howards End is fine. It’s Howards beginning and middle I didn’t like.”
That may have been clever for the time (you be the judge). But having just seen it again on DVD, I now find that I don’t like the end, either.
Not having read it, I have no idea of the quality of the novel. I will say that if the film intends to deal with the irreconcilability of class differences, it doesn’t do a very good job of it.
The beginning: Vanessa Redgrave dragging the train of her dress through the wet grasses surrounding Howards End. I kept wondering, “What is she dragging along with her into the house, and who will clean it up?” Although I could guess. To the untrained eye, it may have looked romantic. As someone who when growing up had to mow acres of that dewy lawnage, I know it’s filled with bugs and chaff. Oh, those uppercrust people!
The middle: Much comings and goings, not all of it clear. Anthony Hopkins starring in one of his two overall Anthony Hopkins roles, this time remounting his diffident English gentleman in the form of Mr. Wilcox. I suppose we’re supposed to think he’s hiding his feelings; I just think he hasn’t any. Helena Bonham Carter playing someone who is or isn’t irresponsible or daft: She swipes umbrellas and she frets about the lower class, but I simply have no idea what she does the rest of the time, except, it turns out, get knocked up during a fateful rowboat voyage. Nor do I know what her sister, played by Emma Thompson, does before she lands upon the emotionally stranded Mr. Wilcox. There is a lot of tea drinking.
The end: A bookcase falls upon the lower class in an accident that to me looks eminently survivable, but which in this case is deadly. It misses Mr. Bast’s head — in fact, said head is strategically safely to the side — and yet he perishes. We see the perpetrator, who had the temerity to chase Mr. Bast into said bookcase, being led into a carriage in a gauzy slow-motion, which I believe signifies a long prison term. No more is spoken of it. Given the bookcase incident, the prison term, and such forth, Ms. Thompson will now have nothing to do with Mr. Hopkins, although once he agrees to deed over Howards End to her, she kisses him twice, so I’m not altogether sure where the film leaves them. And Ms. Carter’s character has now had an illegitimate son by the unfortunate bookcase victim.
So… what is one to make of this? Class differences, or just plain bad luck? Is it clever plotting, as when Mr. Wilcox discovers that the drunken low-class woman at his son’s wedding is not only Mr. Bast’s wife but also his own former mistress — or is it ridiculous coincidence that doesn’t survive the light of reason? I think in each case the filmmakers intend it to be the former; to me, it’s clearly the latter.
Two things I did enjoy:
1. The radiant Emma Thompson, who goes from light and gabby to crestfallen and dreary while remaining completely enchanting
2. Her hat, which Napoleon would only wish he had found first.
Let’s never forget: Just because it looks like quality, doesn’t mean it is. Just because it says, for example, “Merchant/Ivory,” doesn’t mean it’s any good.