Film Review: The Remains of the Day

Director: James Ivory

The Remains of the Day is a Merchant Ivory film from 1993 which is based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. Merchant Ivory being a production company found by Ishmail Merchant and James Ivory in 1961 with the aim of making English-speaking films in India that could be marketed around the world but ended up making most of the films in England. The film is almost completely faithful to the novel except in a few instances.

The story follows the life of Head Butler James Stevens (Anthony Hopkins, beautifully stoic) who works at Darlington Hall for Lord Darlington. The film flashes between the house before and during the war where many politicians came to discuss important affairs with Lord Darlington and the present day which sees an American Congressman, Trent Lewis (Christopher Reeve), moving into the hall. Stevens hears from Sarah 'Sally' Kenton (Emma Thompson) who reveals she has split up with her husband and misses the days when she worked at Darlington Hall. We slowly see a mutual admiration and possibly love grow between Stevens and Kenton that develops over their years at Darlington Hall.

Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson) and Mr Stevens (Anthony Hopkins)

The film is beautifully shot around numerous country estates in the UK and a shot at the end of the movie as the camera flies away from Darlington Hall (Dyrham Park in real life). Anthony Hopkins is excellent as Stevens who made serving his master and organising the other servants in the house his life's work to the detriment of his personal life. He becomes a man so obsessed with his job that he doesn't know how to be himself anymore. He is a great butler but is blinkered in his intelligence especially when it comes to Lord Darlington who he sees as an authority on politics when the reality is quite different. It also affects the love story between him and Miss Kenton as they do not allow themselves to fall in love due to their devotion to work.

Parts of the story see the plot get a bit bogged down in certain storylines that are a bit pointless and add to the slow development of the plot within the film. But aside from this you have some excellent performances from Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant to go along with dramatic setting. It gives you a look at the upper classes during the war and the effect they had within politics at the time whilst also seeing how the working class lived around them.

2.5/4 beautiful story from a different era but gets slightly bogged down