Remains of the Day

Here is an amazing piece of acting. Anthony Hopkins plays Mr. Stevens, the head butler at the Darlington House, a character who is a protagonist completely dedicated in mind and body to being an emotionless automaton. The character created is an extreme metaphor for the element in all of us that steps aside when confronted with an opportunity; that compartmentalizes to avoid a reality; that chooses an obsession rather than a life. Mr. Hopkins face during the entire film is a study of this characters internal struggle to maintain his chosen faade while emotional blockbusters pummel him.

The action, or more accurately the inaction, takes place in 1935 England just prior to Germanys military resurgence and then twenty years later following WWII. Its difficult to watch because of our American tradition of class-crossing confrontation and our expectation of breakthrough success.

This 1993 film is taken from Kazuo Ishiguros novel of the same name that won the Man Booker Prize as the best English novel in its year. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who wrote the screenplay, also wrote screenplays for A Room with a View (1986) and Howards End (1992). The director, James Ivory, also directed these same films.

Emma Thompson has a secondary but important relationship with Mr. Stevens as Miss Kenton, the competent housekeeper. James Fox plays Lord Darlington and you will recognize a young Hugh Grant as Cardinal, a journalist and his godson, and a young Christopher Reeve as Jack Lewis, the American congressman.

Sir Anthony Hopkins, a Welshman by birth, was knighted in 1993 and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. He studied under Sir Lawrence Olivier. Hopkins received an Oscar as best actor for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

A restrained English character is Hopkins forte so for this film he is in his element. The setting is also very English and it is these elements of English restraint throughout the film that builds a constant tension. Whether there is resolution you will have to decide.

Reviewed April 6, 2003