Howards End

In England at the start of the twentieth century three families come together: two cultured sisters with little money, the family of a rich businessman, and a poor couple where the husband works as an insurance clerk. There is a house, and who will inherit it is unsettled. The film treats property not as an abstract question but as what three families can do to one another; a woman's will being ignored and a man losing his job stand as two results of the same order. The narrative puts nobody entirely in the right. It is adapted from E. M. Forster's novel. Emma Thompson won an Academy Award; James Ivory directed and the film took three. Who it's for: those who like period literary adaptation and drama built on class. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a fast narrative; it runs two hours forty and takes its time.