Viewing the 'A Room with a View' on DVD did not compensate for my disappointing read of the novel (which offers more style than substance). Quite the opposite. The film, for all its scenery, its English country houses, its lawns (with tennis), its green landscape, its stuffy interiors, its Edwardian costumes, its unavoidable elderly spinsters, its inescapable piano playing damsel, its snooty, tiresome tittle-tattle about trivialities, for all this and that and the other clichés that are so typical of British historic period dramas, this film is terribly tedious, beyond boring and about as interesting as watching paint dry (to quote Gene Hackman's judgement of Eric Rohmer). So what is the plot about? First there is a kiss, then there is another, and as a result there is the end of one engagement and the beginning of another. That's about it. So how do you fill 112 minutes with that? Easy: you stuff your film with banalities that even in real life would make you walk away yawning with ennui: a room is changed for another (the title), a letter is read, a horse coach is transporting characters from one house to another, tea is drunk, a cigarette is smoked, a book is read, a bike is ridden, a character stumbles on the lawn, another trips between the flowers, yet another goes up the staircase, only to come down again etc.etc. Utter emptiness. The only 'remarkable event' is probably the skin dipping and running around naked of three men in nature, a scene that is so insufferably long drawn out that even the slowest of simpletons can not miss the hint that hits him in the face: Forster was a homosexual. Ah! Now I understand! Of course the film is nice visually, but that doesn't make up for the utter void of the plot. So it is utterly incomprehensible for me that this film got some rewards, including three Oscars (one even for the best 'scenario'! Excuse me?) and still get raving reviews from enthusiastic viewers. All the best to them, but this film is not my cup of tea. I rather need a cup of strong coffee to recover from the drowsing state it brought me in.
Review of A Room with a View
