Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant, Peter Vaughan, Ben Chaplin, Paula Jacobs, Patrick Godfrey, Michael Lonsdale, Rupert Vansittart, Tim Pigott-Smith, Lena Headey, Paul Copley, Peter Cellier
A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
This is one of Anthony Hopkins' most nuanced and classy performances, depicting the last of a dying breed of upper servants in the stately home of "Lord Darlington" (James Fox). It's told by way of a retrospective as he takes some time off from his work as butler to American millionaire "Lewis" (Christopher Reeve) and goes for a drive to meet the former housekeeper "Miss Kenton" (Emma Thompson). T...
**It is an excellent film, even if I disagree with the thesis on which it was made.** In the period between the two world wars, the world tried to make sure that there was never again something as destructive and traumatic as the First World War. However, such decisions, very commendable but chimerical and contrary to human nature, failed, as we know: the Second World War will occur just a few ...