thesar-2 While I liked the first half of Maurice, I absolutely sat up with the second portion. If you can make it through the pompous, arrogant and snotty people of the first hour, you're in for a great all-around coming out story.Here's another movie I watched consistently when I was in my young, gay, formable years. Maybe once every 2-3 months. It's slow, yes. It's a period piece film, sure. And it's hard to get through at times…but if you can stick through to the end – hell, the second half, it's well worth it.Maybe because, when I was younger, I fell in love with Rupert Graves, due to this movie. Now, I liked his character in this movie, Alec Scudder, but physically…Again, this was in my impressionable years when I first started watching this. I even wanted to name my child – if I ever had one: Alec. Love(d) that name.I digress, as I normally do. The movie is set in England, the early 1910s. It's based on an E.M. Forster (of A Room with a View fame) book that was set to be released only after Forster was deceased. (I read this book, by the way and loved it.) Poor Morris (James Wilby and that's how it was pronounced back then;) in his own formable years in "college," he meets Hugh Grant's Clive Durham and they build a solid love affair in a time when someone caught doing homosexual acts could be imprisoned. Mercifully, England, unlike their child, the great U.S. of A., has turned it around since then. In fact, recently, they allow same-sex marriages. Kudos to them for being so advanced!Meanwhile, when another colleague of theirs is, in fact, imprisoned, Clive retreats and wrongfully marries a woman and ditches Maurice. He's distraught, definitely confused and seeks out "change" when he meets the man (of my own dreams following) who will prove to him: NOTHING IS WRONG.This movie helped me through a lot back then. Sure, at the time I first discovered it, it was set in a time eight decades prior, and in another country, but it was absolutely relevant to me and my own story. For, I didn't come out until gays finally started to earn the slightest of respect, in the early 1990s. Me, like Maurice, both didn't understand what was happening to us. No one told me what to expect, if there were others out there like me or if I was right or wrong.Remember: this was all pre-internet.This movie was well-made, had a great score and watching it from beginning to end, it's very touching and reminds me, with every viewing, of my youth. I'm glad I saw it back then, and look forward to seeing it again.

Armand a love story in rigid society. a novel by Forster. a film by Ivory. and a brilliant cast. almost a picture. or page from a photo-album. because all is perfect. costumes, images, story. and actors... different as stones. charming Hugh Grant in a refined role who creates ideal shadow of model man, part of nice society. Rupert Graves as interesting-amazing Antinous , master of silhouette of his role - circle of precise nuances. Ben Kingsley in minor presence but as a gem. and, sure, James Wilby and his craft in which vulnerability, instinct, desire, fear, expectation, hope and surrounding are each full of beauty. it is a gay story. but only at first sigh. in fact, it is only a story. about freedom as basic rule.

gossamer-6 It is touching to see all these wonderful reviews of Maurice (1987) people have felt in their hearts to share with us others. I am of the same persuasion. This Merchant/Ivory production is without compare. I taped it when it was broadcast here in otherwise dull Iceland. Of course I had seen it a number of times in the theater, but that did not stop me. I would watch this film every time I felt out of sorts and it always improved my mood. In fact I am hooked on it. If I understand correctly this film was a debut for Wilby, Grant and Rupert Graves. These characters grow on you and they seem to become lifetime friends. I am especially partial to the all too seldom a truly happy ending. So friends out there lets rejoice.There is, however, a novel that has not caught the attention of the movie-makers. This is The Charioteer by the late Mary Renault. That book has given me even more comfort than Maurice has ever done. Why that is so can only be in the mind of the perspective reader. I fear that in our oh so sterile western societies where smoking and heavy drinking are frowned upon, to say the least that this particular book would not appeal to the general public, but from the kind words afforded by you on Maurice I wager that you would love to see The Charioteer in your favorite theater or in the privacy of your home. The Charioteer takes us back to World War II to a military hospital. To make a long story short the book portrays the love of a particular wounded soldier for two different young men and the soul-wrestling that tortures him, one of the beloved being a Quaker, the other someone he used to know and admire from school. The Oliver Stone film Alexander was mainly based on Ms.Renault trilogy, Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games. So without boring you further I suggest that if any person of consequence in the film business reads these words and takes a close look at this particular book, and think twice. The cast would of course have to be British but don't we all love the Brits anyway? Wouldn't Emma Thompson be the ideal producer? I'm all for it and Branagh the director?

Oslo Jargo (Bartok Kinski) James Ivory's Maurice (1987) is an example of subtle British stories which always tend to focus on idiotic, buffoonish aristocrats who lead spoiled, idle lives and are a complete bore. In the case of this film, it deals with the forbidden relation between men, one of whom is an upper class snob. That's not at all offensive, but the way the film crams it's monotonous and unnecessary message into our sympathetic eyes, it becomes tedious and rather quickly. There's no enduring his plight because he is so arrogant, and set in his ways of rigid family conformity and he's about as human as a pile of Welsh corn husks.Maurice Hall (James Wilby) is the said character, who is not that bright but along with other British spoiled thugs, is attending Oxford, or some other chum school. He hangs out with a few other mugs, who guzzle beer, sing school songs and slap each other on the arse when in the shower. Eventually, he meets a new bore, Clive Durham (Hugh Grant) and his interest is ignited. They hang out, clasping each other and visiting quiet secluded lakes.All seems fine until there is a change in Clive Durham's behavior. Maurice Hall is crushed over some time by his friend's denial of their true "love". It's obvious Clive Durham wants power and will marry a woman for fear of losing his land, titles, nobility, etc. so the story takes another turn, much in the way a soap opera would appear.We pass through Maurice Hall's life, which is far from any ordinary working man's dilemma, as he travels, eats well and is afforded the luxury of the upper classes but he longs for more. It's exasperating as one would wish he would visit India and die of the plague or tuberculosis.The film then strays further into the rubbish pit by placating Maurice Hall with an unbelievable love interest portrayed by an effeminate, no good, deceitful gardener, who I might add, looks quite clean and unburnt by the sun. Any intelligent viewer will probably either shudder or cringe at the simplistic derailment of the plot but it was obvious that James Ivory was tugging our emotional strings all along, following the clichéd portrayal of social classes and making the love interest look like an underwear model.There's no clear protest message, except to follow your "organ down below" and you'll be happy. If you expect any critique of the hostile social climate, look elsewhere, this is muddy melodrama at its most dense form.See this film only if you want to believe in chimerical inspired fictional stories that are concocted and utterly delusional and preposterous.