Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
Merchant Ivory's adaptation of E.M. Forster's posthumously published novel is distinguished above all by its performances — James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves are all exceptional — and by Pierre Lhomme's sumptuous, period-precise cinematography that renders Edwardian England with real beauty and melancholy. The plot is faithful and emotionally resonant but follows a fairly linear arc of repression and eventual liberation, with the class-crossing romance in the second half feeling somewhat schematic compared to the aching first act. Novelty is moderate: it was a genuinely brave and sensitive treatment of gay experience for 1987, but Merchant Ivory's heritage-drama template was well established, and the film works comfortably within it. The ending offers a quietly hopeful resolution that some find earned and others find a touch convenient given the historical realism of the rest of the film.