The Remains of the Day

Hopkins and Thompson play servants and find each other working at a big estate. They are both extremely uptight and posh, as English servants tend to be, which makes for one of the most British romances ever put on film. It never crackles or sizzles, but right beneath the surface a lot is brewing.

Hopkins and Thompson are fine, but their mannerisms are a bit much. While there are some nice scenes between them, their characters never feel real enough to care for. Which is a problem, because besides the romance there's some political filler that slows things down unnecessarily.

Ivory's direction is dull and by the numbers. The cinematography is meager and a lot of time is spent on drawn out dialogues that aren't half as intriguing as they were meant to be. At least the score was pretty decent, keeping the film from becoming too sappy, but that hardly redeems the overly long runtime and poor overall quality.