Maurice (1987)

Let's be realistic.

hyped garbage

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This was a wonderfully put together movie. The actors were good, the writing and pacing was also well done. I also liked that the love story was presented as any other love story. I've seen movies, like for example Brokeback Mountain, where the homosexuality becomes a crutch and the movie expects you to like it solely based on that merit alone. Maurice, however, took the subject of homosexuality and used it to its advantage as a tool instead of a crutch. It used the sexuality of the characters to create more dramatic tension. It was a nice treatment. One quibble I had with the movie though was that the kissing scenes were rather more like face rolling scenes, very kind of funny when they probably should not have been. I have seen these types of kissing scenes between two men done much better in other films, but at the same time this film is dated 1987, so that might be part of it since kissing styles evolve each decade in movies. I'm glad that I took the time to watch this movie. It was a good story and gave me things to think about, which is something I enjoy about good movies.

I must be in the greater minority, but I disliked this movie overall. I honestly liked it up until about halfway, despite abrupt pacing. However, after Durham's decision to turn away from his sexuality --- and furthermore, his horrific enjoyment of his new life --- I just couldn't agree anymore. Everything felt unsettling and unnatural, and nothing seemed to make sense. There seemed to be so much left out that in the book ( which I haven't read so I'm assuming ) must have been expanded more fully. I feel pacing is a huge flaw in this movie, leaving out important detail and more importantly, LEAD-UP while extending seemingly unnecessary scenes and detours. I recommend reading the book instead, as I later found that the plot line was also changed in the screening. Hopefully these major issues were not present in the literary original.

This film is about a upper class English gentleman called Maurice, and his quest to find the love of his life beyond the societal constraints of Britain in early 1900's.Though the pacing of "Maurice" is very slow, it successfully engages the viewers and hence never feels boring. The main characters, Maurice Hall and Clive Durham are very well developed. Their words, emotions and actions are beautifully portrayed in much detail that I feel close to them. Maurice Hall's immense dedication to find love in Clive is intense, but their love does not come to fruition due to oppressive societal pressure. Though Maurice finally finds solace in Alec, the ending is bittersweet.

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.