This impeccable adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning novel stars Anthony Hopkins as the emotionally repressed butler and Emma Thompson as the housekeeper he possibly loves.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 30, 2024

...a slow-moving yet increasingly absorbing drama...

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 4, 2024

Anthony Hopkins is magnificent as Stevens, with his blinkered code of honour, and Emma Thompson his match as the housekeeper.

| Sep 8, 2023

Sublime filmmaking and performances turn Stevens’ every minute choice into a pillar of profound tragedy, giving us a maddeningly heartwrenching life lesson for the ages.

| Aug 25, 2023

The Remains of the Day is the perfect storm of writing, directing and acting.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 3, 2023

You can’t talk about great acting without thinking of The Remains of the Day...

| Feb 7, 2023

...governed by twin regrets.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 15, 2021

Like The Age of Innocence, here's another handsome period piece about a man who foolishly ignores the dictates of his heart.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 28, 2019

Beautiful to look at and deeply moving in many scenes.

| Nov 5, 2019

The movie looks splendid. Arcadian views and honeyed filters have been largely resisted. But the content, that is to say, the script, has problems.

| Aug 14, 2018

Just gets better with age.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 7, 2016

Moves rather slowly, but the actors and their understated chemistry keep the film riveting, building to a climax that is absolutely heartrending.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 28, 2008

Merchant-Ivory's best film by a mile.

| Feb 11, 2008

The actors keep this interesting, but as a story it drifts and rambles.

| Feb 11, 2008

Though it offers a host of fine performances in a smoothly crafted, adult drama of unfulfilled love, it lacks the cumulative dramatic impact of the team's best work.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 11, 2008

All the meticulousness, intelligence, taste and superior acting that one expects from Merchant Ivory productions have been brought to bear.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 13, 2007

The narrative structure (long flashbacks, letters) is awkward but the actors (Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in top form) attention to detail is meticulous and piercing considering how muted the emotions are.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 23, 2006

Who else but Merchant Ivory to give the big-screen treatment to Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning novel about class, fascism and the stiff upper lip?

| Feb 9, 2006

First time I saw it, it destroyed me. Subsequent viewings have not improved my condition.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 24, 2005