The Remains of the Day

Filmed with the usual meticulous attention to period and detail of films from Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, The Remains of the Day is based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Anthony Hopkins plays Stevens, the "perfect" butler to a prosperous British household of the 1930s. He is so unswervingly ...more

While somewhat overshadowed by the box-office performance of Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day received nine Academy Award nominations and finds Merchant and Ivory at the top of their game. On the eve of World War II, almost everyone in The Remains of the Day seems committed to tired traditions that adhere to a rigid formality. Anthony Hopkins masterfully portrays Stevens' proper exterior, communicating the butler's emotional sterility in "real life" situations through small gestures. ...more