Howards End

To watch the film’s Margaret (a sublime Hayley Atwell), is to see in full detail, the character Forster envisioned. ... In four episodes of sterling drama, Howards End has been brought fully to life on the television screen. That is no small achievement.

Howards End is fun. It’s lean. It illustrates from the get-go that the Oscar-winning writer behind one of the biggest cinematic downers in recent memory (“Manchester By the Sea”) can write “heartwarming” as well as he writes “heart-wrenching.” But it also shows that he understands fundamental principles essential to the original story and its modern telling.

Lonergan’s script is simply stunning. ... Every performance is spot-on, especially that of Atwell, who is captivating and engagingly intelligent as Margaret Schlegel. Ormond is heartbreaking and noble as Ruth Wilcox.

Kenneth Lonergan’s script (an adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel) is delightful. The words are crisp, clever, and even the chatter reveals important character traits and dynamics. Nothing is wasted in this series, which is gorgeously directed in full by Hettie MacDonald. Her camera is never static, which reflects the energy of its cast.

Lonergan's gift for empathizing with characters while clearly seeing their flaws fills every scene with rich, unsentimental emotion. Lonergan's work is matched by director Hettie MacDonald, who, rather than leaning on handsome production design and costumes, makes the material feel immediate, and the characters' choices full of risk. ... The cast more than rises to the occasion.

It turns out that there are now two extraordinary adaptations of “Howards End” in the world, each remarkable and distinct. The Starz production makes excellent use of the extra time that TV affords to add extra layers of detail--to the characterizations, to the relationships, to the dialogue, and to the larger social themes, which remain so relevant. ... Up until the choppy and speeded-up ending, Lonergan practically steals the show with his muscular, wit-filled lines.

A literate and visually sumptuous feast. [2 Apr - 15 Apr 2018, p.10]

Atwell might be best known to some for her forays into the Marvel universe, but she's an extremely talented actress who deftly captures Margaret's combination of intelligence and pragmatism, in contrast to her sister's idealism.

Though Howards End (premiering April 8 at 8 p.m. on Starz) doesn’t have the ardor of the network’s Outlander, fans of that time-traveling romance may still find themselves swooning at the gracefully restrained emotion between Meg and stuffy Mr. Wilcox (Matthew Macfadyen).

The comparatively extended length of the enterprise--four hours, versus two hours and 22 minutes for the ’92 film--allows for a detailed and unhurried experience, and the storytellers take advantage of the lengthened timeline, even if they sometimes fail to put emphasis in the right spots. All in all, the new Howards End is a fresh take on an old source, and the longer it goes on, the more different, even special, it gets.

Expertly paced--no corners cut, but not flagging, either--and buoyed by subtle shifts in tone mostly rendered through fine performances, this new Howards End is both deftly separate from the classic and successful on its own merits.

Dissecting people--and classes, and ideas--is all that Howards End is interested in. It does so beautifully, with intellectual precision and an able and charismatic cast, but also with a clinical, not-quite-ironic distance. It’s an easy story to enjoy and admire, and a very difficult story to love wholeheartedly.

Starz’s Howards End is a syrupy effort--golden and sweet and a little gummy. This latest adaptation is an indication that without Forster’s boundless humanity in every detail, the plot points of “Howards End” crash together in something approaching melodrama.