Rating: 
Summary: A good addition to a DVD collection
Review: "A Room With a View" was one of my first purchases for my DVD collection. My criteria for purchasing DVD's is that I'll enjoy watching them at any time, in any mood, and with anyone -- they can't be too violent, action-filled, depressing, etc. This film perfectly fits this criteria - it's a nice film, certainly not the best ever made, that is perfect for any mood. And the infamous scene with the men running around the watering hole is reason enough to purchase the film.If you enjoy Jane Austen novels/films (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, etc.), you're sure to enjoy this as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Out And Enjoy The View
Review: In this period piece, Helena Bonham Carter and her aunt Maggie Smith go on vacation in Florence, encountering novelist Judi Dench, Reverend Simon Callow, and Denholm Elliot and his son Julian Sands. Smith cuts the trip short after witnessing a passionate kiss between Bonham Carter and Sands. Back in England, Bonham Carter ends up engaged to stuffy, serious snob Daniel Day-Lewis, while Sands and his father end up living in town. Needless to say, all of this leads to complications. As one would expect from a Merchant-Ivory film, the performances are all top standard. Bonham Carter is excellent as the girl struggling against the growing passions inside her. Smith excels as the fussy, proper, but deeply concerned aunt. Day-Lewis is terrific in a most untypical role, while Sands is very strong as his counterpoint. The supporting cast are all terrific as well. As one would also expect from Merchant-Ivory, the attention to period detail is amazing and the script is very literate. It is a bit slow in parts, but the development of the characters and the manner in which thoughts and feelings are conveyed without words makes up for it. The meaning of the title becomes only too evident by the end. Everybody on a trip loves a room with a view. But the same should apply to our everyday life. Why shut yourself into loneliness or unfulfillment? Get out and enjoy the view!
Rating:
Summary: EM Forster Again
Review: If you haven't been to Florence, you should see this movie. If you have been there, you probaly will find that you have missed out quite a lot of this cradle of modern civilization. I have been there twice or perhaps thrice. Each time I find the last visit more memorable: so much have been evaporated since. Yet it's captured and preserved so intact in this movie. So EM Forster liked switching settings a lot. On the last occasion it was the orient in "A passage to India". This time it's Italy. But the central theme is much the same, it's about human relationship, depicted also in the form of romance of course. But it doesn't stop there, there is much more depth and insight than that. Like Miss Quested in A Passage to India, the heroine's Freudian instinct was aroused by the images in the square right at the time she chanced into the hero of this film. Is class a necessary barrier to human relationship?... And, is class a guaranty to human understanding, as could be seen from the relationship between the heroine and her fiance? Bravo to Beethoven's inspiring and indomintable music as played by the heroine on the piano. More of those, please. Needless to say, all characters are well portrayed and all scenes are adorable. The movie is very convincing indeed. It's just beautiful and so engaging.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely, romantic, heartwarming movie
Review: This movie is possibly one of the most charming, romantic, and heartwarming love stories of all. It is based upon the 1906 novel of the same name, and, unlike most other movies, this one follows the novel to a T. Some of the scenes that other viewers commented negatively upon, namely the violent scene at the beginning in which Lucy witnesses an argument and [a killing] in the piazza and the bathing scene were in the novel. These scenes were not added for the benefit of late 20th century viewers nor were they added to gain the preferred rating. The movie even included the novel's chapter headings!
The movie is the story of Lucy Honeychurch, who, while travelling in Italy with her maiden aunt Charlotte as chaperone, meets, among others, an eccentic, free-thinking father and son. After Lucy is passionately kissed by George, her scandalized and very proper aunt puts an end to the romance before it has a chance to begin. Lucy subsequently becomes engaged to marry a selfish, self-centered, passionless, snob of a man of her own social class. Chance or fate brings Lucy and George together again, but not before a true comedy of manners, social class, and romance play themselves out. ...
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie for the light-hearted romance, gentle humor and social commentary that I normally associate with Austen, great period costumes and settings, and the cast. There is no rush to ... relations because the movie remains faithful to the Edwardian mores of the time. I loved the humor in this movie. It poked fun at the class-consciousness of the era, and at some of the stuffier manners and conventions observed by the upper classes, and at the characters themselves. I thought that the bathing scene was one of the funniest in the movie, and found nothing in it that could possibly be construed as offensive. ...
I thought that the movie was particularly well-cast and well-acted. All of the characters were most believable. Viewers will be surprised to see Daniel Day-Lewis as the effete snob Cecil Vyse. There is no trace of the hero or heart-throb in his Cecil, and does so well presenting Cecil as passionless that viewers will find themselves wondering what Lucy sees in him, and, as she learns more about him and finds more to dislike, will also be rooting for her to break the engagement. Kudos also go to Helena Bonham-Carter, Julian Sands, Rupert Graves, Rosemary Leach, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliott, and Simon Callow.
If you are looking for a good romance in which the main characters meet, are separated, face some adversity, get to know eachother .... and finally get together, then this is the movie for you. It is one of my top 3 favorite movies of all, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful movie; don't buy the DVD!
Review: This is one of my favorite movies, so I was excited to have my own copy. I wish, however, that I'd read some of these reviews first! This is the worst DVD I've seen: the video quality is horrendous and the audio isn't great. It looks and sounds as if someone digitized an old, shaky VHS tape and slapped it onto a DVD. My first viewing felt like getting stuck with Cecil when I'd been hoping for George.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Movie Ruined on DVD
Review: This is the worst DVD I've ever seen. The tragedy is that A ROOM WITH A VIEW is one of the most beautifully photographed movies ever made. The scenes of Florence and rural England, not to mention the interiors and the close-ups, are magnificent. But some [person] at Cinecom or Image Entertainment got the idea of superimposing a pinkish sepia gauze over the entire movie. All the beauty is gone. One can only hope that a later, commemorative edition of this movie will start from scratch and do a better job.
Rating: 
Summary: A Room with a View
Review: This video is a romance which takes place in Victorian England, but I found the story (at least on film) to be slow and tedious. The story lacked depth, and there was no fire or passion. Almost as if watching cardboard characters. Yet, if you like the Victorian culture, houses, clothing, scenery, this would be an excellent movie for those things.
Rating:
Summary: As close to perfect as a film can be
Review: Beautiful scenery, an involving story and a lovely score, a fantastic and very attractive cast - this movie has everything to recommend it. Generally, it is hard for any film with Maggie Smith not to be fantastic ("Tea with Mussolini" an exception I suppose), and she gives a remarkably restrained performance here that is perfect for her character Charlotte. One can't help but wonder what a mess would have been made of the film had another actor had this pivotal part that could so easily have been overplayed. Helena Bonham Carter gives a lovely performance and is stunningly beautiful, and it is interesting to watch this film and compare it to the performance she would give many years later in "The Wings of the Dove" (which I personally consider her acting masterpiece to date, and a film which is criminally under-acknowledged). Julian Sands is also just right as her suitor, and it is sad to think that, of all the actors in this film, his is the only career which probably peaked with this film. The locations in Italy and England are breathtaking.
Rating:
Summary: Best romantic comedy ever!!!
Review: This is simply the best romantic comedy ever made. The actors, the music, and the settings are absolutely wonderful. It's true that the quality of the DVD could be better, but it's still a great buy.
Rating:
Summary: Lush and wonderful
Review: This movie is my very favorite movie. It is visually stunning and the acting is superb, understated and very English. Sensuality is supressed, which heightens the effect (that kiss in the field during Kiri Te Kanawa's O Mio Babbino Caro is awesome!). Humor is very dry and wonderful.
The most amazing movie. It awakened me to the true talents of this amazing cast of actors.
Buy this film!
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