The Remains of the Day 4K 1993 Ultra HD 2160p

Storyline
Rule bound head butler Stevens' (Sir Anthony Hopkins') world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of housekeeper Miss Kenton (Dame Emma Thompson), who falls in love with him in pre-World War II Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

User Review
Impeccably cast and produced in typical Merchant-Ivory manner, this understated drama features superb performances by two of the finest actors in modern cinema, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Both an acid indictment of the British class system and an unflinching portrayal of a man who in the end cannot transcend his largely self-imposed limitations, the film is both fascinating and agonizing to watch and its cumulative emotional impact will stay with you long after it's over.

There is an exquisite moment near the finale when Thompson's character bares only slightly a hint of the feelings she has for Hopkins, an allusion to what might have been between them. And Hopkins, in his consummate skill, maintains in both facial and vocal expressions the most non-committal of replies; his face a mask of bland affability but his eyes dark with the knowledge that he is a dead man who has wasted his life. With no outward show of emotion, the scene is devastating.

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY may not be a happy film, but it is a memorable and powerful one.