Maurice (1987)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

While I liked the first half of Maurice, I absolutely sat up with the second portion. If you can make it through the pompous, arrogant and snotty people of the first hour, you're in for a great all-around coming out story.Here's another movie I watched consistently when I was in my young, gay, formable years. Maybe once every 2-3 months. It's slow, yes. It's a period piece film, sure. And it's hard to get through at times…but if you can stick through to the end – hell, the second half, it's well worth it.Maybe because, when I was younger, I fell in love with Rupert Graves, due to this movie. Now, I liked his character in this movie, Alec Scudder, but physically…Again, this was in my impressionable years when I first started watching this. I even wanted to name my child – if I ever had one: Alec. Love(d) that name.I digress, as I normally do. The movie is set in England, the early 1910s. It's based on an E.M. Forster (of A Room with a View fame) book that was set to be released only after Forster was deceased. (I read this book, by the way and loved it.) Poor Morris (James Wilby and that's how it was pronounced back then;) in his own formable years in "college," he meets Hugh Grant's Clive Durham and they build a solid love affair in a time when someone caught doing homosexual acts could be imprisoned. Mercifully, England, unlike their child, the great U.S. of A., has turned it around since then. In fact, recently, they allow same-sex marriages. Kudos to them for being so advanced!Meanwhile, when another colleague of theirs is, in fact, imprisoned, Clive retreats and wrongfully marries a woman and ditches Maurice. He's distraught, definitely confused and seeks out "change" when he meets the man (of my own dreams following) who will prove to him: NOTHING IS WRONG.This movie helped me through a lot back then. Sure, at the time I first discovered it, it was set in a time eight decades prior, and in another country, but it was absolutely relevant to me and my own story. For, I didn't come out until gays finally started to earn the slightest of respect, in the early 1990s. Me, like Maurice, both didn't understand what was happening to us. No one told me what to expect, if there were others out there like me or if I was right or wrong.Remember: this was all pre-internet.This movie was well-made, had a great score and watching it from beginning to end, it's very touching and reminds me, with every viewing, of my youth. I'm glad I saw it back then, and look forward to seeing it again.

This was a wonderfully put together movie. The actors were good, the writing and pacing was also well done. I also liked that the love story was presented as any other love story. I've seen movies, like for example Brokeback Mountain, where the homosexuality becomes a crutch and the movie expects you to like it solely based on that merit alone. Maurice, however, took the subject of homosexuality and used it to its advantage as a tool instead of a crutch. It used the sexuality of the characters to create more dramatic tension. It was a nice treatment. One quibble I had with the movie though was that the kissing scenes were rather more like face rolling scenes, very kind of funny when they probably should not have been. I have seen these types of kissing scenes between two men done much better in other films, but at the same time this film is dated 1987, so that might be part of it since kissing styles evolve each decade in movies. I'm glad that I took the time to watch this movie. It was a good story and gave me things to think about, which is something I enjoy about good movies.

First of all, I can't believe this movie was made in 1987!This has more passion, emotion and sensuality in it than most romance movies of the 2000's. This bittersweet but tender love story managed to get my attention all along (I didn't even notice that it's longer than an average movie-140 min.) and marvelously get's it's message across without being too explicit. This highly emotional love story is built around three characters and explores the problem of homosexuality in 19th century England. The main character is Maurice Hall,as the title suggests, who comes to terms with his sexuality, when love develops between him and his college best friend, Clive Durham. After rejection, deception and huge efforts to become what is considered "normal", he finally finds comfort in the arms of the Durham household's gamekeeper. Although all the performances were excellent, it was Alec Scudder's character that I found the more interesting. Rupert Graves did an excellent job portraying this rough yet sensitive country boy, who's sincere love for a high class gentleman seems impossible at first. A bit brash, yet charming, this low class lad falls desperately in love with Mr. Durham's (almost) permanent guest, who initially, despite Scudder's numerous signals, doesn't seem to remark his more than obvious affection. His glances, the clumsy conversations, the overjoyed remark that Scudder makes after Mr. Hall's unexpectedly quick return to the estate, as well as the passionate love letters addressed to Maurice after their first "sharing", show the honesty and depth of Scudder's affection, excluding any chance of blackmailing and desire for profit - as both the viewer and Maurice might have suspected. Compared to Clive Durham, who is unable to face his sexuality and hides behind a hollow marriage, Scudder stands as a vivid character, comfortable with who he is,and who's faithfulness and unconditional love manages to win Maurice's heart.

Young British man in the early 1900s must come to terms with his homosexuality, a lifestyle which brought forth criminal charges in turn of the century England. Plodding, overlong, overly-sensitive piece from director James Ivory, who also co-adapted the script with Kit Hesketh-Harvey, based on E.M. Forster's novel. It is certainly pretty enough, and the performances by James Wilby and a very green Hugh Grant are commendable, but where are the roller-coaster highs and lows of living a taboo sexual life? "Maurice" is nurtured along in a tableaux style which gives us factual details but none of the emotion. ** from ****