A Room With a View vs. Maurice

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These two movies are quite similar: not only are they both Merchant Ivory films based on E. M. Forster novels, but in both the main character is stifled by the conventions of Edwardian society, which he or she must flout in order to find true happiness in the arms of a passionate man. While Maurice appeals to me for the hot man-on-man action, I really think Lucy Honeychurch makes a more appealing protagonist than Maurice Hall, and the young Helena Bonham Carter anchors Room in a way James Wilby does not in Maurice. (Amusingly, each cameos in the other's film: Wilby is a silent partygoer in Room, Bonham Carter one of the ladies at the cricket match admiring the lusty Alec Scudder.) The minor characters in Room are more appealing too, and the supporting cast more starry (Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliot, Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis). Plus you have that lovely Italian scenery. Room wins.

Rupert Graves takes off his clothes in both of these. Wonder if he had a contract with Merchant Ivory stipulating this.