Best Actress: Emma Thompson

 Oh, how I love Dame Emma Thompson. So witty, so smart, so funny, and so talented.

via ladynoblesong

If I see her name attached to a film or television series, I'm infinitely more interested in seeing it (although I missed Sheep Detectives in theatres). 

But I remember being bored almost to the point of tears the first time I watched Howards End because it was so long, and so dry. I appreciated it more this time around, and was captivated by Emma (and to a degree, Helena Bonham Carter, who plays her younger sister). 

She's utterly charming as Margaret Schlegel, the elder sister of a trio of intellectual, liberal siblings in Edwardian England. As social changes come around, it's through her that we meet the staid Wilcox family and the poor grifters, the Basts. Margaret is bequeathed Howards End by Vanessa Redgrave, who plays the dying Ruth Wilcox, but never receives the house because Ruth's husband Henry, played cooly by Sir Anthony Hopkins, and children fail to honour the bequest. 

As it turns out, Margaret winds up meeting Henry and the two become bethrothed. Their backgrounds and morals clash as Margaret's younger sister Helen causes disturbances and gets involved in shenanigans that threaten to cloud Margaret and by extension, the Wilcoxes. It all culminates in an accidental death, and Margaret receiving Howards End, like she'd always deserved. 

If you love period pieces, you'd love Howards End. Emma Thompson is someone you can't take your eyes off of; she's so wholly charismatic. The kind of person you'd be compelled to leave your house to, if you will. 

Emma was nominated against Catherine Deneuve (Indochine), Mary McDonnell (Passion Fish), Michelle Pfieffer (Love Field) and Susan Sarandon (Lorenzo's Oil). 

DID I LIKE HOWARDS END? I did!

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Did you like Howards End? What are your thoughts on Emma Thompson's Oscar win?

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here!