Darcy in Joe Wright’s 2005 “Pride and Prejudice” - makes the most of silently checking a pocketwatch while smoking outdoors, and Atwell brings a self-conscious charm to Margaret’s somewhat tortured affections. The purported age difference between the two stretches credibility, but Macfayden - who is best known for playing Mr. Atwell and Macfayden are reprising the roles performed by Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in the film, which is no easy feat, but to their credit they both find ways to make both their individual performances and their relationship dynamic appreciably different from their predecessors. Hayley Atwell, plays lead Margaret Schlegel, an intellectual, sensitive woman who finds herself drawn into marriage with widower Henry Wilcox (Matthew Macfayden), a successful businessman who usually misses the finer points of life in order to better focus on profit. It’s still an enjoyable journey, of course. This latest adaptation is an indication that without Forster’s boundless humanity in every detail, the plot points of “Howards End” crash together in something approaching melodrama. But Starz’s “Howards End” is a syrupy effort - golden and sweet and a little gummy. Forster’s book - a masterpiece, albeit a flawed one - is a nuanced chronicle of enmeshment. The aim is to raise the dramatic stakes, but combined with Macdonald’s lens - which knits together the story with a pleasant, too-romantic glow - what ends up happening is a messy smoothening of an intricate story. Lonergan’s screenplay is so disinterested in logistics that it just skips them especially towards the end of the four-parter, “Howards End” lets weeks, months, or years drop between scenes without even nodding to the audience. But the bones of the production, adapted by prominent playwright Kenneth Lonergan and directed by Hettie Macdonald, lacks the impeccable grace and subtlety of both the earlier adaptation and the source material. Forster’s 1910 novel about class collision and national identity in turn-of-the-century England, is impeccably cast and studiously performed.

The four-part miniseries, an adaptation of E.M.

If there were no Merchant Ivory film, Starz’s “ Howards End” would be a more welcome adaptation.

Howards end book review