Where Angels Fear to Tread

I believe I've seen every film adaptation of Forster's work, and I have to say that this is probably the worst of the lot. It has none of the charm of "A Room With a View", and none of the poignancy of "Howards End". Instead, it's a long, slogging story with shrill characters that I could not muster a shred of empathy for. Many of the characters (particularly the elderly Mrs. Harriton and Harriet) are played so far over-the-top that they border on farce. The character of Gino is underdeveloped, which makes the way some characters come to feel about him ring utterly false.

Forster was a homosexual, an Italophile, and scornful of Edwardian British mores and (perceived) hypocrisy. I have no problem with any of those things, but in this, his first novel, it's as if his main intention was to telegraph these things to the audience, and he sets his characters up to that end, but it's never convincing as the natural actions of real humans. If you must watch it, enjoy the Tuscan scenery while you can, but you may want to fast forward through the second-half. For completists only.