| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Drama |
Watched MAURICE again. Quite the pleasant watch. And a most eye-opening experience at that after seeing it again after all these years. Based on the book by EM Forster and posthumously released, Maurice’s story is that of a young man who comes into grace and his subsequent downfall.
By grace I mean of his adolescent years and the decision he makes as he partakes of society and of its trappings of position and power and by fall, by way of losing his innocence that marked his journey at the beginning and his sense of naivete in the world, knowing that people operate differently. And amidst that, having to deal with the longing in his heart; that is to spend his life with someone he loves, someone who can love him back; in short, another man.
Set in the early 1900’s a little over after the turn of the century in England, it was a most critical and crucial time to state and to person much less to even be aware of one’s nature and to give in to it, knowing that the end result would be shame and ruin. One would have to go out on a limb for it, similar to what Maurice did.
Now, did it pay off? I guess you would have to read the book or watch the film and similarly pray that local bookshops would begin to carry this elusive piece of work. But I won’t spoil the fun and go on to tell you that watching it the second time around and having grown older since the last to appreciate the act and nuance of words and spoken lines, the whole experience was like watching the film for the very first time. Gone were the days when the characters of Maurice, Clive, Ann, and Scudder were merely names to remember and contend with, but rather they represent different archetypes and levels of society and awareness in that given time. They were either people in the middle of society’s changes; from both ushering it into the new world to merely settling for the effects as it trickles and dawns into their lives. Or to those who merely sit by the sidelines and let the glorious sands of life just merely pass them by without knowing any better.
And yet men not to mention women only could aspire to know as much during 1910, homosexuality was even frowned upon at that time and even if Oscar Wilde was gaining popularity and notoriety as a playwright, Forster’s book was not even released only until after his death. Today things have taken a turn for the progressive as England has been one of the first nations to embrace the union of gay marriages, having Elton John and George Michael among the celebrities to openly endorse the government move by having themselves registered as same-sex lifetime partners.
Such turn of events was only aspired to and dreamt of in Maurice’s time as he had to wrestle that utopian society in his mind when Clive, played by Hugh Grant came to profess his love for him. Having spent so much time together being students at Cambridge, it was but a natural act for Clive to do; to outpour his feelings to this man whom he spent so much time with. But Maurice being the archetype of a closeted gay man rebuked him. And when only when he had time to ruminate and finally coming to his senses soon found himself transformed and succumbed to his feelings and allowed Clive into his heart; so much so that he let him in too deep that when the world came between them he almost could not bear it.
At this point in the viewing, the precarious relationship of both Clive and Maurice can be flayed on like meat to be scrutinized to no end as to who manipulated whom and who got the bad end of the deal. But it all boils down to passivity and having the “balls” to go after what one truly wants and desires, a quality of which Hugh Grant was able to convey in the film as he shrank bank into his own “closeted” world, broke off with Maurice and re-emerged into society as a straight and married man.
How many of us would have the stamina and drive to pursue what we want,let alone brave a lone trek to reach our goals and dreams to find out that it meant sacrificing a better part of ourselves? How many men in this modern day and age have both gone thru what Clive did and dared to both dream of that life; a life of having a loving man in their lives and a woman alongside him with their children in tow. Either that or throw one’s passivity out the window and brave what most gay men who are sure of themselves the road less traveled only time it rewarding and life affirming in the end. And only upon reaching the end would one consider that particular road fully traversed and consider a journey taken.
Clive and Maurice both took that road and ended up two different people at the end of the journey so much so that their roles were reversed. Clive becomes the repressed and closeted gay man refusing to look into the past and yet never forgetting while Maurice amidst initial resistance and condemnation chooses to embrace his nature fully. A reversal of fortune or merely a realization of a journey?
Either of the two would suffice but it would both demand results; results from a path taken and ventured so that the order of the Universe is tested and tempered and we like the characters in this brilliantly adapted film are left to ponder upon about the choices we make and if we were ever needed to make those choices.
Perhaps most people wouldn’t understand the burden of making choices along these matters for gay men have it differently; from having no specific role models to choose and emulate from while growing up and at the same time being dictated by society on how and what to do. And if ever a role model was ever found, they themselves are bound by the very cords that binds gay men who would want nothing more than to be free to express themselves in the most natural way ever. And in doing so, attune to the yearnings of the heart; that somewhere out there, there is indeed another man who can heed one’s call, who matches up to the standards or levels of preference that one prescribes and equally accepting of one’s flaws and limitations.
Such a tall task to ask? Perhaps not. But gay man or not, that is equally the goal that every human being aspires to in relationship. Perfectly free of whatever trappings of inconsistency and incongruence to point that both parties are able to open their heart, mind and soul to their partner with no fear of recoil or revulsion.
As the saying goes, make your bed and lie on it. In this case, Maurice has come to realize that in making your own bed, you get to choose who gets to lie on it with you and in effect come out the victor and not the victim.
