Howards End (1992)

In Edwardian Britain, Helen Schlegel becomes engaged to Paul Wilcox during a moment of passion while staying at the Wilcox family's country home, Howards End. The Schlegels are an intellectual Anglo-German bourgeois family, while the Wilcoxes, led by hard-headed businessman Henry, are conservative and wealthy. Helen and Paul quickly decide against the engagement, but she has already sent a telegram informing her sister Margaret, leading to an uproar when the sisters' Aunt Juley arrives and causes a scene. Months later in London, the Wilcoxes take a flat across the street from the Schlegels, and Margaret resumes her acquaintance with Ruth, Henry's wife. Howards End is owned by Ruth, and is her beloved childhood home, inherited from her family. The two women grow close as Mrs. Wilcox's health declines and, unbeknownst to Margaret, Ruth bequeaths Howards End to her on her deathbed. However, the Wilcoxes refuse to believe Ruth would leave the house to a relative stranger, and burn her informally-written directions. Henry develops an attraction to Margaret, assisting her in finding a new home and eventually proposing marriage, which she accepts. The Schlegels have befriended Leonard Bast, a self-improving young clerk who lives with Jacky, a woman of dubious origins. The sisters pass along advice from Henry that the insurance company Leonard works for is heading for bankruptcy. As a result, Leonard quits and settles for a much lower-paying job, which is eventually eliminated leaving him without employment. Helen is later appalled to learn Henry's advice was wrong – Leonard's first employer was perfectly sound but will not re-employ him – and is enraged by Henry's indifference. Months later, Henry and Margaret host the wedding of his daughter Evie at his Shropshire estate. Margaret is shocked when Helen arrives with the impoverished Leonard and Jacky. Considering Henry responsible for their plight, Helen demands his help, but Jacky drunkenly exposes Henry as a former lover from years ago. Henry is ashamed to be revealed as an adulterer, but Margaret forgives him and agrees to send the Basts away. Helen, upset with Margaret's decision to marry a man she now loathes, leaves for Germany, but not before giving in to her attraction for Leonard and having sex while out boating. Fearing the Basts will be penniless, Helen instructs her brother Tibby to give them over £5000 of her own money, but Leonard returns the cheque uncashed out of pride, and because of his own feelings for Helen. Margaret and Henry marry, arranging to use Howards End as storage for Margaret's and her siblings' belongings. After months of hearing from Helen only through postcards, Margaret grows concerned. Helen returns to England when Aunt Juley falls ill, but avoids seeing her family. Believing Helen is mentally unstable, Margaret lures her to Howards End to collect her belongings, arriving herself with Henry and a doctor, and finds Helen is pregnant. Insisting on returning to Germany to raise her baby alone, Helen asks to stay the night at Howards End but Henry adamantly refuses, leading to an argument with Margaret. Leonard, still living unhappily in poverty with Jacky, has a dream about how he first met Helen. Wanting to see her again, he travels to Howards End, arriving to find a very pregnant Helen, Margaret, and Henry's brutish eldest son, Charles. Realising Leonard is the baby's father, Charles assaults him for "dishonouring" Helen, and a bookcase collapses on Leonard, who dies of a heart attack. Margaret tells Henry that she is leaving him to help Helen raise her baby, and Henry breaks down, telling her the police inquest will charge Charles with manslaughter. A year later, Paul, Evie, and Charles's wife, Dolly, gather at Howards End. Henry and Margaret are still together, living with Helen and her young son. A visibly aged Henry tells the others that upon his death, Margaret will inherit Howards End and leave it to her nephew, but Margaret wants none of Henry's money, which will be split among his children. She overhears Dolly point out the irony of Margaret's inheriting the house, revealing Mrs. Wilcox's dying wish to leave it to her. Henry tells Margaret he did what he thought was right, but she says nothing.