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Plot

During a school trip to the beach, Maurice Hall, an 11-year-old schoolboy, receives instructions about the "sacred mystery" of sex from his teacher Mr. Ducie, who wants to explain to the fatherless boy the changes he will experience in puberty. Maurice is left feeling removed from the depiction of marriage with a woman.

Years later in 1909, Maurice is attending the University of Cambridge, where he strikes up a friendship with two fellow students: the aristocratic eccentric Viscount Risley and the rich and handsome Clive Durham. Clive falls in love with Maurice and surprises him by confessing his feelings. At first, Maurice reacts with horror, but he soon realises that he feels the same. The two friends begin a love affair but, at Clive's insistence, their relationship remains non-sexual. To go further, in Clive's opinion, would diminish them both. The upper-class Clive has a promising future in politics ahead of him and does not want to risk losing his social position. Their close relationship continues after Maurice leaves Cambridge and begins a new career as a stockbroker in London.

The two friends keep their feelings secret but are frightened when Risley is arrested and sentenced to six months' hard labour after soliciting sex from a soldier. Clive, afraid of being exposed as homosexual, breaks up with Maurice. After his return from a trip to Greece, Clive, under pressure from his widowed mother, makes overtures toward Maurice's sister until a furious Maurice intercedes. He tries to rekindle their relationship, but Clive spurns him decisively. Clive soon marries a naïve rich girl named Lady Anne Scott and settles into a life of domesticity at his estate, Pendersleigh.

Maurice seeks the help of his family physician, Dr. Barry, who gives him a physical examination and dismisses Maurice's doubts as "rubbish". Maurice then turns to Dr. Lasker-Jones, who tries to "cure" his homosexual longings with hypnosis. During his visits to Pendersleigh, Maurice attracts the attention of Alec Scudder, the under-gamekeeper who is due to emigrate to Argentina. Maurice not only fails to notice Alec's interest in him, but initially treats him with contempt. This does not discourage Alec, who watches Maurice's window at night. Simcox, the butler at Pendersleigh, suspecting the true nature of Maurice and Clive's past relationship, hints to Alec about Maurice's nature. One night, Alec climbs a ladder and enters Maurice's bedroom through an open window. He kisses Maurice, who is completely taken by surprise, but does not resist his sexual advances.

After their first night together, Maurice receives a letter from Alec proposing they meet at the Pendersleigh boathouse. Maurice wrongly believes that Alec is blackmailing him and returns to Lasker-Jones, who warns Maurice that England is a country that "has always been disinclined to accept human nature" and advises him to emigrate to a country where homosexuality is no longer criminal, like France or Italy. When Maurice fails to appear at the boathouse, Alec travels to London and visits him at his offices, causing some surprise amongst Maurice's colleagues.

Maurice and Alec go to the British Museum to talk, and the blackmail misunderstanding is resolved. Maurice begins to call Alec by his first name. They spend the night together in a hotel room, and as Alec leaves the next morning he explains that his departure for Argentina is imminent and they will not see each other again. Maurice goes to the port to give Alec a parting gift, only to discover that Alec has missed the sailing. Maurice goes to Pendersleigh and confesses to Clive his love for Alec. Clive, who was hoping Maurice would marry, is bewildered at Maurice's account. The two separate and Maurice goes to the boathouse looking for Alec, who is there waiting for him. Alec has left his family and abandoned his plans to emigrate to stay with Maurice, telling him, "Now we shan't never be parted".

At home with his wife, Clive's preparations for bed are interrupted by reminiscences about his time with Maurice.

Background

E. M. Forster wrote Maurice in 1913–14, and revised it in 1932 and again in 1959–1960. Written as a traditional Bildungsroman, or novel of character formation, the plot follows the title character as he deals with the problem of coming of age as a homosexual in the restrictive society of the Edwardian era. Forster, who had based his characters on real people, was keen that his novel should have a happy ending. The author did not intend to publish the novel while his mother was alive, but he showed the manuscript to selected friends, such as Christopher Isherwood. Forster resisted publication during his lifetime because of public and legal attitudes to homosexuality. He was also ambivalent about the literary merits of his novel. A note found on the manuscript read: "Publishable, but worth it?" The novel was only published in 1971 after Forster's death. It is considered one of his minor works, in comparison with his novels Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924).

James Ivory was interested in making a screen adaptation after the critical and box office success he achieved with another of Forster's novels, A Room with a View. While involved in this earlier project Ivory had read all of Forster's books, and eventually came to Maurice. "I thought," Ivory said, "that it was interesting material and would be enjoyable to make – and also something we could make in that it wouldn't require too much organization and wouldn't cost all that much." The situation it explores seemed to him to be still relevant: "People's turmoil and having to decide for themselves how they want to live and what their true feelings are and whether they're going to live honestly with them or deny them. That's no different. Nothing's any easier, for young people. I felt it was quite relevant."

In his will, Forster left the rights to his books to King's College, Cambridge, which has a self-governing board of fellows of the college. They were initially reluctant to give permission to film Maurice, not because of the subject matter of the novel, but because it was considered an inferior work, and a film that called attention to it would not enhance Forster's literary reputation. Ismail Merchant, the producer of the film, conferred with them and was very persuasive. They were favourably impressed with the adaptation by Merchant Ivory Productions of A Room with a View and relented.

Critical reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 33 reviews; the critics' consensus reads, "Maurice sensitively explores the ramifications of forbidden desire with a powerful love story brought to life by the outstanding efforts of a talented cast." Ken Hanke from Mountain Xpress said it was probably Merchant–Ivory's best film.

In The New York Times Janet Maslin observed "The novel's focus is predominantly on the inner life of the title character, but the film, while faithful, is broader. Moving slowly, with a fine eye for detail, it presents the forces that shape Maurice as skillfully as it brings the character to life."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film three stars out of a possible four, commenting:

Merchant and Ivory tell this story in a film so handsome to look at and so intelligently acted that it is worth seeing just to regard the production. Scene after scene is perfectly created: a languorous afternoon floating on the river behind the Cambridge colleges; a desultory cricket game between masters and servants; the daily routine of college life; visits to country estates and town homes; the settings of the rooms... Although some people might find Wilby unfocused in the title role, I thought he was making the right choices, portraying a man whose real thoughts were almost always elsewhere.

Claire Tomalin writing for Sight & Sound called the film "subtle, intelligent, moving and absorbing [...] extraordinary in the way it mixes fear and pleasure, horror and love, it's a stunning success for a team who seems to have mastered all the problems of making literary films".

Judy Stone in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "To director James Ivory's credit, however, he has recreated that period in pre-World War I England and endowed the platonic passion between two upper-class Englishmen with singular grace in Maurice." Michael Blowen in The Boston Globe commented: "The team of producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory has created another classy film of a classic novel with their stunning adaptation of E. M. Forster's Maurice."

Reception in the UK was different, with The Times questioning whether "so defiant a salute to homosexual passion should really be welcomed during a spiraling AIDS crisis". James Ivory has attributed the negative reviews to the reviewers being homosexual themselves, stating:

... in England, where almost every important film critic was gay, they came out against the film. Their reactions to it were extraordinary! You'd think that they would have been supportive, but they were afraid to be supportive.

Maurice

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