When the Merchant/Ivory movie machine was in full force - A Room With a View, Howards End, The Remains of the Day - their output was not only narratively extraordinary, but nearly inescapable. Earlier efforts of theirs - Maurice, for example - are superb movies on all accounts, but what can't really be denied with these films is how universally adored they were. I know that's not implicitly important when it comes to appraising a picture's worth, but with movies like Howards End, director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala brought the art house to the big house: These were uniquely 'arty' films that got nominated for more Oscars than many of their big-budget brethren.

And Merchant/Ivory's Criterion Blu-ray debut, Howards End, is nothing short of a staggering achievement. Ivory himself says in the bonus section of this BD that he thought the story to the E.M. Forster novel wasn't exactly thrilling, but there's something about the story's development and payoff that turns it from humdrum British melodrama to high art of the most impressive order. Everything about the film pops off the screen - Jhabvala's marvelous script, a stunning production design, top-notch performances: In Howards End, everything's working on all cylinders.

The film centers around the Schlegel sisters - Helen (Helena Bonham Carter) and Margaret (Emma Thompson) - who get caught up in a push/pull of caste differences and ethical responsibility when Margaret meets one Mrs. Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave). Turns out Margaret and Ruth get along famously, though as it happens, Ruth isn't long for this world. Turns out, though, that Margaret's discussions with Ruth about having to leave the Schlegel family home against their will inspired Ruth to will her beloved country home Howards End to Margaret on her death bed. Ruth's widower (Anthony Hopkins), though, thinks the act the work of a delusional dying woman and doesn't allow Margaret to know of this real estate changing of the guards. It doesn't end there, though - after a number of months, Margaret and Ruth's widower start up a romance and eventually marry, complicating the whole mess.

What happens in Howards End is an ever-increasing dramatic development that becomes as suspenseful and unpredictable as an action film - even though there are literally no scenes involving anything other than riding in a carriage or talking in a parlor, the film throbs with energy and narrative punch to spare. It may not house explosions or interstellar spacecraft, but Howards End is a thrill of epic regard.