Ultimately, A Passage to India is probably unfilmable, but surely they could do better than this trite adaptation. Almost everything that made the novel great - the perfect blend of historical, psychological and symbolic approaches to show that all of them fail to provide a passage to the true India, because India is so much greater than all of them - is either ignored or trivialised. The incident in the Marabar caves, far from being the dramatic high point it should have been, is simply a depiction of a woman's incomprehensible hysteria.
Ironically, Forster's masterpiece - possibly the greatest English novel of the 20th Century - has become the least of his movies. In the interests of justice, it should never have been made.
Ironically, Forster's masterpiece - possibly the greatest English novel of the 20th Century - has become the least of his movies. In the interests of justice, it should never have been made.