REWIND : Here’s Your Chance to View a Little-Seen Slice of Britain

Poignant, funny, tragic and deeply meaningful, “Where Angels Fear to Tread” is the type of work that warrants repeated viewing.

This British film, based on E.M. Forster’s first novel, is so rich in real-life emotion that it’s a shame it went practically unnoticed when it was released in the United States in 1992. “Where Angels Fear to Tread” was overshadowed by another Forster-based movie of that year, Merchant Ivory’s acclaimed “Howards End.”

Helen Mirren’s Lilia Herriton is at the crux of this resplendent period film. After her aristocratic husband dies, the middle-aged Englishwoman embarks on a vacation to Italy. This brazen show of independence irks Lilia’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Harriet Herriton (Judy Davis). A woman of her position should be home mourning in quiet refinement, they believe.

But Lilia is tired of being under the thumb of her oppressive in-laws. A commoner, she married into the English nobility and was often corrected and snubbed by the haughty women in the family. When Lilia announces her engagement to a 21-year-old Italian man of modest means, the Herritons respond as if the entire British Empire is about to collapse. They quickly dispatch son Philip (Rupert Graves) to Italy to prevent the marriage. But it’s too late: By the time he arrives in the picturesque rural town of Monteriano, Lilia and Geno (Giovanni Guidelli) have already tied the knot.

The tragedy for Lilia is that Geno proves to be as domineering as the Herritons. She’s very much a kept woman who must also endure his infidelities.

“Where Angels Fear to Tread” derives much of its tension by presenting the cultural differences between the passionate Italians and the more studied English. To director Charles Sturridge’s credit, the viewer is made to understand both the positive and negative aspects that make up these two disparate cultures.

In the end, it is Caroline Abbott (Helena Bonham Carter), Lilia’s English companion, who sums up the opposing qualities represented by the irresponsible, if well-intentioned, Geno and the refined but emotionally cold Herritons. In trying to help decide the fate of Lilia and Geno’s child, she asks Philip, “Do you want the child to be with a father who loves him but will bring him up badly or (should he be brought to the Herriton household), where no one loves him but he’ll be brought up well?”

Rich with the emotions, inconsistencies and nuances that make up life, “Where Angels Fear to Tread” soars.

“Where Angels Fear to Tread” (1991), directed by Charles Sturridge. 112 minutes. Rated PG.