During the 1930s, James Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) serves as a proper English butler to the doltish Lord Darlington (James Fox).
Stevens is so dedicated that he forgoes visiting his father on his deathbed in order to serve, and overlooks Darlington's Nazi sympathies and growing anti-Semitism. Twenty years after his employer's death, Stevens tries to reconnect with Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), Darlington's head housekeeper, and begins to regret his loyalty to his former master.
| Director: | James Ivory |
| Producer(s): | John Calley, Ismail Merchant |
| Cast: | Michael Lonsdale, Peter Vaughan, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve, Patrick Godfrey, Tim Pigott-Smith, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Grant, James Fox |
| Writer(s): | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala |