#clive durham

see, in the book, clive goes to greece and over the course of a week or so, comes to the ‘realisation’ that he's straight.

first of all, that seems like complete bullshit – like babe you went to greece and didn't come out gayer than ever? the place from where the stories you based your worldview and accepted your sexuality come from? the place that was your gay mecca? you went their and came out straight?

second of all, there is not enough catalyst for that decision in the book. sure, it could be the homophobia of the time catching up with for the first time since he was removed from the relative safety of his college campus and had to face the reality of his house and the world around him; but apart from that there seems to be nothing that finally leads him to take that decision instead of taking it right out of college or after a few weeks managing his estate or something; there is no final tipping point.

in the movie, however, there is a tipping point: the arrest of viscount ripley.

out of all the gay men in cambridge, ripley and clive were the ones who were the most unapologetically queer, and also the ones who, being high landed gentry, would have been the safest.

to find his role model, friend, person in the same boat as him, arrested; slaps the reality of his situation right across clive's face: if he continues his relationship with maurice or any other men, he would be in extreme danger of arrest, incarceration, and defamation. that is what tips him over the edge, that is what makes him force himself through the sham of heterosexual marriage, that is what makes him abandon maurice.

so sure, everybody likes clive because he's played by hot sexy hugh grant, but also because you can understand him then. you can understand the difficult times he is living in, and while you may not agree with his decisions, you can sympathise with why he took them. you can see his fear, his desperation, his struggle, and you can blame the system that forces him to confront a life of compulsory heterosexuality instead of the victim who is just trying to survive.

tl,dr; people love clive durham in the movie than the book not only because he is played by hugh grant, but also because the movie does a better job at the portrayal of the homophobic society and how it plays a role in his choice of comphet.

"I think they just liked having three pretty boys running around"

I mean this criticism lightheartedly, but I am starting to think that some queer people just yearn for tragedy and will bend over backwards to find it in any story. I see the take so often that Maurice is a sad movie or a sad story. I very firmly feel that it is not. It is a movie with sad moments, but ultimately the whole point is that Maurice gets a happy ending. He just doesn't get a happy ending form the start.

I find people trying to rewrite the story a little frustrating because, given the the time period that the book was written in (and honestly the period the movie was made in), it's very important to preserve the fact it is a queer story where the main character gets a happy ending. That was a big deal and it's a big part of why I love the story so much. We have plenty of tragedies, y'all. If you love tragedies, I get it! As You Are, Brokeback Mountain (two of my all-time favorites), Portrait of Dorian Gray, Fellow Travelers, the list goes on. We've got those in surplus, no need to make one where there isn't one just because it's set in the past.