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Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
 wonderful February 22, 2007
RD
36 out of 36 found this review helpful
I only rented this movie because I think Anthony Hopkins is an amazing actor and he didn't let me down.
br /He plays C.S Lewis, the author of the Narnia books among others. 'Jack' (as his brother calls him) is an ageing university lecturer in Oxford who lives with his equally single brother simply passing the time teaching people literature and belief in God. His life is routine and he is content.
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br /One day he agrees to meet an American woman who is a fan of his work and has been writing him letters which he finds interesting. She asks him questions which provoke thought and isn't afraid to say what she feels/thinks. They develop a strong friendship and love over time only to have their feelings tested in the worst way.
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br /The movie sounds drab when put that way but it unravels at a gentle (some may call it slow!) pace with a wonderful and witty dialog. There are several characters entwined in the background which give the movie more substance and ground work. To top it all off are the beautiful settings in which it is set.
br /A movie about true love and loss to touch anyones heart strings.
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br /Definitely worth watching.
Shadowlands is the perfect love and loss story November 29, 2005
oliraceking (London, UK)
44 out of 45 found this review helpful
Ever since Shadowlands came out in 1993 I have been captivated by it. The story of C.S Lewis; writer, academic and bachelor for 50 years who meets and eventually falls in love with American poet Joy Davidman, is a straightforward one. But it is a touching one.
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br /Richard Attenborough has come in for a lot of (unjust) criticism as a director over the years, mainly by those who think his epics reach further than they can grasp. This film, perhaps his smallest, is one of his more applauded.
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br /William Nicholson adapted his stage play for this project and the script maintains the basic love story, with some wisdom thrown in for good measure. Attenborough chose to cast Anthony Hopkins to replace the then "unkown to Americans" Nigel Hawthorn (a studio decision). Hopkins' speciality is restraint - a 'dormant volcano'. It serves the character of Lewis brilliantly here because he is containing love, emotion and feeling. It means that once he opens up towards the end of the film, you see a side of Hopkins that I for one have never seen before or since.
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br /Debra Winger is well cast as the overbearing, uninhibited American Joy Gresham, as is her son Joseph Mazzello (whom Attenborough had previously worked with in Jurassic Park). And Edward Hardwicke is excellent as Lewis's brother, Warnie.
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br /I think the reason this story works for me is that is a metaphor for being English (or was, anyway): the repressed type who won't open up to emotion - is afraid of change, and by the time he does change, it's too late and he feels the pain he so feared in the first place. What I like is the message that, 'it's part of life' and as the film says, "The pain now is part of the happiness then - that's the deal."
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br /The film is 'based' on a true story because there are factual things that are changed for the film - like there being two sons not one, and the fact he was at Cambridge - but these can be overlooked.
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br /The acting is great, the locations are quintessentially English, George Fenton's score is one of my favourites and Attenborough got his biggest recognition since Gandhi.
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br /Unfortunately I look back on the film on this very simple DVD (with 2:35:1 widescreen, 2.0 sound - no extras) with nostalgia for that period. It seemed to be a more innocent and painless existance. But then I guess pain is relative.
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br /I would recommend this film to an audience who have had to suffer the burden of losing someone to a long illness. It has a heart and a central message (which is stated a few times in the film). And hopefully it will appear more predominantly in retrospectives of Attenborough's career in years to come.
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br /I've purposefully mentioned little about the plot because basically it's worth discovering as you go along.
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br /Shadowlands is an old fashioned type of film - and the better for it. And, like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, it has something to say about the true nature of love and life.
The pain then is part of the happiness now. That#x27;s the deal. January 6, 2006
Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany)
85 out of 90 found this review helpful
"I seem to play men who are sort of imprisoned in themselves," Anthony Hopkins comments in an interview included on this movie#x27;s DVD. And although this adequately characterizes a mere fraction of his work, roles like that of butler Stevens in Merchant/Ivory#x27;s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro#x27;s "Remains of the Day," Henry Wilcox in E.M. Forster#x27;s "Howards End" (also by Merchant/Ivory) and even Thomas Harris#x27;s Hannibal Lecter, illustrate Hopkins#x27;s minimalist approach to acting, which makes him so uniquely qualified to play emotionally restrained men, locked up behind the walls erected by convention, trauma or madness. Thus, while bearing little physical resemblance to the real C.S. Lewis, atheist-turned-Christian scholar and bestselling author of the famous "Narnia Chronicles," Hopkins was a natural choice for the role in this movie about Lewis and his wife-to-be, American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger).pAlbeit subtitled "based on a true story," "Shadowlands" doesn#x27;t purport to recount the couple#x27;s relationship in its full complexity - that would take much more than a 2 hours, 15 minutes-long film, if it were accomplishable at all. On equally strong intellectual footing, Joy Gresham and "Jack" Lewis were bound to each other not only by a joint interest in literature and because Joy challenged all assumed bases of Lewis#x27;s scholarly life, but also by their personal geneses as convert Christians (he coming from atheism, she from Judaism, at least partly influenced by Lewis#x27;s writings). Obviously for reasons of dramatic streamlining, director Richard Attenborough and screenwriter William Nicholson - who adapted his play for the big screen after having already scripted the 1985 BBC production featuring Joss Acklund and Claire Bloom - chose to cut down on several facts and persons, such Joy Gresham#x27;s second son David (who is not mentioned at all), Lewis#x27;s 1954 move from Oxford#x27;s Magdalen College to similarly-named Magdalene College at Cambridge (likewise not included), the alcoholism of Lewis#x27;s brother Warren ("Warnie") (which is substantially downplayed, as is the abusiveness of Joy#x27;s first husband Bill Gresham) and Lewis#x27;s complicated friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien (who surprisingly is not at all among the featured Oxford scholars). Similarly, at least according to some accounts Lewis was not quite the bachelor he is shown to be here, possibly having shared more than tenancy of The Kilns (where he and Warren still lived when he met Joy) with Janie King Moore, 25 years his senior and mother of his college roommate Edward "Paddy" Moore, who died in WWI. With regard to Lewis#x27;s and Joy Gresham#x27;s relationship itself, the movie espouses the view of some biographers that the couple#x27;s April 1956 wedding was merely a marriage of convenience designed to allow Joy to stay in England - and that Lewis only fell in love with her after she had been diagnosed with cancer (although she had evidently been taken with him for a considerably longer time) - but here, too, much remains disputed: inevitably so, as this goes to the very heart of their romance; a romance, moreover, growing in an environment not exactly encouraging to the baring of one#x27;s soul to outsiders.pBe that all as it may, however, "Shadowlands" is an emotionally and visually stimulating, tremendously powerful production, centering on the recognition that there are only two ways to deal with love: either to shut it out, thus avoiding pain as much as you#x27;re foregoing bliss, or to embrace it, thus also allowing for the sorrow it may bring. As a boy, Lewis chose the former: Unable to cope with his mother#x27;s death and reconcile it with the idea of a benevolent God, he chose atheism over religion and, later, a scholar#x27;s protected, emotionally unchallenging existence over matrimony; this remaining his choice even after having accepted Christianity, now explaining human suffering as "God#x27;s megaphone for shouting at a callous world." Yet, all that was called into question when he met Joy who, with her outspoken nature, progressive views, ex-communist background and New York Jewish upbringing was the most unlikely match conceivable for him; and soon made herself unpopular with his Oxford colleagues, e.g. by pointedly rebuking Christopher Riley#x27;s (John Wood#x27;s) remark that men have intellect where women have souls (which incidentally could well have come from Lewis himself, who had once explained his refusal to marry by noting that then "all the topics of conversation would be used up in a fortnight"). Yet, what had started with a courtesy meeting over tea with a self-professed admirer soon blossomed into a stimulating intellectual exchange and, based thereon, friendship - although Lewis still clung to the idea that there was nothing more to their relationship. Indeed, just *because* Joy was a woman with whom he could have the intellectual exchange he had heretofore only known with men, he could accept her as a friend while keeping her at an emotional distance ... or so he thought. Only the realization that he would soon be losing her forever (at least, according to this movie#x27;s interpretation) cut through his armor. Still, although he believed he had now understood that happiness and pain are inextricably linked in love, his faith was again profoundly shaken by her death, giving birth to of his most personal works, "A Grief Observed."pMagnificently framed by its Oxford University background and featuring a tremendous cast, from the two leads to Edward Hardwicke (Warren Lewis), Joseph Mazzello (Douglas Gresham) and top-tier actors even in minor roles (to name but a few, Julian Fellowes, Michael Denison, Peter Howell, Julian Firth and Peter Firth), "Shadowlands" received Oscar nominations for Debra Winger and William Nicholson#x27;s screenplay (Anthony Hopkins was only nominated for "The Remains of the Day"), but in a year that also saw strong competition from "Philadelphia," "Age of Innocence," "Short Cuts" etc., ultimately lost out to "Schindler#x27;s List" and "The Piano" (Holly Hunter). Nevertheless, this is a powerful testimony to the love between two truly unusual individuals; one of Oxford-s pre-eminent scholars and the woman who was to him, as he wrote in her epitaph, "the whole world ... reflected in a single mind."
Shadowlands February 19, 2009
Mr. R. Brown (Croydon, South London, England)
Shadowlands is one of Richard Attenborough's best films. It is, by turns, touching, funny and moving (especially at the end) and evokes, for me at least, the atmosphere of the '50s as I experienced it in England. While some people might balk at the lack of total historical accuracy (Douglas Gresham had a brother, for example), I personally believe that to clutter the story with extra characters would have slowed it down to the point where there would have been too many sub-plots to cleanly resolve and resulted in a lesser film. As it is, the characters of C. S. Lewis (palyed by Antony Hopkins) and Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) are beautifully brought out by two actors at the peak of their powers. The end of the movie is more heartbreaking than almost any I have ever seen, mostly because it is so well underplayed. It is well worth anyone's money and if the movie didn't win an academy award (and I don't think it did)it should have done.Enjoy - but have the tissues ready!
Slow but moving February 20, 2009
Riplet (Geordie Land)
Although this film may not be factually accurate it gives the viewer a sense of a love that is taken away by bereavement. The acting is superb and the sets take you back to the actual period in which the film is set. I would recommend this film, but keep a box of tissues nearby.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
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