Shadowlands

I read somewhere that Shadowlands is a movie for everyone. Well let me correct that immediately, Shadowlands is not for everyone, especially not for me. But if you like to watch two senior adults behaving like two adolescents that just discovered flirting then be my guest. I thought it was so boring and couldn't help myself constantly checking the duration of this movie. Such a long time just watching two posh people talking about the most uninteresting things possible. And I'm a big fan of Anthony Hopkins so I was even more diasppointed by this snooze fest. The acting of Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger is good but that doesn't make it a good movie. I get that people like this kind of romantical stuff but I'd rather watch paint dry than watch this movie again.

source: Shadowlands

I watched this film as I'm a sucker for weepies. I didn't know that it was about CS Lewis, a little naive, you may say, but I just saw that it had a good rating in the TV guide and so I set the video to record it. I have told my family that I will kill them if they ever record over this film! It is beautiful. No background knowledge of the life of CS Lewis is needed- just sit back and enjoy. Some people may criticise such things as Debra Winger's accent and the fact that Douglas (Joseph Mazzello) should have had a brother in the film, but ignore them and let yourself be submerged in the sheer excellence of the film. The best line, for me, is when Hopkins, as Lewis, is teaching his class and tells them that "The most intense joy lies not in the having, but in the desire. The delight that never fades, the bliss that is eternal, is only yours when what you most desire is just out of reach". It will leave you crying yet contented. Watch this film, but do so with a box of tissues. If you leave the room to get something, you will without fail miss something. Not a moment of this movie must be missed!

The movie Shadowlands was definitely my cup of tea. But before I get into that I will give you a brief overview of this true story. This movie was directed by Richard Attenborough and it was based on the original stage play by William Nicholson. It featured Anthony Hopkins who plays C.S. Lewis, the famous author of the Narnia books. He is a teacher and writer who resides in England with his brother. He also spends his time giving lectures, and eventually gains quite a following. A divorced American woman named Joy Gresham, played by Debra Winger, writes him an admiring letter and soon after they begin a correspondence. After a while she comes to visit with her son. She eventually moves there, the two become romantically entangled and ultimately the unlikely couple falls in love. Neither of them was looking for it. He is used to his life as a bachelor and she is concerned with the well being of her son. After time progresses Lewis finally discovers he can't imagine his life without her in it. When all seems to be going well Joy contracts cancer. Lewis is there for her through all of her pain, and they must together face the fact that they soon must part. The story of their love was refreshing. It was not based on physical desire, but for their mind, sole, and heart. At the beginning it seemed as though Lewis did not have the ability to love another human being other than himself. Yet, when he finally does find the courage to love it is a more exciting adventure than any of his books. Gresham too is not prepared for love, but found it with Lewis beginning as early as their initial writings. And when all is going well, their love is tested. I truly believe this couple did share true and eternal love. What this movie lacked in action and adventure it possessed in depth. It was unlike the usual movie love story. The range of emotions felt by the characters can almost be felt while watching the movie. I recommend it to anyone who has loved or suffered a great loss.

The true story of British writer C. S. Lewis who, despite his comfortable bachelor life, falls in love with a lively, spirited American poet played extremely well by Debra Winger. Excellent script, and direction along with outstanding performances by the supporting cast.

Shadowlands portrays Lewis as a naive old bachelor with little experience of life, sheltered if not positively shallow. But you tell me: when he was 10 his mother died; when he was in his late teens he entered the army, endured trench warfare, and was wounded; he saw his best friend killed in battle; honoring a pledge, he moved in with the friend's mother and sister and supported them for many years; he had a sexual relationship with his friend's mother, and although she was an extremely difficult woman he remained with her until her death; and during all these years his much-beloved brother Warnie was a binge drinker who often ended up face down in the gutter. Does this sound like a sheltered life to you? I can't speak for anyone but myself, but this strikes me as a pretty full life - he'd gone through more by the age of 25 than I have at 45. Lewis loved Joy Davidman, and she brought something important to his life. But to say he needed her to become a Real Human Being is condescension of the worst sort, and this aspect of Shadowlands's script is a kind of slander (perhaps a backhanded slap at Lewis's Christianity, which is "obviously" childish and unrealistic?).

I will say that when I saw the rating of 7.4, someone will say that is a fairly decent rating. I personally think for this masterpiece, the rating should be higher, honestly the quality of the acting and cinematography makes it worthy to be in the top 250. I honestly did think that this film is just extraordinary, beautifully shot with wonderful locations, and matched perfectly by one of the most gorgeous music scores I have ever heard in my life, composed by George Fenton that never interfered with the calmness of the film. Richard Attenborough has directed many ambitious but beautifully made films like Oh!What a Lovely War, Cry Freedom and Chaplin, and I will say that Shadowlands deserves to be up there with his best, it is a heart-rending film of true love and the consequences that left me speechless(I am 17), that I don't think has had enough praise. The performances were just outstanding. Anthony Hopkins was phenomenal as CS Lewis, and I am glad he got some awards for his performance, honestly it was that good. Debra Winger is just perfection as Joy Gresham, a victim of the devastating illness bone cancer. The two leads' chemistry is the main reason why I love this movie, I confess I cried when Lewis held the dying Joy in his arms, the reason being it reminded me of Mimi's Death Scene in La Boheme. The child star, Joseph Mazello was a huge surprise as Douglas, a boy of wide imagination and deep feeling. The scene where he and Lewis are crying in each other's arms made my eyes well up with emotion, never until yesterday did I see Hopkins look so tender with anybody on screen, not even in The Elephant Man. As Warnie, Edward Hardwicke best known for his appearances as Dr Watson in the 80s-90s Sherlock Holmes series was remarkable, a minor character but one with feeling and understanding. The actors are helped by a poignant and well-written script, that at times does give clever nods to Lewis's literary genius. It is no wonder that Shadowlands got an award for best British film of the year, it is just beautiful. It is more steady paced than the Elephant Man, another film I am really fond of,and less involving in terms of action, but neither of these things are disadvantages, because i cannot deny what joy I felt watching this film. 10/10 Bethany Cox.

Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger are perfectly cast in this beautiful film that contains what maybe the best and most haunting scenes in the history of motion pictures. I didn't realize that there was almost no music until the third time I watched it. Hopkins delivers a career-best performance and Joseph Mazzello (as Winger's son) is terribly underbilled (his performance is superb), and I have no idea why Shadowlands didn't even land a Best Picture Academy Award nomination, it's certainly worth the price of the rental. + (GOOD THINGS) 1.) Death scene 2.) Chemistry between Hopkins and Winger 3.) Richard Attenborough's direction 4.) Hopkin's performance 5.) William Nicholson's script 6.) Winger's performance 7.) Joseph Mazzello's performance (BAD THINGS) 1.) Winger's accent Total: 9.5/10

This isn't really my thing. I could tell it was well made, had a decent script, and so forth, but I wondered what the point was. Man suffers grief at the death of his wife, questions faith - yawn. Still, since it's not my thing, perhaps I shouldn't comment. Perhaps, also, it's unfair to harp on the historical inaccuracies. I will anyway. Anthony Hopkins plays Lewis as being inarticulate and perpetually bewildered. Wrong on both counts. He was all too articulate. He was a fluent speaker as well as a fluent writer, never once lost for words; if he had a problem it was that he was SO fluent that he had a tendency to think with his pen, or with his tongue - to be convinced of the soundness of the many intriguing bad arguments he came up with simply because they sounded so good on the surface. It's not that he was insincere. He knew his mind, if not the value of his thoughts. He also had a truculence that fails to make it anywhere near the script. Compare a REAL Lewis monologue with the fumbling, vague account Anthony Hopkins gives of the `magic' of the opening section of `The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. Lewis had developed a whole THEORY about this `magic' which he would describe in detail to anyone who would listen. Like most of Lewis's ideas, it's wrong, but interesting and worth hearing - although I admit it's not an easy thing to put on the screen. It's in that scene - the one where he talks about his first Narnia book - that we meet Lewis's counterfoil, whose name I forget. He's a straw man if ever there was one. He's Lewis's (the real Lewis's) idea of a modern, leftist, atheist intellectual: supercilious, flippant and stupid, not so much a human being as a bundle of facial grimaces with a degree. Why Lewis has anything to do with him is a mystery. He's there, I suppose, so that it's not just Lewis's views that are traduced. What else bugged me? Probably the suggestion that nothing at all had happened to Lewis until he met Joy, when in fact many sections of his earlier life could have been made into much more interesting films. (For instance, he once fell in love and lived for several years with the MOTHER of a fellow soldier who died in the Great War - now THAT I would have liked to have seen.) Poor Lewis. He asked for it, sometimes, publishing trashy pamphlets like `Mere Christianity'; but since his death he has become little more than a Christian mascot. He deserved more. Still, it's a pleasant enough film, if you like that sort of thing.

Many people seeing this film who are familiar with CS Lewis' writings will be tempted to be disappointed. They should not be. In defense of this film and the method used to get the results, I have two things to say. The first, and by far the most important, is that spiritual films are very difficult to make -- especially if one is speaking about something above one's head. That's why the life of Jesus is such a difficult subject and has met with so little success, at least from an artistic point of view. Even Mel Gibson's Passion suffers from this to some extent. I would say his representation of the Passion reflect more of our times and what we consider to be important than on the ministry of Jesus. I may be wrong; I am not a believer so my opinion may not matter. But what is true is that no matter what your belief, spiritual man (Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and others) are very hard to make biographies of. In my opinion what they represented survived not because we have understanding, but because our instincts tell us they are what we should be. It is not a mind thing at all. AND FILMS REQUIRE OUR MINDS, at least to make them. It would take a soul equal to that of Christ to make a film about Christ. To a far lesser extent, that is true of CS Lewis. His was a very complex theology dressed in wonderful parables. He had a great understanding of the parables and used the same technique. It does little good to discuss his theology in a film that is about 2 hours long. In fact, the viewer is sort of expected to know something about his writings and theology. Which brings me to my second point. Perhaps it is because I am over 60 and not been brought up on Romances that I find this one so appealing. Here was a man that had lived his entire life one way, mostly in his mind, when he was confronted with feelings that demanded he reinterpret everything he believed. How many of us at his age could do what CS Lewis did? Here was a man that thought one way and was forced to live another. What the mind is a very poor substitute for what our emotions understand. CS Lewis was very quick, I think, to recognize this and embraced it completely once he found it out. Douglas Davidman Gresham (Joy Gresham's son), has said that the film is perhaps not completely factually correct, but the emotion representation is "spot on". For me, no truer words could be spoken. What does it matter what details are missing, or changed because we have only 2 hours to tell a story? What matters is that we see the humanity of the man and his wonderful ability to embrace openly his new found emotions are what matters. And to put this into his spiritual structure was even more remarkable. It's a good film. Enjoy it and pay attention. It requires an open heart and an open mind. Give it both.