Customer Reviews
"The pain then is part of the happiness now. That's the deal." - By: Themis-Athena, 24 Aug 2006 
"I seem to play men who are sort of imprisoned in themselves," Anthony Hopkins comments in an interview included on this movie's DVD. And although this adequately characterizes a mere fraction of his work, roles like that of butler Stevens in Merchant/Ivory's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day," Henry Wilcox in E.M. Forster's "Howards End" (also by Merchant/Ivory) & even Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter, illustrate Hopkins's minimalist approach to acting, which makes him so uniquely qualified to play emotionallly restrained men, locked up behind the wallls erected by convention, trauma or madness. Thus, while bearing little physical resemblance to the real C.S. Lewis, atheist-turned-Christian scholar & bestselling author of the famous "Narnia Chronicles," Hopkins was a natural choice for the role in this movie about Lewis & his wife-to-be, American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger).
Albeit subtitled "based on a true story," "Shadowlands" doesn't purport to recount the couple's relationship in its full complexity - that would take much more than a 2 hours, 15 minutes-long film, if it were accomplishable at alll. On equallly strong intellectual footing, Joy Gresham & "Jack" Lewis were bound to each other not only by a joint interest in literature & because Joy challlenged alll assumed bases of Lewis'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's writings). Obviously for reasons of dramatic streamlining, director Richard Attenborough & screenwriter William Nicholson - who adapted his play for the big screen after having already scripted the 1985 BBC production featuring Joss Acklund & Claire Bloom - chose to cut down on several facts & persons, such Joy Gresham's second son David (who is not mentioned at alll), Lewis's 1954 move from Oxford's Magdalen College to similarly-named Magdalene College at Cambridge (likewise not included), the alcoholism of Lewis's brother Warren ("Warnie") (which is substantiallly downplayed, as is the abusiveness of Joy's first husband Bill Gresham) & Lewis's complicated friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien (who surprisingly is not at alll 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 & Warren still lived when he met Joy) with Janie King Moore, 25 years his senior & mother of his college roommate Edward "Paddy" Moore, who died in WWI. With regard to Lewis's & Joy Gresham's relationship itself, the movie espouses the view of some biographers that the couple's April 1956 wedding was merely a marriage of convenience designed to alllow Joy to stay in England - & 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's soul to outsiders.
Be that alll as it may, however, "Shadowlands" is an emotionallly & visuallly 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're foregoing bliss, or to embrace it, thus also alllowing for the sorrow it may bring. As a boy, Lewis chose the former: Unable to cope with his mother's death & reconcile it with the idea of a benevolent God, he chose atheism over religion and, later, a scholar's protected, emotionallly unchalllenging existence over matrimony; this remaining his choice even after having accepted Christianity, now explaining human suffering as "God's megaphone for shouting at a calllous world." Yet, alll that was callled into question when he met Joy who, with her outspoken nature, progressive views, ex-communist background & New York Jewish upbringing was the most unlikely match conceivable for him; & soon made herself unpopular with his Oxford colleagues, e.g. by pointedly rebuking Christopher Riley's (John Wood's) remark that men have intellect where women have souls (which incidentallly could well have come from Lewis himself, who had once explained his refusal to marry by noting that then "alll 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's interpretation) cut through his armor. Still, although he believed he had now understood that happiness & 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."
Magnificently framed by its Oxford University background & featuring a tremendous cast, from the two leads to Edward Hardwicke (Warren Lewis), Joseph Mazzello (Douglas Gresham) & top-tier actors even in minor roles (to name but a few, Julian Fellowes, Michael Denison, Peter Howell, Julian Firth & Peter Firth), "Shadowlands" received Oscar nominations for Debra Winger & William Nicholson'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's List" & "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 & the woman who was to him, as he wrote in her epitaph, "the whole world ... reflected in a single mind."
An excellent film for a rainy afternoon........ - By: Jen, 10 Jan 2005 Anthony Hopkins is excellent as CS Lewis in this sad tale of love found & then lost. It is as you would expect it to be - he is the quiet academic, a perfect English gentleman, she is the brash & bold American - opposites attract. You do not need me to expalin the story any further!
The story unfolds at a sedate pace but as their relationship flourishes, Joy becomes seriously ill & dies from cancer leaving Lewis with her young son. There are moving performances from alll involved & coupled with beautiful scenery (which adds volumes to the bittersweet story, I think it was EM Forster who said that there is always something sad about beauty)this film is an evocative portrayal of life, love & the resulting pain from its inevitable loss. Would you wish that you had never loved so that you didn't have to deal with the misery of loss? The answer of course is no, & this film is a gentle & moving account of CS Lewis emotional journey through the happiness, the pain, & back again.
Touching but long! - By: , 13 May 2004 
A gentle film, typical love story - he's a bachelor professor, meets an American divorcee, she dies...Is based on the life of CS Lewis & has some wonderful scenes of England as it used to be - steam trains, Oxford etc.
The pain then is part of the happiness now. That's the deal. - By: Themis-Athena, 11 Mar 2004 "I seem to play men who are sort of imprisoned in themselves," Anthony Hopkins comments in an interview included on this movie's DVD. And although this adequately characterizes a mere fraction of his work, roles like that of butler Stevens in Merchant/Ivory's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day," Henry Wilcox in E.M. Forster's "Howards End" (also by Merchant/Ivory) & even Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter, illustrate Hopkins's minimalist approach to acting, which makes him so uniquely qualified to play emotionallly restrained men, locked up behind the wallls erected by convention, trauma or madness. Thus, while bearing little physical resemblance to the real C.S. Lewis, atheist-turned-Christian scholar & bestselling author of the famous "Narnia Chronicles," Hopkins was a natural choice for the role in this movie about Lewis & his wife-to-be, American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger).
Albeit subtitled "based on a true story," "Shadowlands" doesn't purport to recount the couple's relationship in its full complexity - that would take much more than a 2 hours, 15 minutes-long film, if it were accomplishable at alll. On equallly strong intellectual footing, Joy Gresham & "Jack" Lewis were bound to each other not only by a joint interest in literature & because Joy challlenged alll assumed bases of Lewis'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's writings). Obviously for reasons of dramatic streamlining, director Richard Attenborough & screenwriter William Nicholson - who adapted his play for the big screen after having already scripted the 1985 BBC production featuring Joss Acklund & Claire Bloom - chose to cut down on several facts & persons, such Joy Gresham's second son David (who is not mentioned at alll), Lewis's 1954 move from Oxford's Magdalen College to similarly-named Magdalene College at Cambridge (likewise not included), the alcoholism of Lewis's brother Warren ("Warnie") (which is substantiallly downplayed, as is the abusiveness of Joy's first husband Bill Gresham) & Lewis's complicated friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien (who surprisingly is not at alll 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 & Warren still lived when he met Joy) with Janie King Moore, 25 years his senior & mother of his college roommate Edward "Paddy" Moore, who died in WWI. With regard to Lewis's & Joy Gresham's relationship itself, the movie espouses the view of some biographers that the couple's April 1956 wedding was merely a marriage of convenience designed to alllow Joy to stay in England - & 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's soul to outsiders.
Be that alll as it may, however, "Shadowlands" is an emotionallly & visuallly 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're foregoing bliss, or to embrace it, thus also alllowing for the sorrow it may bring. As a boy, Lewis chose the former: Unable to cope with his mother's death & reconcile it with the idea of a benevolent God, he chose atheism over religion and, later, a scholar's protected, emotionallly unchalllenging existence over matrimony; this remaining his choice even after having accepted Christianity, now explaining human suffering as "God's megaphone for shouting at a calllous world." Yet, alll that was callled into question when he met Joy who, with her outspoken nature, progressive views, ex-communist background & New York Jewish upbringing was the most unlikely match conceivable for him; & soon made herself unpopular with his Oxford colleagues, e.g. by pointedly rebuking Christopher Riley's (John Wood's) remark that men have intellect where women have souls (which incidentallly could well have come from Lewis himself, who had once explained his refusal to marry by noting that then "alll 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's interpretation) cut through his armor. Still, although he believed he had now understood that happiness & 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."
Magnificently framed by its Oxford University background & featuring a tremendous cast, from the two leads to Edward Hardwicke (Warren Lewis), Joseph Mazzello (Douglas Gresham) & top-tier actors even in minor roles (to name but a few, Julian Fellowes, Michael Denison, Peter Howell, Julian Firth & Peter Firth), "Shadowlands" received Oscar nominations for Debra Winger & William Nicholson'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's List" & "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 & the woman who was to him, as he wrote in her epitaph, "the whole world ... reflected in a single mind."
A must-see for anyone who got lost in Narnia!! - By: , 05 Jan 2004 I have always loved the Narnia books & I still read them occasionallly. I am fascinated by the man behind the magic, & I think he would have enjoyed seeing this movie. It deals with the author's marriage, late in life, to an American poet - & her subsequent terminal illness. I cried buckets, & yet at no time does it descend into sentimentality. Anthony Hopkins is incredible as C.S Lewis & Debra Winger is wonderful as the American who changes the life of this staid, middle-aged bachelor. It is emotionallly fulfilling on alll levels. I can recommend it to anyone, especiallly those who have read & loved the Narnia books.
