Shadowlands

Rating:
Summary: The Very Best
Review: If you have ever read C.S. Lewis by yourself or have read it with a child, you will know the magic this man created. He was an outstanding writer and an outstanding man of faith. I strongly recommend this film as an outstanding example of one small part of this man's life. Anthony Hopkins is excellent in his role of C.S.Lewis. They could not have picked a better person to have played this part.

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Movie
Review: I have begun to realize that Anthony Hopkins, whose older movies I am now watching and enjoying, was and is a genius. He can get more pathos, more sympathy, more complete human understanding from a lift of an eyebrow than just about anybody. And he does so in this charming, piquant and moving story adapted from the true story of author C.S. Lewis and his love affair with American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger).

Comfortably situated as an Oxford don, living with his brother and protected from any unwanted contact, author "Jack" Lewis is content, set in his ways, and gently going through his days, which will never change until their peaceful end. Then he meets Joy Gresham, a brash, outspoken American who first presents herself as an avid fan, and later becomes his close friend.

As Jack falls deeply in love, he cannot accept or even realize the depth of his feelings, as he has never had them before. But Joy's brutal battle with a swift-moving cancer that leaves her helpless changes his view of her, himself, his Christianity, which is so important to his being--and at last, himself.

Gently charming and tragic without being cloying, this is a gem of a movie, one that should be owned and cherished.

Rating:
Summary: Hopkins and Winger at their finest
Review: Shadowlands is the touching story of how C.S. Lewis came to fall in love, and thereby challenging his deep religious convictions involving pain and suffering.

What I found very interesting was that Anthony Hopkins looked a great deal more like J.R.R. Tolkien (who was very close with Lewis: indeed, Tolkien was largely responsible for Lewis' conversion to Christianity) than C.S. Lewis himself. Tolkien was also conspicuously absent. Perhaps it was thought that he was too powerful a figure and would divert the viewers attention from Lewis' story creating an inequality of sorts.

However, that has nothing to do with the film.

Anthony Hopkins put on a brilliant performance (as always), and when he was describing to his friends the lack of metaphor in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the look on his face was amazing, magical, and beautiful. It was difficult to imagine that was the same face that had played Hannibal Lecter. Paired with Debra Winger, the acting was magnificent.

When Debra Winger came to Oxford to meet Lewis for the first time, her nervousness was touching and so well performed. She is easily one of our finest.

Watching Lewis slowly realize that he was truly in love with Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) was the focal point of the film and the highlight for me.

Also breathtaking was the cinematography. It captured everything that we Anglophiles love about England: the roving countryside, lush green colors, gorgeous university architecture, and so much more.


Rating:
Summary: Unsurpassed melodrama!
Review: Two giant actors : the extraordinary and radiant Debra Winger makes the perfect balance to Sir Anthony Hopkins the living legend of the acting in this sad , poignant and haunting story of love .

She is a poet but dying of cancer and he is an University teacher love orphan.

Superb and mature film of this giant film maker : Richard Attenborough .


Rating:
Summary: A very moving, powerful and poignant look at love
Review: This is one of the best films I have seen. It is the story of CS Lewis, a literary genius, and his improbable encounter with a love that changes his life. One caution is that this film cannot be watched with dry eyes, it is that powerful and moving.

The film catches an established CS Lewis, who at this point has already written several books and is well known. He is visited by a woman and her son who come over from America. One of my favorite scenes is of the young boy searching through Lewis's house and finding a big wardrobe; the look of disappointment when he reaches through the coats and hits the solid back is priceless. An obvious nod to the magical wardrobe in the CS Lewis classic "The lion, the witch and the wardrobe".

The scenes of the outspoken young American being introduced to the stuffy Oxford colleagues of Lewis depict just what an improbable match this is. Nonetheless, Lewis falls in love. The rest of the story needs to be experienced.

There are no weak moments on this film. The acting is first rate throughout and Hopkins is at his best. The love between them is both believable and truthful, as is the way the relationship brings out feelings Lewis had long shut down.

A classic, a true love story. If you are at all a fan of CS Lewis, or just of great films, then this is a must see. Powerful, moving and a very poignant examination of love. Highly recommended.


Rating:
Summary: A movie catharsis....
Review: Only 2 movies I have seen in my life have made me cry out loud. This was one of them. This is the ONLY movie I have ever seen whose lesson has not left me, even after several years. "The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal". An incredibly profound concept, but so true. No wonder Lewis said of her that she represented to him the whole world in a single mind. The lesson of this film is mind-blowing for anyone who has ever tried to shield himself from the prospect of pain that comes with just living and engaging in human relationships.

Hopkins completely disappears into the role. It is probably the finest acting performance I have ever seen from anyone in any film.

This is one of those films that belongs on the bookshelf at home, right alongside "Mere Christianity".