Iris

Rating:
Summary: A Woman's Life...
Review: Philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch (Kate Winslet / Judi Dench) believes that the world only exists as we perceive it in our minds and can describe it in words for others. However, this becomes seemingly increasingly difficult for her as she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which seems to be devastating for those around her. This is portrayed through flashbacks contrasted with her present life and how she met her beloved gawky husband, for whom she can no longer express her love. As disease takes control of the aging Iris the audience is stepped upon with unpleasant reality that forces tears and sympathy for her and those around her. In the end, the audience will have a terrific film experience through feeling grief while pondering Iris's life philosophy with exhilarating curiosity.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-felt performance
Review: Bravo indeed to performances from all cast. I work in a retirement village and it's really sad to note Alzheimer's disease would have reaped people's off their mind and their imagination. It's harrowing to witness the sufferers' decline and seeing the lights and glitter doused from their eyes. This movie bounced back and forth through time in order to let us appreciate the bond and the love that Iris had with her husband, who stuck by her through thick and thin. We couldn't help our teary eyes upon witnessing the husband's struggle to look after Iris' welfare and yet, frustration and exhaustion prevented him from enjoying his retirement that he wholly deserved. Love conquers all, and I guess when the right one comes along, we just know. Splendid performance and a movie that shouldn't be missed

Rating:
Summary: This Is What Academy Awards Used To Be For
Review: An absolutely timeless film that portrays the true life of the British author and philosopher Iris Murdoch. It has been many years and many movies since I saw one this great. From any standpoint......human touch, poignancy of old love, relevance to current health care issues, irony, sweetness of young love, monumental sadness, there seems no end to the ways this movie can be described. Judi Dench and Kate Winslet spin a web of brilliance once again, but this time they have an incredible effort by Jim Broadbent with strong support from Hugh Bonneville. This is truly what academy awards used to be for. All 4 of these players deserve one in this sure to become a classic film!

Rating:
Summary: never got off the ground. iris.
Review: Flash back forward and sideways (not really).

Not worth [$] tired of paying that much for a movie and then
never seeing it but 2 x's. I love to watch movies over and over.
Like Sweet November,A Beautiful Mind,Things To Do In Denver When You Are Dead (great movie, great acting, great clothes and great beauty and of course a good strong story line and finally great
phrases, The Big Sleep, a bunch more.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC PERFORMANCES!
Review: THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE. IT FEATURES FANTASTIC ACTING AND A BEAUTIFUL SCORE.
IT GIVES A VERY ACCURATE DEPICTION OF THE EFFECTS OF ALZHEIMERS'S DISEASE!!
TAKE IT FROM ME- THIS IS A SAD DISEASE, BOTH DEVESTATING AND HEARTBREAKING!!
THIS IS ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE!!

Rating:
Summary: Bravo Madame Dench, Bravo Madame Murdoch
Review: The story of British novelist/philosopher Iris Murdoch is lovingly and artfully told as well as acted in this life-enriching movie. Whoever said that films of late have lost all of their heart and soul, have not viewed, "Iris."

Judi Dench as the aging and increasingly senile Iris Murdoch plays a powerful and honest role. Kate Winslet as the ebullient, witty, and on the cusp of greatness young Murdoch plays the role truly, but really can not match Dench's presence. Murdoch's enchantingly scatter-brained husband John Bayley (who also wrote two memoirs about Murdoch that you may want to check out titled, "Iris and Her Friends," and "Elegy for Iris") is played by Jim Broadbent (the elder) and Hugh Bonneville (the younger). These roles almost hold up to watching Dench and it truly is uncanny how close the actors are made to resemble each other. I had to watch the credits to ensure that Bayley wasn't played by just one actor with a good make-up artist.

You watch with anguish as such a stark dichotomy is created between the beautiful mind and energetic soul of the younger Iris and the dilapidated and brain-dulled disintegration that the elder Iris falls into as she succumbs to Alzheimer's. Through it all though, it is not a story about a disease and dying. It is a story about how two souls can come together, two unlikely souls as different as they are in love, to express a love against all reason, a love that binds them through equally in times of joy and times of loss.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Performances - Tedious Screenplay
Review: This film has wonderful performances by Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet. However, the plot can basically be summarized by: aging author gets Alzheimer's, slowly begins to lose her faculties, and dies. There are no surprises here. It can be very difficult to watch, and it depicts Alzheimer's with reality. Thankfully, there are flashbacks to Iris Murdoch's younger years, which relieves some of the relentless downward spiral of this film. However, I found myself wanting to see much more of Ms. Murdoch's life than what is portrayed here.

Rating:
Summary: Ode to Iris Murdoch
Review: This movie is based on the reminiscenses of John Bayley, the husband of Iris Murdoch, an English novelist and philosopher. Scenes of the early part of their courtship and love affair are juxtaposed with her later descent into madness, as her husband ministers to her growing needs. The performances of Judith Densch and Ben Broadbent are nothing short of remarkable and catch the roller-coaster existence of these two literary giants with wonderful clarity. For sensitive viewers, be forewarned, the subject matter is depressing and is certainly not light entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Little Mouse sailing into Darkness
Review: "We can only learn to love by Loving." -Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) once said that to be a complete victim may be another source of power. This movie is powerful and yet it is about Iris Murdoch becoming a victim to Alzheimer's disease.

Day by Day, she loses all that is precious to her. As her brain cells are destroyed, her moods change randomly, she becomes disoriented, panicky, has difficulty understanding others or expressing her deepest thoughts. Her husband John shows great love and commitment to her as he travels this road with her to the ocean where she finally sinks into the depths of herself and goes on to a place where she can finally be at peace, unlimited by her physical condition.

This story was adapted from the memoirs of John Oliver Bayley, who was a distinguished literary critic and professor of English Literature at Oxford. He later also became a writer. This does seem to be his view of their love, life and joys.

My favorite line in the movie was when Iris is speaking to John about her life and then says:

"You know more about me than anyone on earth. You are my world."

Iris was born in Dublin of Anglo-Irish parents and grew up in London. She was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and became one of Britian's greatest novelists. Her first philosophical work was Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953) and she followed this with her first novel Under the Net (1954). She wrote 26 novels; works that typically deal with the nature of freedom and love. She was known for her wit, imagination and comic ingenuity. Her books were written for responsive souls who enjoy introspection. Many of her novels tackled everyday ethical concerns. She enjoyed exploring the function of myth in making sense of one's life.

Her name fascinates me as she is named after the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow. This was a messenger for the Gods who traveled with the speed of the wind, so that all that was seen of her was the trail of her multicolored passage across the sky. She didn't only represent the Iris flower, but all the flowers of the world. The Goddess' duty was to bring the souls of women to paradise and she may also be symbolic of a flower's gift to the soul, to reveal love in varying ways. Perhaps she was to arrange contentment, tranquility, encouragement, thankfulness, healing and empathy into one fragrant bouquet of absolute exquisiteness.

The only regret I have with this movie is that they show more of the last days of the bouquet than the beginnings of the arrangement. I so wanted them to delve more into her life, to put in more of her quotes to water a beautiful flower so we could watch it grow. And yet, there is even beauty in a dying flower in this movie. Three hours about her life could not have been enough for me. I felt this movie was way too short and her life was so terribly interesting to me.

There are great artistic moments in this film, like when she can no longer write and she places stones on pieces of paper. All I could think was "If only the stones could cry out, they would." Her words had meant everything to her and were almost the true love of her life.

I look forward to reading...The Sea, The Sea and The Time of the Angels.

I am quite sure this movie was not one I selected at the video store, in fact, I think it found its way into my hands quite by accident. Or did it? I'm amazed at how often I don't bother to check that I have the correct video and often I do end up home with the wrong movie, however it always seems to turn out to be exactly what I needed to watch.

My husband appeared about half way through the movie and watched 10 minutes, got up and said: "This is the most depressing movie I have ever seen."

I continued to watch the movie, crying for the sheer beauty of the absolute poignancy of her life. I found the relationship between Iris and her husband to be a great thing of beauty. They shared such a joy of being alive. I will always think of her as the woman who was riding the bicycle or swimming nude just to feel the water on her bare skin. Or as the woman who desired the freedom of the mind. That place where she lived in her secret world, a beautiful maiden who loved words in a world she could control until even that world dissolved.

You will not remember the great loss as much as the life lived. By the time she sings: "I shall tell him all my love, All my souls Adoration, And I think he will hear me...." you will realize that this is perhaps one of the most beautiful biographies you will ever see.

I sat eating a pomegranate (seemed symbolic) with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders and watched this movie twice. Crying through the movie both times. As I write this, it plays for the third time in the background. The soundtrack is magnificent. I will more than likely watch it again at some point and I also intend to read all of her novels. At times a book or a movie is a door to another book or movie.

Deeply Touching.

Rating:
Summary: Good, I guess
Review: I never heard of the author portrayed in this movie before the movie. So credit the drawing power of Judi Dench and Kate Winslett to open a door that now makes me more cultured. The problem is, do I now know much more about the author other than the fact that her final years were not pleasant for her lifelong partner?

With that in mind, I think they might have made a stronger movie if they would have either chosen one to explore either the life of Iris Murdoch or Alzheimer's in general. Same actors, but this is where a fictional account might have taught me more about the disease. As it turns out, I didn't really learn much about the author, other than that she was an author, and I didn't learn much about Alzheimer's that I didn't already know.

Still, you don't put all that talent in the movie and come up with nothing. Judi Dench's quiet dignity shines through in movie after movie. And it would seem that Kate Winslett is being groomed to inherit the crown in, say, twenty years from now. Winslett did good roles before "Titanic", and is certainly building up a library of very good work post "Titanic", much more certainly than Leonardo DiWho? . For this, the movie is worth a viewing.