Very disappointed :(

Just so...so bad

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

When the name Debra winger comes to mind, immediately the trifecta of Urban Cowboy, Officer and Gentlemen and terms of endearment comes to mind. However, she is much more than that. Shadow lands deserves the same attention as those movies of her. Shadow-lands is one of the most beautiful movies in terms of portraying human emotions and is equally beautiful as her earlier ToE. Even with similar subject matters, Joy is very different from Emma and CS Lewis is no Flap Horton. Anthony Hopkins does complete 360 from his character as the scary Hannibal Lecter to the very sympathetic CS Lewis. There is a scene at the end where his timing and acting is just beautiful. However, it is not just the performance of the leads that is beautiful; it is movie as whole, the music, the cinematography that makes it beautifully vibrant movie.

Based on the 1989 stage play which was itself based on the 1985 TV film by William Nicholson, this is an absolutely brilliant film which explores what it means to love someone. The script by Nicholson is beautifully written and there is not a false moment in the entire film. This is my first exposure to his work but he has a fantastic understanding of human nature. I think that the general thrust of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham's friendship turned romance is portrayed accurately but the film takes some liberties in depicting her as only having one son as opposed to two and in having their entire relationship play out over the course of a year or so as opposed to eight. The film is wonderfully directed by Richard Attenborough, whose excellent eye for casting is once again in evidence.Anthony Hopkins, making his fifth and final appearance in an Attenborough film, is simply superb as C.S. Lewis, who is depicted at the beginning of the film as being content with his life. He is a successful author, a popular speaker on religious issues and an Oxford don who lives with his beloved elder brother Warnie in a nice little cottage. A lapsed atheist, he is a devout Anglican who argues that "pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." However, when the American poet Joy Gresham enters his life, she knocks him for six. In real life, Warnie said that Joy was "quite extraordinarily uninhibited" and that is the perfect way to describe her. Debra Winger, whom I had never seen in a film before, is likewise brilliant in the role of Joy. Whereas Lewis is shy and often does not know what to say around her as he has little to no experience with women, Joy typically says exactly what is on her mind, in the process shocking Lewis as they are things that he may have been thinking but would never say. At one point, she accuses him of having an insular existence and of deliberately shutting himself off from anyone or anything that might hurt him. The reason for this seems to be the death of his mother when he was nine. Over the course of the film, he gradually falls in love with her but at first seems unable to process it as it has seemingly never happened before. Before Joy came on the scene, he thought that life was fulfilling but he later realised that he was lacking something, something which she provided.After Joy is diagnosed with cancer, Lewis begins to face the prospect of a life without her. There is a very moving scene in which Lewis cries in a church in Oxford and tells his close friend Reverend Harry Harrington how much he loves Joy, which is the first time that he admits it even to himself. They previously married in a registry office so she and her young son Douglas could stay in England but he wants their union to be recognised before God so they are married again by a minister in her hospital room. While she goes into remission and stays with him in Oxford for a time, her cancer is too far gone for her to make a complete recovery. After a quick honeymoon of a sort in Herefordshire, she dies, leaving Lewis and Douglas devastated. These are the most moving scenes in the film as Lewis finds that he is hardly able to live without her. Her death makes him question his strong faith and he is no longer able to rationalise suffering as God's way of perfecting humanity. Since Douglas has lost his mother at nine, Lewis knows exactly how he is feeling but he does not know what to say to him. When they finally talk about her death, they break down in tears in one another's arms in one of the most heartbreaking scenes that I have ever seen in a film.The film is carried by Hopkins and Winger, who was deservedly nominated for an Oscar, but it has an excellent supporting cast: Edward Hardwicke as the loving and supportive Warnie, Attenborough's "Jurassic Park" co-star Joseph Mazzello as Douglas, John Wood as the rude, obnoxious and condescending Christopher Riley who is put in his place by Joy, James Frain as Peter Whistler and Michael Denison as Harry Harrington. It also features great appearances in smaller roles from Robert Flemyng, Julian Fellowes, Peter Howell, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Julian Firth and, in his seventh and final appearance in one of his brother-in-law's films, Gerald Sim. As with Denison and Flemyng, it was also his final film appearance altogether. Hopkins was not nominated for Best Actor for this film but for "The Remains of the Day". In the early days of the Oscars, actors and actresses could be nominated for more than one performance and this is the first time that I have regretted that this system was abandoned as Hopkins deserved Best Actor nominations for both performances.Overall, this is a wonderful, extremely intelligent and deeply moving film which shows that love makes the world go around. At the end of the film, Lewis says that we love to know that we are not alone and I can't argue with that, whether it is romantic or platonic love.

The famous author of the Narnia chronicles' life is effected by his correspondence with an American Poet. His friendship grows, resulting in his 'technical marriage' to her to enable her to live in the UK. She falls ill and only then does he realise his true feelings for her. Feelings that he has protected himself from for his entire life.I knew it from the first moment I watched Shadowlands, but many years later I watched it again and knew that my earlier feelings were true. This is as perfect a film as I would love to watch. The writing is exact in every word, the acting true and sublime, the cinematography heavenly and the direction pulls the viewer into the story and doesn't let go to the very end. Criticise it at your peril because this is one film that I can confidently defend without fear of attrition. If you don't like it then you're opinion is wrong. Plain and simple.

Acclaimed Christian writer C.S. Lewis is the focus of Sir Richard Attenborough's gentle but moving film about the realisation and discovery of love.Anthony Hopkins (an actor who has movie-goers waiting with baited breath for his next performance) plays the aging lecturer and philosopher who meets an American divorcée whom he takes under his wing. It is only when faced with the possibility of losing her that he realises how much he cares for her.Attenborough' film is very English as it tells this romantic and tragic love story with sensitivity and a delightful sense of humour. Hopkin's is in fine form again as he plays a role similar to the one in "Howard's End", and Debra Winger is very competent as honest American fan Joy Grisham (she's been better though)."Shadowlands" is also bound to make a big impression at the Academy Awards, due to its fine production values (especially cinematography), sturdy direction and strong cast. Perhaps a little too subtle and gentile to have an enormous emotional impact, but many will still find this fairy tale love story very moving.Sunday, February 13, 1994 - Village Rivoli Cinema