VHS : Shadowlands (1993)

Rating: - a mediocre cover...
Despite the top-notch acting, I felt this movie did not approach the quality of the BBC movie, "Surprised By Joy," which preceeded it by several years.

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Rating: - What Price Love?
This review refers to the DVD(HBO) edtion of "Shadowlands"...

With every viewing of this touching and true romance, I become more appreciative of what a fine film this is. Had I written a review after the first time I watched it, I probably would have gone 4 stars. The first time around, I really got to know C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham thanks to the deep and moving performances of Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. After that it was joy spending more time with them, really getting to know their story, and taking in the magnificent work of Director Richard Attenborough and the photography of Roger Pratt.

The story is a bittersweet tale of a mid-life romance that is all to short. C.S. Lewis, the famous writer of children's stories, lives the quiet life of a proper gentleman. He's a professor at Oxford,devout Christian,set in his ways, never married and is repsected by all that know him.When Joy Gresham a divorced, Jewish, Communist, brash New Yorker, with a young son enters his world,things as he knows them are about to change.They develop a friendship and soon she starts to melt the icy wall he has built up around his perfect world. To the shock of all those that know him well, Lewis finally lets his emotions be a part of his life. It is only when Joy becomes terminally ill with cancer, that he realizes the full depth of his love for this woman and her son, and must learn to deal with the pain as well.

I can't think of anyone else who could be C.S. Lewis. Hopkins is a virtuoso. One look at his eyes and we know the depth of his feelings. Winger is an impressive of a match for him as Gresham was for Lewis. She knows how to grab your heart and keep it("Terms of Endearment"). I must also mention the talented young Joseph Mazzello who turns in a remarkable performance as Douglas, Joy's son. William Nicholson has turned his stageplay into a beautiful screenplay, and the music by George Fenton flows with the story.

The DVD is a nice presentation in widescreen, that takes in the splendor of the scenery and sights of England. The tech info here states that the sound is in Dolby Dig 5.1. It is not.(This appears to be the only edtion) The sound is in DD2.0 Surround, and although the dialouge is a little low, the surround sound is very good. Special features include a "Behind the Scenes Featurette" and excerpts of interviews with the stars, the filmmakers and a now grown Douglas Gresham.

The story is a true love story.Five Stars for one that reminds us that to love and to be loved is worth the price of the pain it sometimes brings......enjoy....Laurie

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Rating: - A quiet un-Hollywood tragi-romance
I am not sure how faithful this movie is to the original and true story of British author C.S. Lewis' romance to an American divorcee, Joy Gresham. Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger seem well matched to play the contrasting characters of the soft-spoken, shy, and retiring English writer, and the brassy, outspoken American poet. Winger doggedly refuses to let her quiet Oxford don settle into his comfortable emotional cocoon, and the superb casting and acting bring out the multiple emotions of character played by Hopkins from his introspective, affective restraint to deep love as the relationship between the two characters evolve. But this is no Hollywood romance! There are moments toward the end which seem saccharin, but overall this is a well balanced movie.

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Rating: - C.S. Lewis for dummies.
A shamelessly tear-jerking soap opera from that paragon of conventionality, Richard Attenborough. *Shadowlands* will seem a lot better to those who don't know much about C.S. Lewis, but for those who know something of his life and writings, it will seem inadequate. It's really almost inexcusable that a movie about this famous intellectual, children's novelist, and Christian apologist is so devoid of intellect, so devoid of the ideas that made this figure unique in 20th Century letters. (The movie shows Lewis speaking the same tail-end of the same lecture to THREE different audiences. Didn't he have anything else to say?) If you want to make a movie about a nice, quiet, shy old English guy who falls in love with a brassy-voiced American, then do us all a favor and invent the characters out of whole cloth. C.S. Lewis deserves better than this. And it's pretty far removed from what actually occurred in his life. He and his future wife, the American poet Joy Gresham, had known each for years before tying the knot, relating to each other primarily as fellow Christian intellectuals. Here, Attenborough (or the playwright who originally wrote the story) insists on a standard Hollywood "cute-meet": Joy blares out "Anybody here called 'Lewis'?" in a tea-room. But I suppose that we can't expect too much intellectual discourse in a movie designed for the multiplex. Ultimately, one gets the sense that the filmmakers are almost out to get Lewis: that same speech he keeps making has something to do with God wanting us to experience suffering so that we can "grow up". Can you see what's coming? That's right -- cancer for his new lady-love. Debra Winger is sadly put in the position again where she has to slowly die of incurable cancer, as in *Terms of Endearment*. As for Anthony Hopkins, he -- rather like Robert Duvall -- tends to basically play himself whenever he's trapped in a mediocre script, and he does so here.

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Rating: - Wonderful!
Wonderful performances by all and a beautifully told story. Smart, funny, sad, uplifting--I loved it!