Shadowlands
1993
****
Director: Richard Attenborough
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger, Edward Hardwicke, John Wood, Michael Denison, Joseph Mazzello, Peter Firth, James Frain, Julian Fellowes, Roddy Maude-Roxby
In the 1950s, Oxford academic C. S. "Jack" Lewis, best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, meets the outspoken American Jewish poet Joy Gresham. They become friends and marry for practical reasons, but Jack realises he is in love just as Joy is diagnosed with cancer. As the snotty Oxford community frown upon their relationship, Jack begins to question the meaning of his Christian faith. Sir Richard Attenborough's low-key yet deeply felt real-life love story is probably his finest film. Anthony Hopkins gives a nuanced and heartbreaking lead performance. The story spans several years, though Joy's son Douglas doesn't appear to age at all. The film is loosely based on Lewis’s own book A Grief Observed and adapted from William Nicholson’s 1985 TV film and 1989 stage play.
