Editorial Product Review:Amazon.com essential video:This emotionally moving romantic drama was adapted by William Nicholson from his own acclaimed play, based upon the real-life romance (during the 1950s) between the British writer C.S. Lewis and a divorced American poet named Joy Gresham. Best known for writing
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) is living comfortably as a respected Oxford don, his academic lifestyle a kind of shell protecting him from the emotional risk of love. Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) arrives at Oxford as an avid admirer of Lewis's writing, and the safety of his collegiate routine is quickly disrupted when Lewis realizes that he's fallen deeply and unexpectedly in love. Their courtship is uniquely engaging; he's shy and uncertain, she's outspoken and bold. But when Joy is diagnosed with cancer, Lewis's Christian faith is put to the test--he cannot fathom why their happiness together would be so drastically challenged. Together, they find a way to accept and honor the time they have shared together, and under the sensitive direction of Richard Attenborough,
Shadowlands arrives at a conclusion that is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Hopkins and Winger are equally superb in this absorbing story of personal and spiritual transformation--a story previously filmed for British television in 1985, with Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom.
--Jeff Shannon
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Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
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Moving
When C.S.Lewis, author of such books as "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" was only a small boy of 9, his mother died and he learned that his only way through the pain and loneliness was to encase himself in an impenetrable shell, so that pain could not touch him. He leads an ordered, safe life as an Oxford Don, singing in the cathedral choir and lecturing to audiences of adoring women readers. When he meets American writer, Joy Gresham, her brash, New York, Jewish forthrightness almost batters him but luckily he summons enough courage to begin a friendship. He agrees to marry her so as to allow her and her son to remain in England and gradually she softens his defences and becomes part of his life as a platonic friend. When they discover that Joy is dying from incurable cancer, Lewis realises the depth of his love for her which allows them to enjoy a brief few months together before she dies. Anthony Hopkins is brilliantly cast as Lewis and is such a fine actor that the viewer is able to see, in his eyes, everything that he is saying inwardly, while Debra Winger is equally as good as the loud American who is the foil for his timidity.
Customer Rating: 
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Beautiful and Infuriating
This movie is beautiful and has lovely acting and gorgeous sets and even terrific writing.
The directing, as usual with Attenborough, is first-rate.
But Lewis is an infuriating person.
That's partly the movie's subject: Lewis is SO repressed, SO insulated, SO narcissistic, that it takes a very aggressive woman and a tragedy to (partly) penetrate his shell.
He wrote a book called "Surprised by Joy." This is a reference to Wordsworth; but it seems perfectly apt--and horrifying.
You get the sense from this movie that Lewis was so cut off from the emotions that anything--even pain--was better than the numbness in which he spent most of his life.
It's sad, and it's pointless.
Oddly--or perhaps not oddly at all--Lewis erects Pain into his First Principle of Theology: for Lewis, God does not want us to be happy, He wants us to Suffer, because by Suffering we learn to love.
It is pitiful that Lewis had to suffer to learn love.
Hard to know why Joy would love him.
You don't know whether to laugh or scream at him.
Great movie about a pitiable person.
Customer Rating: -
a masterpiece...
I can say unequivocally that this is my favorite movie of it's type. It is not a documentary nor is it intended to be. It is a drama loosely based (Douglas Grisham's words) on a small window of CS Lewis' life. Although CS Lewis was indeed a committed Christian, the film chose not focus on that very important aspect of his life. It is, rather, a story of two extraordinarily different people falling in love and the price that is almost always paid when hearts are completely opened. Whether you are a Christian or not, this movie will entertain and move you.
Customer Rating: -
Not a Documentary but a Commentary
This movie fails to be the documentary based on "true story" but a commentary by the director and actors which fails to provide the essential Lewis story.
What is left out primarily is his faith life, which was vital to him, and he wrote about till the end. It is analogous to making film about Tiger Woods with golf as not being featured as central theme. It was not shaken nor destroyed as this movie makes out. The BBC film which proceeded this, thus is far more accurate than this. Hopkins' interpreation of Lewis as isolated in tower and afraid to take on debate is also inaccurate. His relationship with Joy is also inaccurate in many ways.
Three stars for with all this Hollywood inaccuracy, many are motivated to seek out real Lewis is his writings and thus discover this fine, intelligent Christian.