Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

chrisart7 "Shadowlands" is possibly the most emotionally resonant, evocative film made in the 1990s, and it is amazing that this motion picture has not been available on region 1 DVD for many years.Anthony Hopkins plays the Oxford don well, though his Welsh-accented English would have been more accurate had it an Irish tinge instead. Debra Winger is an appealing choice for Joy Gresham, but her Brooklyn accent comes and goes, sometimes within a single scene. She could have used a language coach.Though much attention is paid to period detail (1952), it is jarring to see some post-Beatles moptops on several of Lewis' Oxford colleagues (Christopher Riley, marvellously played by John Wood, for one) and their scenes spoil the illusion somewhat.The film ends with a crisis of faith for C. S. Lewis after the death of his beloved Joy, which doubtless resonated with many viewers who have no particular convictions, but in truth Lewis' faith in Jesus Christ was renewed yet again.Lord Richard Attenborough did a fine job of direction, as did George Fenton with the film's score, and William Nicholson who adapted his own stage play. The resulting movie, whether intentional or not, shares some of the same ambiance as "Love Letters" and "Brief Encounter" (both filmed in 1945).

lawrence_elliott Richard Attenborough is a classy fellow who deserves to be recognized as a great film director. His more recent "Grey Owl" is brilliant! This film moves the heart like no other film I have ever witnessed! "Forrest Gump" gently touches the nerve endings. This film rams the gut! But what a classy production this is all the way through. A beautiful mellifluous script with tenderly rendered scenes of sensitive acting will have any audience in full approbation clamouring for more. I have said enough. You will cry in this one. Hopkins as a leading man makes C.S. Lewis human. This is a wonderful, tender, gentle-paced film that will stand the test of time! Mark my words! Own it today!

ianlouisiana Lord Attenborough is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve."Oh what a lovely war!","Cry Freedom","Ghandi",all were made with anger and passion unrestrained.None of them could be said to have been objective accounts of their subject matter and therein lies both his strength and his weakness.The same goes for "Chaplin",to my mind his best work by some distance,which he made immediately prior to "Shadowlands". In this lovingly - made small - scale movie Attenborough reverts to his own cinematic roots with a simply - told tale of an English Academic in the dry,fusty world of Oxford in the 1950s and his relationship with an American woman writer and her young son.There is no epic vision here,just a perceptive and sympathetic look at how the life of a confirmed bachelor(in the old - fashioned sense)is turned on its head just at the time when he was quite happily settled in an endless round of College functions,lectures and research in the great libraries of Oxford. Of course C.S. Lewis was not quite the typical Don inasmuch as he was also a popular and successful writer,but,as many of his kind he was much given to introspection and was not of the "It is what it is"school of thought.He was the sort of man who would intellectualise a boiled egg. Mr A.Hopkins plays him to minimalist perfection.Miss D.Winger is cast as his American admirer with a brilliant performance of brash vulnerability that she has never bettered . Their unlikely romance is allowed to develop at a proper gentlemanly pace,Lewis's internal conflicts superbly conveyed by Mr Hopkins without a superfluous gesture. Attenborough encourages fine work from his cast and the overall result is a well - observed rather moving piece redolent of the Rattigan/Lean canon,and,for me,a welcome return for him to the world of the small,personal movie.

smartmart-1 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.