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.
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.