ThiefHott Too much of everything

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

studioAT Based on a play which in itself became a film 'Shadowlands' follows Narnia writer C.S Lewis as he realises what love is, only when he then in turn loses it.I wasn't convinced I'd enjoy this film when I put the DVD in, but with such strong performances from Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger I was soon swept along in the warmth and heart of the story.At times it can make you laugh and then its ending leaves you in tears and it is that balance that to me makes a good film.I'd highly recommend this film and it is the type of film we rarely see these days. A moving and heartfelt tale.

JoshSharpe I have truly loved the Narnia books by Clive Staples Lewis since I was 7. I have a memory of staying up late in bed, reading the last few chapters of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" before seeing the movie the next day. Little did I know of C. S. Lewis' (Jack) personal life. He was a very reserved man as is shown here, and he doesn't have much of a life outside of teaching and writing. That is, until he meets Joy Gresham, an American woman living a hard life with her abusive husband and young son. Jack takes them in and for the first time, begins to love like he never thought he could. There is much more to this film than what meets the eye. It it is a story of compassion, love, loss, grief, and faith. As a Christian, it is wonderful to see a film with such deep and moral messages that revolve and even feel aimed, at me specifically. Anthony Hopkins does a magnificent job in portraying the famous and troubled writer. This is a movie worth watching again and again.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This is a very strange film, a most extraordinary film. C.S. Lewis and his brother are two unmarried professors in Oxford, living together in the same house. They are living in this haven of peace that Oxford is, entirely dedicated to learning and knowledge, to the maturation of men in the teenagers they get every year, year in and year out. It is their function, their aim, their target and they cannot be derailed from this perspective. Oxford is their own territory and their own world and the world has no limits within these limits of Oxford, and an eventual trip to London for a lecture, but never beyond. C.S. Lewis is a special case in that entirely ghettoized intellectual world. He writes stories for children, for the children he will never have. These stories are about a strange world beyond the bottom of a wardrobe in the attic of his home. A world of bad and evil, of fighting for good and against evil. And yet his life is a routine that would kill thinking out of any human being. But not him, and plenty others around him. They are righteously living in the comfort of academia. The top echelon of that academia. Till one day when an American woman and her young child comes up and asks for an autograph. And the ghetto implodes. The peace is gone, love takes its place. The diplomatic marriage will eventually give way to a real marriage, but on a sick bed in a hospital. She finds out, too late of course, she has bone cancer and will eventually and soon die. And that's how C.S. Lewis discovers there is another love he had never really thought of and certainly not experienced: love for another human being that becomes your horizon and for whom you are dawn and dusk at the same time. That love that makes you mute and talkative in the same minute, so much the one and so much the other that your tongue trips on your muteness and your words get strangled in your talk. Love as a feeling of total gift of yourself to the other and of the other to yourself, with the tremendous responsibility that goes along with it. And death then becomes an unacceptable step away from this reality. Death comes and love will never go away and will turn into suffering, longing, wanting, needing and never getting the satisfaction you could ever wish to get. Love is for life I was going to say, oh yes, love is for life and even beyond life, for death if it comes and when it comes. Love never turns into ashes and never goes back to dirt because it is not dirt, it is the soul of the heart and the mind of life. And that's what C.S. Lewis actually discovers late in his life and never forgot after that. He finally learned how to be a fully blooming man, but it hurts so much when you learn love from within the death of your beloved. I must say the slow rhythm of the film, the very intimates scenes, the delicacy of the language and the acting, and the art of Anthony Hopkins serve that theme so well, so beautifully. It seems to be able to last for ever and ever, and yet the young son, now step-son, is there to remind you the show of life goes on for ever and ever on the stage of the strutting human beings we are.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

TheLittleSongbird I will say that when I saw the rating of 7.4, someone will say that is a fairly decent rating. I personally think for this masterpiece, the rating should be higher, honestly the quality of the acting and cinematography makes it worthy to be in the top 250. I honestly did think that this film is just extraordinary, beautifully shot with wonderful locations, and matched perfectly by one of the most gorgeous music scores I have ever heard in my life, composed by George Fenton that never interfered with the calmness of the film. Richard Attenborough has directed many ambitious but beautifully made films like Oh!What a Lovely War, Cry Freedom and Chaplin, and I will say that Shadowlands deserves to be up there with his best, it is a heart-rending film of true love and the consequences that left me speechless(I am 17), that I don't think has had enough praise. The performances were just outstanding. Anthony Hopkins was phenomenal as CS Lewis, and I am glad he got some awards for his performance, honestly it was that good. Debra Winger is just perfection as Joy Gresham, a victim of the devastating illness bone cancer. The two leads' chemistry is the main reason why I love this movie, I confess I cried when Lewis held the dying Joy in his arms, the reason being it reminded me of Mimi's Death Scene in La Boheme. The child star, Joseph Mazello was a huge surprise as Douglas, a boy of wide imagination and deep feeling. The scene where he and Lewis are crying in each other's arms made my eyes well up with emotion, never until yesterday did I see Hopkins look so tender with anybody on screen, not even in The Elephant Man. As Warnie, Edward Hardwicke best known for his appearances as Dr Watson in the 80s-90s Sherlock Holmes series was remarkable, a minor character but one with feeling and understanding. The actors are helped by a poignant and well-written script, that at times does give clever nods to Lewis's literary genius. It is no wonder that Shadowlands got an award for best British film of the year, it is just beautiful. It is more steady paced than the Elephant Man, another film I am really fond of,and less involving in terms of action, but neither of these things are disadvantages, because i cannot deny what joy I felt watching this film. 10/10 Bethany Cox.