Shadowlands (1993)

Starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger with direction by Richard Attenbourough, this film chronicles the romance of famed Christian professor and writer, C.S. “Jack” Lewis with the American poet Joy Gresham. Jack is by now a respected professor at Oxford and a widely acclaimed lecturer who often speaks on the issue of human suffering. In his personal life he is rather reserved. He lives with his older brother Warnie and spends times with his colleagues discussing at the local pub in the evenings. 

It is not until he receives a letter from an American admirer named Joy Gresham that his life seemingly begins to change. He first accepts to meet her only to be gracious, but soon their relationship develops into a close bond. Jack meets Joy’s son Douglas who is enthralled by Narnia. He even offers them a place to stay during the Christmas season since they have no where else to go. Lewis and Gresham are very different people to say the least. He is a quiet intellectual with the sensibilities of an Englishman while she is a plain speaking American who is not afraid of mincing words. However, these differences bring them closer together because help each other to view the world in a radical new light.  Jack learns how Gresham’s marriage is going badly and he settles to marry her in a practical union so she and Douglas can stay in England. They do not speak of it much and it hardly seems real. Joy calls him on it realizing for herself that he allows no one to challenge him. There is no vulnerability to him whatsoever. 

However, then Joy is diagnosed with bone cancer and slowly but surely she begins to deteriorate. For the second time in his life Lewis understands the anguish that comes when a loved one is suffering. Because the fact is he most definitely loves Joy and it simply took tragedy to make him realize it. 
As with any unexplainable suffering Lewis is tested in his faith and the reality human suffering has new meaning to him. It is no longer just lecture material, becoming a far more personal process. 

Although this film is not so much focused on C.S. Lewis as a Christian theologian or apologist, I think Anthony Hopkins does a wonderful job of portraying him as a kindly and gentle man of faith. He struggles with doubts and fears like every human, but he found something wonderful in his love for Joy that changed him. 

Debra Winger must also be commended because she played well off of Hopkins and even though I have no picture of the real Gresham, Winger seemed to embody her well. In some ways I found her most beautiful when she was bedridden, absent of all makeup and seemingly so pure. It positively tears your heart out watching her son say a tearful goodnight or look on as Jack stays up with her. This is a better picture of real, unadulterated love than most films can hope to manage because it very rarely becomes a sappy melodrama instead resorting to more deliberate means. As Jack says we live in the “Shadowlands,” but amidst the pain and suffering love seems to shine through even brighter. 

This was such an enlightening film for me because I will always envision C.S. Lewis as a scholar and rational thinker, which he was. But he also had a vulnerable human side and this film as well as A Grief Observed (written after Joy's death) prove that point. It's hard not to feel for him and that's part of the beauty of this story. 

4.5/5 Stars

The Lion in Winter (1968)

The year is 1183 and the castle of King Henry II is a dark and dank place during the winter months. You would not think so by the opening moments where an energetic King (Peter O'Toole) duels his young boy John (Nigel Terry). His mistress takes in the scene from afar. On first glance this whole scenario seems pleasant enough, but that would be far from the truth.

Young John is the King's favorite but his aged yet cunning wife Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn) has a special affection for the eldest brother Richard (Anthony Hopkins) who she desires to take the throne. Stuck between the two favorites is middle child Geoffrey (John Castle) who has plans of his own. Bring the French King Phillip II (Timothy Dalton) into the equation and the situation becomes even more messy than before. What follows is an elaborate web of lies, deceptions, side deals, false motives, eavesdropping and of course backstabbing. Henry and Eleanor constantly battle back and forth as their sons bicker among themselves. One big unhappy family to be sure. 

Henry tries to marry off his mistress (Jane Merrow) to Richard to satisfy King Phillip, but his son will not have it. Next, Henry tries to compromise with Phillip only to learn that his sons were planning to gang up against him. Now he cannot trust any of them and they find themselves in the dungeon. He makes a new plan to get remarried to his mistress so that he might have another son to be king, but his other sons will be a threat so long as they live. His dilemma is evident, but he cannot bear to kill them. Things seems to go back to the way they always were with Eleanor going back behind bars and Henry playfully barking at her. All's well that ends well perhaps.

Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn were certainly two titans in this film. O'Toole, whether he is roaring or confiding in his former love, does everything with purpose and bravado. He does show his soft, vulnerable underbelly at times though as a man advanced in years. Hepburn on her part is absolutely acerbic, oftentimes governing the tone of the film with her barbs and snide comments. And yet with her there is also at least a few instances of true humanity. She and Henry seem to made for each other and their boys are seemingly just as loathsome and underhanded.

4/5 Stars

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in two memorable performances, the film opens with a young FBI agent in training, Clarice Starling (Foster). A serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill is on the loose and Starling is given the assignment of talking to the incarcerated Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). He formally was a brilliant psychiatrist and he turned into a cannibalistic killer. Lecter gives Starling hints on how to find the killer but not without forcing her to open up about her past. She closes in on the murderer and after some tense moments she finishes the job a hero. Now a certified FBI agent, Starling gets a call from Lecter who had escaped previously. He bids her farewell as chilling as ever and this time he is a free man. The acting was good and there were definitely some great thrills.

4.5/5 Stars