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 reserved and quiet intellectual while she is a plain speaking American who is not afraid about 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.  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. As with any unexplainable suffering Lewis is tested in his faith and the concept of human suffering has a new more personal meaning to him. 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 as we all do, but he found something wonderful in his love for Joy that changed him. Debra Winger must also being 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. As Jack says we live in the “Shadowlands,” but amidst the pain and suffering love seems to shine through even brighter. 

4.5/5 Stars

"We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn', and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination." - C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed