Sentimental Education: C.S. Lewis in Love

Shadowlands

directed by Richard Attenborough

Choir boys are singing. Grumpy old men in funny robes are singing. It's foggy outside and people are wearing too much tweed. This must be England-in fact, Oxford of 1951. We are visiting with the charming, boyish at heart, but painfully inhibited C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins), author of the Narnia chronicles for children and a well-known theologian. "Shadowlands" is the story of his encounter with the lovely Joy Gresham (Debra Winger), who Lewis at first dismissively descibes as a "Jewish Communist poet from New York,".

Even if this sort of scene is off-putting, or you've seen too many Merchant-Ivory productions lately, you may want to give "Shadowlands" a try anyway; it's less a period piece than a contemporary tear-jerker. Debra Winger's role here is uncannily similar to the one she had in "Terms of Endearment." And once again, I cried from the moment she becomes sick until the end of the movie and loved every minute of it.

Although adapted from the well-received play by William Nicholson, who also wrote the screenplay, "Shadowlands" is not especially profound. Lines meant to awe and move us sound a little hackneyed, as if Nicholson had skimmed through the "religion" entry in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations instead of bothering to read a page or two of Lewis' work. It is essentially a sentimental vehicle for the very solid acting by both Hopkins and Winger.

People have made a big fuss over the episode when Hopkins cries. This moving scene involves Lewis letting down his old boy guard to share a wrenching yet tender moment with Joy's son, Douglas (Joseph Mazzello). Hopkins delights as the naive and slightly ingenuous children's author. But Winger seems to do more of the work. And as Joy Gresham she has her work cut out for her. Her character is almost as stereotypical as Lewis' initial analysis makes her sound. She's brash, loud-mouthed, has feminist and other leftist leanings and simply will never be anything but a Yankee. Lewis and his muddled, ex-military brother (an endearing Edward Hardwicke) think that she's darling; most of his colleagues don't. But Winger's performance is humane and intelligent. She manages to pull a mature and thoughtful individual out of her role as the stereotypically feisty foreigner.

"Shadowlands" is the "almost-too-late-for-love" story of the season. Although Winger looks young enough to be Hopkins' daughter, what the two lack in chemistry they make up for in old-fashioned talent. England looks very pretty too. Attenborough's direction lulls you into the slow, slightly awkward rhythms of its tradition-bound society. Everyone and everything conspire to be as pleasant as possible, and you can settle comfortably back into your seat (with heaps of tissues) to enjoy an evening of few surprises.