SHADOWLANDS, a thoughtful gift from 1993, was produced & directed by Richard Attenborough, smoothly guiding a script from William Nicholson (Gladiator, Unbroken, Everest), who adapted from his TV and stage works on the same subject, Irish writer C.S. Lewis’s relationship with American poet Joy Davidman.

England, Oxford and Cambridge, 1952. Professor and lecturer C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins, 56) has attained fame and success as a novelist, chiefly for the hugely popular “The Chronicles Of Narnia” and its sequels. His clutch of literary colleagues are fondly chide him for his choice of children’s stories as a venue. He’s fifty-three, a bachelor and shares a comfortable home with his older brother Warren (Edward Hardwicke, 60). The set routine of ‘Jack’ and ‘Warnie’ is enlivened when 37-year-old author Helen Joy Davidman (Debra Winger, 38) visits from America: a fan of Lewis’s work, she’s corresponded with him from the States and takes the leap to meet him in person. Though their personal styles differ (he’s reserved, she’s up-front) they form a bond which deepens into a close relationship and eventually marriage. This entails divorcing her husband (an abusive drunk), and bringing over young son Douglas (Joseph Mazzelo, 9), who’s captivated by the Narnia stories and is a prime candidate for a decent adult male role model. At length, Joy’s health becomes a crisis, and Jack’s outlook and beliefs are profoundly affected by her and the changes that her character brings to his own. He said “She was my daughter and my mother, my pupil and my teacher, my subject and my sovereign; and always, holding all these in solution, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. My mistress; but at the same time all that any man friend (and I have good ones) has ever been to me. Perhaps more.”

Winger called it “the most literate script I’ve ever read. I was sad every day that I wouldn’t ever say those lines again.” Her calm yet dynamic interpretation drew her third Oscar nomination for Best Actress; along with Terms Of Endearment this holds as her best feature performance. Nicholson’s screenplay was also nominated. It’s a love story for grownups; those who’ve suffered grievous loss and those who wonder if the gift of a soul mate is possibly a fleeting hope will be moved.

Attenborough, who also cast Hopkins in Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far, Magic and Chaplin, observed that he possessed “this extraordinary ability to make you believe when you hear him that it is the very first time he has ever said that line. It’s an incredible gift.” Hopkins honesty is such that you forget you’re watching him and instead are seeing the man he’s playing. That same year he aced an even more repressed character in The Remains Of The Day as well as serving admirably in the less-seen The Innocent and The Trial. Hardwicke—son of the great Cedric Hardwicke—is solid and likable as the supportive brother.

Attenborough’s direction is assured and unobtrusive, and as always his skill as a producer is exquisite. There is particularly keen work from the sound crew, with sound mixing the work of Dean Humphreys—love the neat capture of bees buzzing in a sunny afternoon. Roger Pratt (Troy, Brazil, Chocolat) put his eye to the camera and it is deftly scored by George Fenton. Mounted for $22,000,000, the global take came to $52,000,000, with the US portion of $25,800,000 ranking #59 in 1993.

With James Frain, John Wood, Michael Denison, Julian Fellowes, Peter Firth, Robert Flemyng and Gerald Sim. 131 minutes.