“SHADOWLANDS” (1993): A GREAT BIOGRAPHIC FILM ABOUT THE WRITER C.S. LEWIS

Shadowlands is a 1993 British biographical drama film about the relationship between Irish academic C. S. Lewis and American poet Joy Davidman, her death from cancer, and how this challenged Lewis's Christian faith. 

It is directed by Richard Attenborough (he has a post in my blog) with a screenplay by William Nicholson based on his 1985 television film and 1989 stage play of the same name.

PLOT

In the 1950s, the reserved, middle-aged bachelor C. S. Lewis is an Oxford University academic at Magdalen College and author of The Chronicles of Narnia series of children's books. He meets the married American poet Joy Davidman Gresham and her young son Douglas on their visit to England, not yet knowing the circumstances of Gresham's troubled marriage.

What begins as a formal meeting of two very different minds slowly develops into a feeling of connection and love. Lewis finds his quiet life with his brother Warnie disrupted by the outspoken Gresham, whose uninhibited behaviour sharply contrast against the rigid sensibilities of the male-dominated university. Each provides the other with new ways of viewing the world.

Initially their marriage is one of convenience, a platonic union designed to allow Gresham to remain in England. But when she is diagnosed with cancer, deeper feelings surface, and Lewis' faith is tested as his wife tries to prepare him for her imminent death.