Customer Reviews

Iris

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The premise of "Iris" is simple enough, but the history of Iris Murdoch and her long time lover John Bayley is a thing of fascination. Told through a series of flashbacks comparing the slowly ailing Iris to the younger courtship years of writers Iris and John Bayley, it's a masterpiece of editing. Iris is no sweet angel of the literary world, but a confrontative liberal progressive willing to explore every part of life she can indulge in. This proves a quandary for the young John Bayley (played by an amazing look-alike named Hugh Bonneville), whose is rather shy, but hopelessly in love with Iris. The acting is beyond superb with Kate Winslet as the young Murdoch.

Admittedly, there are the weepy moments when Iris adamantly refuses to give in to this disease, all in vain. There are the struggles with herself and her lover. The literary metaphors and ironies are abundant ("There is only one freedom of any importance, freedom of the mind") and the visual ones are somewhat cliché. Regardless, this is a fascinating work of acting by some incredible talents of our age. It's not always upbeat, but it makes you appreciate what you have and how little it takes to be happy.

Prolific English novelist Iris Murdoch (The Sea, The Sea, Under the Net) was a lover of words and the power of language. She was quite the avant-garde free-thinker as a young professor and the shy, stuttering John Bayley seemed an unlikely match for her, but fall in love they did and they shared a long and loving marriage. The movie focuses on Iris' battle with Alzheimer's disease, which gradually robbed her of the ability to use her beloved words. John cared for her and loved her until the end.

This is simply the best movie I've seen in a long time; the acting is superb as is the script. Judi Dench a stunning performance as Iris. It is heartbreaking to watch her steady decline, knowing how it must end. She was nominated for, but did not receive an Oscar, however, Jim Broadbent rightly won one for his role as her steadfast husband. He, too, is perfect, tenderly caring for his beloved even when she doesn't know him. When the movie flashes from Iris' present decline to John's memories of their meeting and courtship, the younger Iris is well-played by Kate Winslet. She captures the love of life and philosophy that Iris had. The James Horner soundtrack is the perfect companion to the deeply personal and yet universally-understood story of unselfish love.

Highly recommended. (Bring your tissues.)

John Bayley and Iris Murdoch were married for a long time and were in love. It wasn't always a bed of roses but they stood by one another even when she was stricken with Alzheimer's disease. John did what he could for his wife but he knew he couldn't do it alone.
For anyone who thinks that love and marriage are dead, watch this movie. Love and marriage isn't dead. Their marriage strengthened through time which made them have a profound respect for one another and a strong love that bonded them together.

IRIS is one of the most exquisite film adaptations I've ever had the pleasure of watching. It's an intensely personal, and often intensely painful, look at the life and mental deterioration (from Alzheimer's) of Iris Murdoch, one of Britain's greatest authors.

IRIS is composed of two intertwining narratives, one of Iris as a young girl, the other as a mature woman suffering the pain and degradation of Alzheimer's. While the intertwining narratives are inventive and beautifully written, the success of this film really depends on the strength of the four primary actors: Kate Winslet and Judi Dench as Iris and Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent as John Bayley, the husband who remained devoted to Iris until the end of her life. I didn't find the two narratives difficult to follow at all. I thought they were very skillfully done and, as a result, quite easy to follow. Of course, those familiar with the life and work of Iris Murdoch will have an easier time of it than those who are not.

Winslet and Dench are perfectly cast as Iris and both manage to convey her quirkiness, her femininity and her artlessness with stunning grace and compassion. Dench, who must portray Iris experiencing the deterioration of her intellectual powers has, perhaps, the more difficult role (and she plays it to understated perfection), but that takes absolutely nothing away from Winslet's stunning portrayal of the young Iris.

Bonneville and Broadbent have an even more daunting task as Bayley, but both actors play their respective roles to perfection. Broadbent is especially good and quite understated as he shows us Bayley's love for Iris even as his heart is breaking over the wife he knows is slowly slipping away from him. Murdoch's and Bayley's magical connection was, in large part, due to their extreme intellectual connection and Broadbent does a marvelous job of showing this while still conveying passion and heartbreak.

Bonneville also shines in this film. Just as Winslet is the perfect "younger" Iris, Bonneville is the perfect "younger" Bayley.

IRIS is a quiet, rather intellectual film that, at times, is absolutely heartbreaking to watch. It could have slipped into melodrama or sentimentality, but the strong and very believable performances of Winslet, Dench, Bonneville and Broadbent didn't let that happen. IRIS is a film that's been lifted from an ordinary biography to the truly extraordinary by the exquisite performances of its four principle actors. Anyone who's interested in Iris Murdoch or her writing really can't pass this one up.

If you're looking for a truly great love story involving a couple's bout with Alzheimer's, forget the movies. Read the book "A Promise Kept" by Robertson McQuilken. Robertson was a college president for over 20 years, and he resigned from his position to care for his wife Muriel, who was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's at that time. As he said in his resignation letter: [Muriel] has cared for me fully and sacrificially all these years; if I cared for her for the next 40 years I would not be out of her debt. Duty, however, can be grim and stoic. But there is more: I love Muriel. ...I don't *have* to care for her. I *get* to! It is a high honor to care for so wonderful a person." Contrast that with Jim Bayley's abusive outburst towards his wife in the film, when he shakes her and screams at her "I HATE you, Iris, you stupid cow! I bloody loathe you, every bloody inch of you! All your frienda are finished with you... I've got you now, and I DON'T WANT YOU!" Then again, Robertson and Muriel's story didn't have the complicated issues of self-centeredness, jealousy, and control that Jim and Iris's story did. Robertson and Muriel have lived lives of fidelity, integrity, and commitment, and they both understood that marriage is first and foremost about personal sacrifice.

I found it disappointing and rather annoying that in the film they had Iris repeat "Just hold tight to me and it'll be alright" and "Nothing matters except loving what is good" over and over, ad nauseum, throughout the film, as though those two lines were representative of her profundity. Didn't prove it to me, I'm afraid. But it did make me want to read what she actually *did* say and write, so I consider that to be a beneficial side-effect of watching the DVD. The one line she spoke that I did consider to be profound was when she told Jim he should accept her for who she was. It was obvious that he had difficulty doing this, both when she was young and promiscuous, with divided affections, and when she was old, confused and docile from Alzheimer's. The film portrayed her as happy and lovingly childlike, yet Jim seemed to be so focused on who she was in the past that he didn't seem to be able to find any delight or appreciation for the person she was in the present. She was no less lovable because she was no longer able to function as she previously had.

The music for the film was absolutely lovely.

Iris Murdoch (played by Judi Dench as the older Iris, and Kate Winslet as the younger Iris) is a free-living well-recognized author who falls in love with a rather "nerdy" man who later becomes her husband. As she ages, she begins to suffer from the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and faces losing what she cherishes most: her talent to put words on paper and make meaningful literature out of them. It is saddening to watch as even she realizes that her mind is slowly distancing itself from her grasp, and once it is almost completely gone, her dear husband must face losing her to a nursing home. The movie didn't pick up my, or my husband's, interest until about a half-hour into it. In fact, we almost turned it off. I'm glad we stuck with it. Iris was a very endearing woman, and her cherished husband was such the gentleman for the way he was devoted to her.

Iris (Richard Eyre, 2001)

Iris is a great film, perhaps one of the finest I've ever seen. I won't be watching it again.

It is the true (but, as it's based on the books written by her husband, likely revisionist) story of two discrete and parallel points in Iris Murdoch's life-her and her husband's courtship, and her slow descent into Alzheimer's, culminating in her death in 1999.

Iris and John and played, respectively, by the teams of Kate Winslet (Quills, Heavenly Creatures) and Hugh Bonneville (proof once and for all that you can take a sex symbol and make him look like a geek), and Judi Dench (As Time Goes By, Chocolat) and Jim Broadbent (Little Voice, Gangs of New York). Both couples' performances have their strong points, to be sure, but it is the performance of Dame Judi Dench that takes what would otherwise have been a good above-average film and makes it into something both great and unwatchable.

Dench, in the last few years, has turned onscreen death into an art form. In Chocolat, it was expected, but quick and relatively painless. Here it is slow, lingering, devastating to watch as Murdoch loses her faculties over the course of roughly four years (the book she is writing at the beginning of the film was released in 1996). It is, perhaps, the finest achievement of a career that has never been less than great. (And yes, since I know you're going to ask after a comment like that, I HAVE seen Dead Cert, thank you.)

Finding the parallel between the two stories is somewhat difficult at first, but absolutely critical to understanding the reason that Eyre and co-author Charles Wood emphasized the things they did from Bayley's biographies. (It helps to know that Bayley referred to Murdoch during the last stages of her life as "a nice three-year-old." Keep it in mind while you're watching the film, especially when Winslet and Bonneville are doing their thing.) Without that, it is possible to mistake Iris for another of those recent films studded with great performances, but with little substance beneath (In the Bedroom, White Oleander, et al.). Rest assured, however, there is far more to this than the performances.

It seems rather odd that Richard Eyre, for almost twenty years from the release of the sweet and wonderful Laughterhouse, directed exclusively for BBC Television. Iris was his first big-screen film since. His next, The Assumption, will be directed from a script written by Anthony Minghella and starring one of the greatest actors of our time, Javier Bardem. And yet I find it hard to believe that, no matter how perfectly The Assumption turns out, it will have anywhere near the effect of Iris. *****

I didn't have the feeling I was watching a film about "Iris Murdoch, the famous novelist," at all. Indeed, this film could have been about anyone, for it was not so much a biography as it was a fable about the irony of life. The second half of Iris's life is played out like a grotesque parody or inversion of the first. The editing and symbolism are fairly oblique in their attempt to get across this theme, but there is no denying that this is an aesthetically stunning and incredibly beautiful film, if a little heavy-handed at times. James Horner's score is haunting, even though one wishes the BBC had gone for some homegrown talent.

The counterbalance to the tragic irony is found in the enduring love and warmth in the relationship between Iris and John, played touchingly by Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent, with Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville as the lovers in their younger years. The pain and anguish of Iris's descent into the late stages of Alzheimers are movingly portrayed.

The writers displict the realities of living with Alzheimer's disease as well as the real livings of the philosopher/author. Yet, "Iris" is about love. The two issues blend nicely. The mountains of life with this disease are real for the victim and their families. Heavy heart and soul was written so powerfully that when sadness booms, the audience cries. When anger booms, the audience's heart beats in raging speeds. When happiness booms, the audience's sense of hope arises.

Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent are an amazing duo as husband and wife fighting the battle of love and care vs. rage and turbulation. This is what makes a "disease based" movie so unique. Dench displicts how such a battle changes one's life like the real-life philosopher. She is one of few modern actresses who can express such soul in a movie. Broadbent, in his deserved Oscar winning role, displicts why one needs such hope and why it's important to never surrender. Kate Winslet shows how such life outlook begins. As the young Iris, she proves that one doesn't have to have the perfect beginnings to have a near perfect ending. Winslet was the perfect casting choice as she proves that she'll be a legendary actress within the next few years. None of these three actors hold back a drop of emotion for a second.

One will have to watch the movie to know what I'm talking about. If I reveal everything now, it'll ruin the movie's theme for the first-time viewer. I can write by experiece about Alzheimer's disease; therefore, don't think for a second that "Iris" overdramatizes it like most movies. My grandmother passed away in 2000 after her ten-year battle. She may not have been a philosopher, but the battles in her life and family were similar to the movie.

For some, it may take a second viewing of "Iris", but they will leave fulfilled and inspired.

Kate Winslet and Judi Dench both do wondrously in this film about the British novelist Iris Murdoch, the noted writer who late in life faced the ravages of Alzheimers disease, and with it the slow and sorrowful withering of her once brilliant intellect.

Winslet as the younger Iris absolutely shines.. her freedom of self, her strong and vibrant personality, her utter love affair with life all come through to the viewer, clear and bright. In turn, Dench's acting truly inhabits the character of Murdoch, as she slowly loses touch with the world around her, with the thoughts that had once come so quickly and effortlessly and creatively.

Broadbent shines here too, as Murdoch's husband, the writer John Bayley (who himself had only good things to say about the film, upon its release). Broadbent won the Best Supporting actor Oscar for his performance here as the patient yet all too human husband, content with a life somewhat in the sidelines, of watching the brilliant light of his wife shine on him, standing by her during her youthful indiscretions and all along their lives together until her Alzheimers began to invade their lives like an unwanted guest overstaying its welcome. As their house grows more and more messy, disheveled, confused, and their lives more and more removed from those they had once known, of intellectual examination and full-hearted vigor, Bayley remains noble in his love for Iris, loving her faithfully until the end, despite the occasional outpouring of sadness and even anger that his beloved has to endure such undue suffering. In fact, what is most touching here is the fact that though the two once shared all, experiences, thoughts, themselves together and alone, as only those who co-habitate for decades can do, this passage was one which they would both experience so differently, both utterly alone in their experience for the first time since they met, even though physically near each other. (Murdoch, in one of her moments of clarity, seemed to show she understood what was happening to her, but these moments didn't last long, and the darkness soon enveloped her more fully). I think this was the most tragic part of the film, seeing Broadbent/Bayley try to come to terms with not being able to cope with her illness together in any sort of real sense as she slipped away from him. He had to be her anchor and rock, and had no one doing the same for him, as he guided her through her last days.

The scenes of the young duo here, on bicycles, and swimming in the British summer sun, are truly beautiful, and will stay with the viewer long after the credits start to roll.. this is one of those rare love stories, imperfect, true, painful at times also, but rarer still is that it was real, and that it lasted through a lifetime of ups and downs, triumphs and sorrows, even throughout illness, and never faded away. Indeed one could say it grew stronger through the rainy days, and changed, as real and true love so often can... As Bayley became more of a parent and less of a lover/husband, his love shone on in a different way, and the comfort he gave to his wife, who needed it so very much, was immeasurable.

I recommend this film to fans of Murdoch, Winslet and Dench, and to those in the mood to see a lovingly crafted portrait of lovingly crafted lives. 5 stars.