Iris Movie Review 2001

Enduring love story between novelist/philosopher Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley from their days at Oxford in the 1950s to Murdoch's long decline from Alzheimer's and death in 1999. Winslet and Bonneville play the young duo while Dench and Broadbent play the mature marrieds. The ladies have the showier roles, especially Winslet, since the young Iris was a sexual free-spirit and disdained conventional morality while John comes across as shy and rather awed by Murdoch's talents. Based on Bayley's memoirs "Iris: A Memoir" and "Elegy for Iris."

Distribution

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521-1120, Toll-free: 800-723-4763, URL: http://www.bvhe.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 90 minutes.
Originally from British, United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Biopics: Writers, Marriage, Adapted from Memoirs or Diaries, Period Piece: 20th Century, Great Britain, Growing Older, Writers, Sex & Sexuality, Campus Capers, Disease of the Week

Screenplay

Richard Eyre, Charles Wood

Cast

Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Kate Winslet, Hugh Bonneville, Penelope Wilton, Juliet Aubrey, Timothy West, Samuel West, Eleanor Bron

Cinematography

Roger Pratt

Director

Richard Eyre

Music

James Horner

Other

Jim Greenhorn, Martin Walsh, David Warren, Ruth Myers, Gemma Jackson

Producer

Robert Fox, Scott Rudin, BBC Films, Intermedia Films, Mirage Enterprises, Miramax Films

Awards

Oscars 2001: Support. Actor (Broadbent); British Acad. 2001: Actress (Dench); Golden Globes 2002: Support. Actor (Broadbent); L.A. Film Critics 2001: Support. Actor (Broadbent), Support. Actress (Winslet); Natl. Bd. of Review 2001: Support. Actor (Broadbent).