Shadowlands (1993)

Biographical drama about the relationship between author C.S. Lewis and an American divorcee who is dying of bone cancer. Directed by Richard Attenborough, it’s adapted from the stage play (which was itself adapted from a TV drama). 

Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger are absolutely superb as the two leads. Their unusual love story is more believable because of the restraint with which it’s demonstrated. The film picks up on every nuance of their speech and behaviour. 

It’s extremely moving, firstly when Lewis surprises himself by discovering that he’s in love and secondly when he finds out how much he now has to lose. 

The film tackles big questions about the meaning of life, too. How can we love when the end of love causes such pain? And what value do spiritual beliefs have in the face of seemingly godless events that lead to overwhelming grief?

There’s gentle humour too, such as in Joy and her son’s observations of English life in the 1950s.

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) is training to be a naval officer. Debra Winger plays his girlfriend Paula. They both take their clothes off a fair bit, but – beyond a detailed look at the training itself – there’s not a great deal more going on until the drama suddenly ramps up for the closing minutes. 

Winger is one of the strongest actresses of this era, but she isn’t really given enough to get her teeth into. Likewise Gere, who is perfectly acceptable. More impressive than either of them is Louis Gossett Jr. as the drill instructor who teaches Zack discipline. 

It’s entertaining and the final third certainly pulls you in as the sub-plots about the secondary couple (Sid and Lynette) are developed. It would have been stronger if Zack’s father had either been made more of or ditched entirely. And a few laughs would have helped. 

The soundtrack is a little intrusive at times. One of the love scenes has what sounds like lift music playing all the way through it. At the end we get the big hit song, “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Melodrama with moments of comedy. 

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger play a mother and daughter who share an intense connection. We follow the evolution of that relationship, along with their couplings with Jack Nicholson and Jeff Daniels respectively. Then the plot takes a sideways turn and everything becomes a lot more serious. 

What makes this an absolute gem is the quality of the acting. All four leads are remarkable, but MacLaine and Winger are quite extraordinary. They convey such a strong sense of personality for their complex, fully rounded characters that it’s difficult to imagine they aren’t real people.

Legal Eagles (1986)

Directed by Ivan Reitman (the talent behind Ghostbusters), this is a film that’s intriguing for being of no fixed genre. It manages to blend courtroom drama, crime, thriller and romantic comedy. 

Robert Redford and Debra Winger are New York lawyers investigating the case of an artist’s work that may or may not have been destroyed in a fire. Terence Stamp is the shifty art dealer mixed up in a fraudulent insurance scheme. And Daryl Hannah is the artist’s daughter who wants the painting her dad dedicated to her – if indeed it even survived. 

There’s something remarkable about the way the film sprawls all over the place and yet still works. Redford and Winger have real chemistry and build up a lot of good-natured warmth as their relationship develops. Both are hugely appealing. The former never seems to age. The latter has a lovely voice and an irresistible smile. Maybe they should have made more films together. 

Daryl Hannah is a little troubling. She’s meant to be an edgy performance artist, but she’s so sleepy and noncommittal that she seems barely present. You’d expect some dynamism or passion in someone who’s trying to push boundaries. But when you see her “performing” her “art”, it’s a ludicrous and unintentionally amusing affair involving light projections, photos of herself, objects bursting into flame and tape recordings of her voice. A clunky mess. Laurie Anderson she is not. The film would have worked better if this character was just a regular person wanting what was rightfully hers rather than an “enigma”. Or maybe they just had the wrong actor for the part. 

Another oddity is the chirpy music, which sometimes seems misjudged for certain scenes. But because the mood and tone keep changing as we race from one genre to another, it’s possibly just struggling to keep up. At the very least, you can see that the soundtrack had to be varied.  

But these are minor flaws. I really liked the fact that it’s so unusual. Plus, the climax is genuinely exciting and the comedy never eclipses the drama. Quirky, rewarding and somehow fascinating.

The Sheltering Sky (1990)

John Malkovich was annoying in Deepwater Horizon and Dangerous Liaisons, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was just the roles, I reasoned. But no, he’s equally annoying and repulsive in this film too. I have an almost animal dislike of his voice, his face and even his walk.

It’s the 1940s. Kit Moresby (Debra Winger) and her husband Port (Malkovich) are travelling in northern Africa. They are accompanied by their friend Tunner (Campbell Scott) and repeatedly encounter an eccentric English mother and son (Jill Bennett and Timothy Spall), who add little to the narrative.

As various episodes unfold and relationships become strained, you wonder what the point of their trip is. The couple clearly get little pleasure from travelling or from each other, and this makes for a film that feels uncomfortably slow and unrewarding. As their situation worsens you begin to sympathise with Kit, but every scene feels ponderous. A crossing-the-desert-by-camel interlude is needlessly drawn out, possibly just as an excuse to show off the admittedly remarkable scenery. Period detail and local authenticity are repeatedly prioritised over pace or momentum.

It’s based on the classic novel by Paul Bowles, who awkwardly narrates some of the action (not even reading his lines very well) and who has a pointless cameo as an elderly man in a café. His part, like so many things about the film, just doesn’t work.