Because the performances are so powerful, one nearly forgets that in its vaulting between the '50s and '90s, Iris is a story with a beginning and end but without a middle.
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02/15/02
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Iris (2001)
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Reviews Counted:108
Fresh:85
Rotten:23
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: A solidly constructed drama, Iris is greatly elevated by the strength of its four lead performances.
Theatrical Release:Dec 14, 2001 Limited
Box Office: $5,372,026
Synopsis: Based on the book ELEGY FOR IRIS, by John Bayley, this biopic tells the inspiring and heartbreaking story of the writer's 40-year romance with English novelist Dame Iris Murdoch. The film cuts back... [More]
Starring: Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Kate Winslet, Hugh Bonneville
Director: Richard Eyre
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Reviews for Iris
Top CriticIn the end, the disparate personalities of the movies cede influence to the actors, who do the hard work of giving human dimension to the stories of extraordinary people.
02/15/02
A magnificent story about the enduring bond between two eccentric, astounding souls who somehow managed to find each other and hold on for dear life.
02/15/02
Those who have had a loved one fall prey to the mental ravages of Alzheimer's will see in Iris a depiction that is so lucid and accurate that it may be painful to observe.
02/15/02
Top CriticAs the story of heroic response to tragic illness, Iris is the kind of film often cynically pegged a 'disease of the week' movie. But unlike such formulaic TV productions, Iris' heroine is denied the capacity to be inspiring.
02/15/02
Top CriticTune out the hype for countless other movies. This is the one to see.
02/15/02
Top CriticThe performances in Iris -- by Judi Dench as the older Murdoch and Jim Broadbent as her husband, John Bayley, and by Kate Winslet as the younger Murdoch -- are so good that the film is completely compelling.
02/15/02
Top Critic...the results are tender, unflinching, raw and wonderful.
02/15/02
Top CriticBecause the film is well-acted and written with intelligence, it might be worth seeing, despite my objections.
02/15/02
Top CriticIris glows with rightness and convinces us we're sharing its characters' understanding that when the books and the memory go, love can remain.
02/15/02
Top CriticRepresents everything that's stale about movie-making -- and especially movie awards -- today.
02/15/02
The defining irony of the film is that like Dame Murdoch in the throes of her illness, Iris is lost, confused, and, perhaps most painfully, very occasionally brilliant.
02/15/02
What the film has to say about the devastation of this debilitating disease [Alzheimer's] is more significant than the story of Iris’s life.
02/15/02
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02/15/02
Iris sounds as if it would be painful to watch, and in scenes like the one described above, it can be. Yet watching love realistically depicted onscreen remains the greatest joy of film, and its most important gift to the world.
02/14/02
Top CriticFeels unfinished, as if its many lovely parts have not come together into a meaningful whole.
02/14/02
A must-see canticle to married love.
02/14/02
Top CriticSo crisply acted and smartly drawn that you barely notice the cracks in the veneer.
02/14/02
Iris would appeal almost exclusively to existing fans of Murdoch’s prose were it not for four truly compelling performances that meld seamlessly into one sublime whole.
02/14/02
Demonstrates the catastrophe of disintegration by putting us first in the full thrall of the character's intellect.
02/14/02
Top CriticLatest News for Iris
April 13, 2006:
Rogue Shows Some Fuzz Love
Read on for a very formal press release from Rogue Pictures, the ultimate gist of which is this: Rogue, which is the "genre arm" of Universal Pictures, will distribute... More...
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