As sad as it is to watch the inexorable decline of a brilliant mind, Iris is warm and positive...
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12/19/01
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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
Dench and Winslet are a riveting matchup.
12/18/01
Top CriticI think this movie does a wonderful job of going back and forth. We see Kate Winslet, who does a terrific job. Judi Dench is excellent.
12/18/01
Top CriticThe only thing that elevates Iris to the feature-film playing field is its acting talent, all of whom deliver touching, memorable performances.
12/18/01
Dench and Winslet inhabit the role of Iris with such intensity it's hard to take your eyes off them.
12/18/01
"Iris" is an odd title indeed for a film that barely brushes its titular subject's surface
12/17/01
An enchanting and finely-acted personal drama that manages to absorb the pleasures and pain of an undying spirit of togetherness.
12/17/01
A bittersweet drama of an unconventional love that lasted over 40 years due to its astonishing breadth and resiliency.
12/16/01
Dench and Broadbent in their scenes together are a painful and loving duet, creating as moving a portrait of marriage as anything the movies have afforded in recent memory.
12/15/01
Murdoch and Bayley had to have been one of the oddest couples in the world -- and one of the most enchanting.
12/15/01
Despite the sad denouement, it's still the love story of the year.
12/14/01
Judi Dench and Kate Winslet ... [give] terrific performances as Murdoch's older and younger selves, albeit in severely undernourished parts.
12/14/01
Top CriticRarely does a movie feel as leaden-footed as Iris, especially when it tries to bounce back and forth.
12/14/01
Top CriticDench once again confirms her gifts as one of the world's great actresses, but Broadbent ... is in some ways more impressive as Bayley.
12/14/01
Top CriticIt's not only that Murdoch and Bayley had just that kind of kinship over the span of a 40-plus year marriage, it's that the actors manage an identically close and intimate relationship both to each other and to the characters they play.
12/14/01
Top CriticBroadbent ... gives the performance of his career as John, Iris' loving husband.
12/14/01
The sketchy story is frustratingly short on details about what made Murdoch so important.
12/14/01
Fragmented to the point of seeming pointlessly episodic.
12/14/01
It's difficult to avoid nausean watching Jim Broadbent look with puppy eyes at Judi Dench throughout an otherwise literate--but too literary--film.
12/13/01
Two extraordinary performances anchor this generally sturdy adaptation of Elegy for Iris.
12/13/01
Latest 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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