Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases


Iris (2001)

Director: Richard Eyre

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Eyre's film of John Bayley's bestselling memoirs has the virtues one imagines Iris Murdoch would have hoped for: it's an intelligent, literate film with a sure sense of its world and honest, moving performances. If it's also underwhelming, perhaps these virtues can become vices: it's overly literal, solipsistic and even a little academic. For the benefit of those dozing at the back, Murdoch was a very fine British novelist and philosopher. Educated at Oxford in the 1950s, she fashioned herself as a free spirit - yet oddly, when the stammering John Bayley paid court, she chose him to be her husband, and they lived together until her death in 1999. Eyre's film switches between the couple's courtship and the painful last years when Murdoch suffered from Alzheimer's disease, often eliding four decades in a single, eloquent pan. The twin casts are perfectly matched: Dench and Winslet as the flinty, hay-haired Iris; and Broadbent and Bonneville as John, almost a caricature of the absent-minded don, the cuckold happy with his nest. She sees decency in him, an intellect to parry, and an unworldliness which obviously suited her purposes. Eyre is interested in how dependency shifts between them, in what keeps a couple together even in the face of Alzheimer's - and in watching a brilliant mind regress. Yet, perhaps inevitably, the film becomes less interesting as it goes on.

Author: TCh

Time Out Film Guide


User reviews of this film

  • jane said...
    Posted on Mar 16 2009 20:43 kate winslet and judi dents deserve their oscars....amazing movie....too bad juliet aubrey appears so little in it!she is amazing actress too you know... i wish she took an oscar too!!!
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields




Most popular on this site


Top Stories

Has David Cronenberg turned tame?

Has David Cronenberg turned tame?

Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?

The 10 worst date movies

The 10 worst date movies

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made

Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films

Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films

Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas

10 unlikely badboy biopics

10 unlikely badboy biopics

Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects

Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'

Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'

The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing

Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day

Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day

Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing