True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 14 wins & 31 nominations total
- Young Maurice
- (as Sam West)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the second movie to have two actresses nominated for an Academy Award for playing the same role in the same movie. The first was Titanic (1997). In both movies, Kate Winslet played the younger version in the dual-nominee role.
- GoofsWhen John gets his coat caught against the chair at the pub, a boom mic can be seen in the mirror behind him.
- Quotes
Iris Murdoch: Education doesn't make you happy. And what is freedom? We don't become happy just because we are free, if we are. Or because we have been educated, if we have. But because education may be the means by which we realize we are happy. It opens our eyes, our ears. Tells use where delights are lurking. Convinces us that there is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever: that of the mind. And give us the assurance, the confidence, to walk the path our mind, our educated mind, offers.
- ConnectionsFeatured in A Look at Iris (2001)
- SoundtracksThe Lark in the Clear Air
Music: Traditional tune: Caisleán U, Néill
Lyrics by Samuel Ferguson (about 1850)
I knew of this film due to Broadbent rightly taking the Oscar for it (with an exclamation of `stone the crows!') but I noticed it wasn't really in the running for anything else and never got round to seeing it. Seeing it now I am in two minds as to whether it works or not - I think it depends on what you take the film's aim to be. As a story about Iris herself I didn't think it really worked. It told me very little about her and didn't give me much to work with in regards her character or her relations when she was younger. We are given images and scenes from Iris and John's youth but I never felt that I ever really connected with who they were at that young age. The stuff with them as an elderly couple works well but again it could have been any elderly couple and it made no difference to me that Iris was a writer or any woman.
What works excellent is the portrait of an elderly couple struggling with the effects of Alzheimer's on their lives - hers as a sufferer and his as one watching his wife vanish day by day. I was very moved by all of that side of the film and found some of it very hard to watch. Most of this is due to Broadbent and it is this that he won his Oscar for. I felt his pain throughout the film and it was intense considering what a normal cheerful old man he played. Dench is excellent and her portrayal of Iris is very strong in terms of being an Alzheimers sufferer but not so much as a character I'm meant to learn about. The playing of both Winslet and Bonneville is good but I came away with the feeling that they were just assigned to do impressions of their senior co-stars; they don't manage to shed light on the past very much but they are good background.
Overall this film is not great if you are expecting to learn about Iris the author. However a film about Alzheimers it excels and is well worth seeing. Broadbent is wonderful and deserved his Oscar - his pain and his loss is so very real throughout the film that it is impossible not to feel something even if the film doesn't manage to do great development with the characters.
- bob the moo
- Dec 20, 2003
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch
- Filming locations
- Southwold, Suffolk, England, UK(beach scenes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $5,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $5,594,617
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $23,144
- Dec 16, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $16,153,953
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1