A fifty year love affair cut short by the ravages of Alzheimer’s, Iris is a quiet, nuanced exploration of the life together of revered novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch (Judi Dench) and husband John Bayley.
Reflecting on the past as his wife loses words, thoughts, objects, Bayley (Jim Broadbent) recalls days together at Oxford as students through to her successses in the literary and academic world. Both somewhat eccentric, their’s is an upside down life of chaos and disorder – except of the mind, with Bayley himself a successful academic. Together a force to be reckoned with, apart the world falls apart.
A character-focused narrative, director Richard Eyre weaves the current with the past as inspired casting sees Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville play the young Iris/John. A devastatingly sad tale as one of the great minds of the twentieth century slowly decays, the film itself is a little removed, emotionally. But central tour-de-force performances breathe life into what is, in some ways, a domestic drama.
Nominated for 3 Oscars in 2002 – best actress, supporting actress, won 1 for best supporting actor (Broadbent).
Rating: 69%
Director: Richard Eyre (The Children Act, Notes on a Scandal)
Writer: Charles Wood (The Bed Sitting Room, England My England), Richard Eyre (Richard III, The Other Man) – based on the writings of John Bayley
Main cast: Judi Dench (Skyfall, Mrs Brown), Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, The Iron Lady), Kate Winslet (The Dressmaker, The Reader), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, The Monuments Men)
An Opinion or Two 