Iris Details

Director Richard Eyre has made a film that succeeds on the strength of its performances alone in this biography of one of the 20th century's most talented female writers. Essentially Judi Dench is Iris Murdoch. Without her and the incredible support from Jim Broadbent as Murdoch's devoted husband John Bayley and Penelope Wilton as society hostess Janet Stone, this simply wouldn't have the required emotional impact. As it is, you're moved to many, many tears. Murdoch's sharp academic mind is established from the beginning but the story becomes really compelling once the parallel flashback encounters between the young Iris and John (played by Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville) run concurrently with the older writer's gradual deterioration from Alzheimer's disease. As a study of human frailty, love and loss, the film couldn't be more truthful or more powerful thanks mainly to Dench and Broadbent. So much so that sometimes it hurts to watch.

Deftly switching back and forth from the young Iris to the diminished old, this somehow misses out on what made her a fascinating figure; some accomplished acting saves it from becoming merely a moderately intriguing drama of an unusual marriage.