This is a love story. The story is adapted from the emotional recollections of author CS Lewis. Lewis is the author of "The Chronicles of Narnia" and is well-known in the British and Western literary circles. He once fell in love with American female writer Helen Joy, but Joy died in the end. In this story, the true feelings of the two people are deeply connected, and it becomes more profound and profound as time goes by.
At the beginning of the story, Joy was just a reader of Lewis, often writing to share her thoughts. At that time, Lewis gave a generous speech in the old lecture hall of Oxford University. He was good at discussing the love of God and the meaning of human suffering, full of wisdom and pride. He lives in a house outside London with his old brother, and seldom misses debates with professors. But Joey's appearance changed everything.
Joey's sharp point of view made Lewis feel at a loss for a while. When the two met, he was clearly aware that something different was quietly happening. He met his opponent, he also met love, he met his soul mate. It's just that Lewis discovered all this very late, even when he legally married her in order to help Joey, he didn't know that the woman in front of him had opened up a different world for him.
The relationship between Lewis and Joey is based on a deep understanding of each other. This understanding is not a complete convergence, but a collision in addition to the resonance. For example, when Joey walked into Lewis' office, the two had a conversation. While Joey believed that experience was important, Lewis insisted that knowledge was the most important (and that's what he was good at). Joy's comment on this is: Books make people safe, but experience is painful. It means that knowledge in books may be eloquent, it has all the definitions of facts and opinions, but it is not a substitute for truth.
Facing Joey's insight, Lewis was at a loss for words. He began to perceive the flaws in his life. "Shadowland" is not only about love, but also about the understanding of the life course. A similar discussion appeared in the movie Good Will Hunting. Psychology professor Sean had this to say to the arrogant Will:
"If I asked you about art, you would probably make the superficial arguments in art books... If I talked to you about war, you would throw Shakespeare at me and recite 'To the battlefield, dear friend.' But you never came Fighting, never tried to hold your best friend's head in your arms...you haven't experienced the true meaning of "lose"...because you only realize it when you love someone more than yourself."
It is this passage The dialogue defeat also touched Will, letting him drop his defenses, come out of the game of teasing others with his high IQ, confess his pain to Sean and find a way to redemption.
Lewis shares similarities with Will. They all have extraordinary talents and are good at using them as weapons to protect themselves. They also all met spiritual mentors and were transformed. For Will, the key is the tolerance and kindness of psychologist Sean; for Lewis, it is his lover Joey's calmness in the face of disaster.
Joey's life was originally unfortunate, but she never complained, but faced everything bravely. Even in her grave illness, she smiled quietly and even persuaded Lewis not to be overly sad. This brilliance of humanity trumps a thousand heroic stories in the book. It was her tenacity that shocked Lewis, and in the short years, she felt the most simple tremors of love and cherishment in life. As they discussed, they have passed through the shadowlands of reason, knowledge, etc. (shadowlands, which is also the name of the film), and returned to life experience itself.
Joey's death had a huge impact on Lewis, it changed Lewis' view of life. Sitting in the attic, Lewis murmured to Joey's son Douglas, "God, I miss her too," like a barefoot child walking in the snow, lost and sad. The only light at this time is not from God, but from the embrace of others of the same kind. Lewis and Douglas hugged and cried in the attic, which finally gave Lewis some comfort.
Lewis' helplessness and struggles are sympathetic. In addition to the superb acting skills of actor Hopkins, more importantly, this is not a pain for one person, but something that all human beings may experience. All truly profound tragedies necessarily transcend individual specific gains and losses to resonate in a broader and deeper sense. The sympathy for the universal plight of mankind is the greatness of the movie "Shadowland", which makes it seem bland but contains amazing power.
More than half a century has passed. People of the past are gone, and the memory of Oxford is like a reflection in the water in time. When two people meet and fall in love, joy and bitterness are intertwined and become indelible memories. You can meet true love in a lifetime, even if it's short-lived. Compared with the long time, all life is like a glimpse. But in this glimpse, the collision of some souls can burst into brilliant starlight, which flickers for a long time in the dark night.
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