Iris (2001)

Iris is a 2001 British-American biographical drama film that tells the story of British novelist Iris Murdoch and her relationship with John Bayley. The film contrasts the start of their relationship, when Murdoch (Kate Winslet) was an outgoing, dominant individual as compared to her timid and scholarly partner Bayley (Hugh Bonneville), and their later life, when Murdoch (Judi Dench) was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and tended to by a frustrated Bayley (Jim Broadbent) in their North Oxford home in Charlbury Road.

The film, directed by Richard Eyre, is based on Bayley's memoir Elegy for Iris. The beach scenes were filmed at Southwold in Suffolk, one of Murdoch's favourite haunts.

Broadbent received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Dench and Winslet were both nominated, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

Synopsis

When the young Iris Murdoch (Kate Winslet) meets fellow student John Bayley (Hugh Bonneville) at the University of Oxford, he is a naive virgin easily flummoxed by her libertine spirit, arch personality, and obvious artistic talent. Decades later, little has changed and the couple keeps house, with John (Jim Broadbent) doting on his more famous wife (Judi Dench). When Iris begins experiencing forgetfulness and dementia, however, the devoted John struggles with hopelessness and frustration, and becomes her caretaker, as his wife's mind deteriorates from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease.

Actors