Depending on your point of view, Shadowlands, Sir Richard Attenborough's movie about the love affair between CS Lewis and the American poet Joy Gresham, is either a truthful tearjerker of some quality or a highly-romanticised version of the events that unfolded between the two, writes George Frew.

Gresham began corresponding with Lewis and eventually turned up in Oxford to greet him in person. At first, the bright and sassy American embarrassed Jack with her forthrightness and honesty, yet he still agreed to marry her so that she could attain British citizenship and thereby escape her abusive husband.

With her young son Douglas, Joy lived apart from Lewis in this marriage of convenience and it was only when she developed cancer that Jack realised how much he actually loved her.

Much of the filming was carried out on location in Oxford around Lewis's haunts, including Magdalen College and at the nature reserve opposite his house, The Kilns, in Risinghurst.

Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Lewis is genuinely moving , while Debra Winger plays Joy as if her life depends on it. In the end, it scarcely matters if CS Lewis was exactly as Hopkins plays him, or if Joy looked remotely like Ms Winger Shadowlands is still a real life love story and as such, provides an emotional earhquake in terms of love lost and a life cut short.