Debra Winger

In Shadowlands (1993), Debra Winger's Joy Gresham seems to have had a full life before Anthony Hopkins's Lewis takes an interest in her. That ought to be a modest requirement for a romantic lead, but here it matters. Winger gives Joy enough force to disturb his determination to keep love at a distance. She makes us curious about what Joy wants beyond this relationship, even when the film is more interested in what Lewis needs.

Her breakthrough came opposite John Travolta in Urban Cowboy (1980), followed by An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983). Her appeal in romantic and family drama rests on emotional openness, blunt speech and a capacity for playfulness when things hurt. As Emma Greenway Horton in Terms of Endearment, she makes vulnerability feel lived through. The attraction is the sense of someone who can be hurt and still have something inconvenient to say.

Richard Attenborough makes good use of that openness in Shadowlands, taking Lewis's reluctance to risk attachment seriously and allowing Winger to challenge it. We were moved by the romance because her Joy feels independent enough to have chosen it. But Nicholson's writing gives Lewis most of the space to change, and too little to Joy to be difficult or contradictory. Winger supplies much of the complexity herself, suggesting a woman the film has not quite made room for. Her performance keeps the romance worth watching despite that imbalance.

She stepped away from major film work after 1995 and returned with Big Bad Love (2001). Supporting roles followed in films including Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Kajillionaire (2020). We would still rather see her given the time and space to be difficult, with writing that follows through on what she suggests. Start with Shadowlands for Winger and Hopkins, but expect to wish it would give her equal attention.