As fine an actor as he was - and he was amongst the very top - Paul Newman was arguably a better director, perhaps because he was an actors director and could have probably extracted something resembling acting from even the most wooden - Laurence Harvey, John Gregson, Richard Todd et al. It's no surprise that he got a stunning performance out of his wife, Joanne Woodward, because he did so time and again - Rachel, Marigolds, Menagerie - but here he does the same with Valerie Harper playing a character a million miles away from 'Rhoda' in the shape of a wife in denial of her husband's terminal illness. Yes, this is an adaptation of a play but the author of the prize-winning play did his own adaptation and the result is as sensitive as the original play. It's not, of course, for the bubblegum Multiplex set but that can only be a good thing. A very fine film.
Review of The Shadow Box
