Sharon Bajer Movies
Director Kari Skogland takes the reins for a Buffalo Gals Pictures production starring Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn as author Margaret Laurence's much-lauded heroine Hagar Shipley. Hagar may by 90, but she not ready to lie down and die just yet. Her decisions stem straight from her heart, and that often alienates her family and friends. When Hagar's son, Marvin (Dylan Baker), takes his mother to look at a nursing home, she takes it as her cue to leave her family behind and set out on one great last journey. Her mission is to locate the seaside home she remembers from her youth, but Hagar's memory is quickly fading, making it difficult for her to distinguish the past from the present. As a young girl, Hagar was set to inherit her father's mercantile empire until she was disowned for marrying a bold young man named Bram Shipley (Cole Hauser). Later, when Hagar's romantic illusions fade and she begins to view her husband with contempt, her decision to deny her children the kind of parental approval that she so badly longed for from her own father provokes a deep hereditary flaw. As she makes her way toward the seashore, Hagar realizes her time is running far too short to make up for a lifetime of unacknowledged mistakes. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ellen Burstyn, Christine Horne, (more)
The disturbing teenage phenomenon of self-mutilation gives substance to this standard "troubled daughter/monster mom" cable TV movie. Sullen, friendless schoolgirl Dawn Cotrell (Kimberlee Peterson) has been showing up at home with strange slashes on her skin. It soon becomes painfully obvious that Dawn is cutting herself to alleviate stress. Rather than deal with the problem like an intelligent adult, Dawn's mother, to whom appearances and total control are everything, merely hides all the knives in the house and orders her daughter to cease and desist. With no one to turn to -- certainly not her milquetoast of a father (Robert Wisden) -- poor Dawn resorts to even more desperate and destructive measures to work out her frustrations. Can compassionate therapist Dr. Parella (Rhea Perlman) come to the rescue before it's too late? Based on Steven Levenkorn's novel The Luckiest Girl in the World, Secret Cutting originally aired over the USA network on May 30, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Young, Kimberlee Peterson, (more)
Two of Canada's most acclaimed actors, Stephan Ouimette and Gary Farmer, star in this gritty account of two homeless guys who struggle through Winnipeg's harsh winter. Their prize possession is a cheap space heater that they still keep in its original box. Heater was screened at the 1999 Vancouver Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gary Farmer, Stephen Ouimette, (more)
- 1999
Originally titled Milgaard, this made-for-TV drama is a disturbingly accurate account of one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in Canadian history. In 1969, 17-year-old hippie David Milgaard (Ian Tracey) is arrested on suspicion for the rape and murder on nursing assistant Gail Miller (Ardith Boxall). Anxious for a quick conviction despite a paucity of conclusive evidence, the authorities in Saskatchewan rush David's trial through, and within less than two months of the murder he is sent to prison for life. As David's mother Joyce (Gabrielle Rose) and a team of dedicated pro bono attorneys battle to clear her son's name, David goes through hell behind bars--for the next twenty-three years. First telecast in Canada in April of 1999 (though banned from viewing in Saskatchewan, where the events took place), Milgaard was retitled Hard Time: The David Milgaard Story for airing in the US via the Lifetime channel. Since that time, a third title has been bestowed on the film at the behest of David's family: Innocent: The David Milgaard Story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In this supernatural chiller, a small community is utterly terrorized when a fleet of driverless trucks rolls into town. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Timothy Busfield, Brenda Bakke, (more)
