Charlotte Coleman Movies
Best known for her role as Hugh Grant's eccentric roommate in the 1994 romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, British actress Charlotte Coleman had a talent for playing quirky characters thanks in part to her intense and unique personality.Born into a theatrical London household in April of 1968, the youngest daughter (her sister, Lisa, also an actress) of actress Ann Beach and television producer Francis Coleman began acting at the age of eight, receiving her early education at St. Michael's School in Highgate. Later training at the same Camden club as Emma Thompson, Coleman found much success in her early years with roles in such popular television programs as Worzel Gummidge and Educating Marmalade. Expelled from Camden due to her rebellious nature, the unruly teen attempted to sabotage her own career by giving deliberately bad audition performances, only to be thwarted when she was often offered the roles that she had worked so hard to reject. Following her expulsion from Camden, Coleman had a change of heart regarding her career and later paid for an education at the West Country's progressive Dartington with money that she had earned from television roles. Later noted for her role as a lesbian teen in the BBC production of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Coleman would shoot to fame four short years later with her role alongside Grant in the international hit Four Weddings. Increasingly busy into the later 1990s, Coleman turned up in such films as The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995), The Man With Rain in His Shoes (1998), and Beautiful People (1999). Turning up in the lead for A Loving Act in 2001, Coleman was gaining increasing momentum when a lifelong illness cut short her promising career. A lifelong asthmatic, Coleman died after suffering a major asthma attack in her London home in November of 2001. Coleman was 33. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Telecast on American cable television as Sweet Revenge, this wickedly black comedy was produced for British TV under the title The Revengers' Comedies, which was also the name of the Alan Ayckbourn play collection upon which it was based. Late one night on London Bridge, two potential suicides meet. Henry Bell (Sam Neill) is a midlevel executive who has been unfairly fired by his office rival; Karen Knightly (Helena Bonham Carter) is a nutty heiress whose boyfriend has jilted her in favor of a bitchy American beauty. Forsaking their plans to kill themselves, Henry and Karen go the Strangers on a Train route by agreeing to "swap" revenges: Karen will dispose of Henry's enemy, Bruce Tick (Steve Coogan), while Henry will destroy Karen's bête noire, Imogen Saxton-Billing (Kristin Scott Thomas). A U.S./U.K./French co-production, Sweet Revenge made its official debut over America's Showtime network on September 24, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, (more)
In this murder mystery, the protagonist Virgil Guppy gets into a lot of mischief through his lack of foresight. Virgil is a bit of a 'yuppie.' He buys himself a Jaguar to complete the identity he has been trying to build up with a flat, a job, a certain wardrobe and a special girlfriend. The Jaguar is a bit battered, but the mileage is low. The problem is that the dealer and his son are clearly dodgy types. Within four miles, the car dies. What is more, there is a dead body hidden in the trunk. Virgil is arrested for murder; only then does he realize that he has been framed by the dealer, who has long since disappeared. The first feature by Gareth Rhys Jones, the film pokes gentle fun at the value system of the new generation. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hans Matheson, Charlotte Coleman, (more)
Jasmin Dizdar's debut feature takes place in London on October 13, 1993. England is to play against Holland in a critical World Cup qualifier. The Bosnian war is at its height, Sebrenica is besieged, and the UN is preparing relief airdrops. Serbian Dado Jehan and Croatian Faruk Pruti meet on a London bus. Recognizing each other as fellow refugees from the same village in Bosnia, they try to beat each other up. The subsequent crazy chase through the streets of central London sets the scene for a highly charged dark comedy. Beautiful People draws a portrait of the multicultural life of London where lives of British families are inadvertently linked with the lives of the refugees. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Coleman, Charles Kay, (more)
The off-beat love story between Paul and Kim provides the framework of this quirky British melodrama. The two meet after the taxi in which the attractive Kim rides collides with manly courier Paul and his motorcycle. Paul is utterly fascinated with Kim and swears that he has seen her before. He has. In fact the two were childhood friends in Catholic boys school, but back then, before the operation, Kim was named Karl. Now as a woman, Kim works as a successful writer for a greeting-card company while Paul, still wild and irresponsible, gets work while he can. The two gingerly renew their friendship and eventually it becomes something much deeper. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steven Mackintosh, Rupert Graves, (more)
Based on the true story of Graham Young, a young British psychopath of the early 1960s, this is the offbeat feature film debut of writer-director Benjamin Ross. Hugh O'Conor plays Young, who narrates the story in a sullen voice-over. He is an isolated, studious young adolescent who is increasingly absorbed in his chemical research projects and estranged from his annoying family. After his greatest experiment blows up, he seeks revenge on his stepmother, who has falsely accused him of hiding pornographic magazines. The boy poisons her chocolates and then his sister's eye drops, partially blinding her. He next poisons his stepmother's stomach medicine. Graham lets her discover the notebook in which he has documented his work, but she can no longer speak, and she dies unable to communicate the truth. Young then starts to poison his father -- but lets himself be discovered and is sent to an insane asylum. There, he is befriended by a psychologist, Dr. Ziegler (Anthony Sher), an optimist who hopes for a recovery by exploring Young's dreams. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh O'Conor, Antony Sher, (more)
This acclaimed British comedy centers on the intermittent romance between a charming (if slightly bumbling) Englishman and a beautiful American woman, who seem to always run into each other at weddings. Indeed, it is at the first of the title's four weddings that Charles (Hugh Grant) and Carrie (Andie McDowell) meet, enjoying a brief but fleeting connection. The spark is rekindled several months later, when they unexpectedly meet at another wedding. Unfortunately, however, Carrie has become engaged to another, a fact that complicates matters for them both. The story may seem simple, but the film is elevated by screenwriter Richard Curtis' ear for witty dialogue and a colorful supporting cast. Director Mike Newell's sympathetic attention to character keeps the proceedings believable, and prevents the film's more serious moments from seeming mawkish. These elements, along with Grant's star-making performance as Charles, helped the film achieve unexpected international success, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, (more)
A white, Inuit boy named Avik is the focus of New Zealand director Vincent Ward's meditation on race and romance. In the opening moments of the movie, set in 1931 in the Arctic-Canadian settlement Nunataaq, Avik (portrayed initially by Robert Joamie) lives under the watchful eye of his grandmother (Jayko Pitseolak). While tagging along after British cartographer Walter Russell (Patrick Bergin), Avik falls prey to the "white man's disease,"--tuberculosis; to assuage his own guilt, Russell takes the boy to a Montreal clinic to recover. There, Avik meets Albertine, a mixed-blood Indian girl, and the two fall in love, but their relationship is quickly broken up by the Mother Superior who is in charge of the clinic. Years later, Avik again meets Russell, who this time is on a mission to recover the German U-boat lying wrecked off the coast of Nunataaq. Avik asks for Russell's help in learning the whereabouts of Albertine, and he gives the cartographer a chest X-ray of the girl which he has carried with him since their separation. More time elapses, and Avik (now played by Jason Scott Lee) has become a British bombardier fighting in World War II. He is sought out by Albertine (Anne Parillaud), who has become Russell's mistress. Still, she begins an affair with Avik; Russell soon finds out, and as revenge sends Avik and his crew on a suicide mission of which Avik is the lone survivor. Despondent over his war experiences, Avik flees to Canada, where he becomes an alcoholic; decades later, he is sought out by Rainee (Clotilde Courau), the daughter born from his affair with Albertine. On his way to the girl's wedding, Avik is killed in an accident; his body washes up on the beach at Nunataaq, a wedding gift still clutched in his arms. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud, (more)
- 1989
Johnny Fortune (Damon Lowry) may be no good to anyone, but he's not particularly mean about it. After all, he left his girlfriend behind because the men from the casino were after him for stealing money, not her. He flees to England and becomes part of a small-time Punch and Judy act. His job is to advertise the show by parading around in a bear suit. This is okay by him, as the costume is a pretty effective hiding place. Eventually the casino's hired thugs track him down, and things heat up a bunch. It's lucky for him that the puppet show is run by a couple of really resourceful people (Tom Waits and Julia Britton who have become his friends. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Waits, Charlotte Coleman, (more)
- 1989
Filmed in Britain, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit stars Charlotte Coleman as a champing-at-the-bit teenager named Jess. The girl's domineering mother (Geraldine McEwan), a religious fanatic, wants Jess to become a missionary; to that end, she refuses to allow the girl any friends her own age. Jess' father has nothing to say in the matter--indeed, he has had nothing to say to anyone for years. The girl's growing awareness of her own sexuality (depicted in steamy detail) flies in the face of her mother's carefully orchestrated plans. Funny in a dark sort of way, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was first seen in America over the Arts and Entertainment cable service in late 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1982
Although he has received plaudits from adult critics for his script work on such TV and film projects as To Serve Them All My Days and Bridget Jones's Diary, Andrew Davies is best known to British youngsters as the creator of Miss Marmalade Atkins. Cheerfully describing herself as "the worst girl in the world," the troublesome Marmalade (played on television by Charlotte Colman) was the bane of the existence of every grown-up that crossed her path, especially her long-suffering parents. Originally beamed out by Thames Television from October 25, 1982 to January 3, 1983, Educating Marmalade consisted of ten 20-minute episodes, each of which found the "heroine" pulling pranks on her elders and laughing uproariously at their discomfiture. The series spawned a brace of spin-offs, including Marmalade Atkins in Space (in which her parents, at their wit's end, bundled the girl into a rocket ship bound for the far reaches of the universe!) and Danger: Marmalade at Work! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1980
This British Christmas special starring the old time radio and movie character Worzel Gummidge finds the lovable, smart-mouthed cad bringing his trademark sense of fun and craziness to a swanky Christmas ball. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Pertwee, Geoffrey Bayldon, (more)
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