Dulice Liecier Movies

Stormy Monday is a four-person character study in which style is all that matters. This tautly constructed, deftly executed crime thriller is set in economically depressed Newcastle England. Sting plays Finney, a relatively honest Newcastle jazz-club owner who crosses the path of crass American gangster Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones). Flaunting his wealth at every opportunity, Cosmo wants to involve Finney in a land development deal -- if only he'll give up his club. Both men are enamored of Kate (Melanie Griffith), who becomes a pawn in their ongoing one-upsmanship. Kate and her lover (Sean Bean) try to prevent Finney from corrupting his own sense of values by wallowing in the gutter with Cosmo. Stormy Monday, the first feature-length directorial effort of former jazz musician Mike Figgis, who also wrote the script and composed the score, tells its story using subtle shadings of character and a vivid evocation of its Newcastle setting rather than through violent action. Figgis's moody direction of his excellent screenplay is quietly effective and brimming with visual nuance and irony -- particularly in its perceptive take on love, money, jazz, and economic necessity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Paul Theroux's Doctor Slaughter, Half Moon Street is motivated by the moneymaking schemes of the heroine, Ph.D. researcher Laura Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver). Stuck in a low-paying government job in London, Laura decides to increase her bank account by working for what is euphemistically termed an "escort service." It is understood that her duties go above and beyond mere hand-holding, and Laura has no problem with this. Michael Caine enters the scene as Lord Bulbeck, a high-ranking British diplomat with whom Laura forms a "special" bond. Little does she know that she is being set up in a power-grabbing scheme masterminded by oil-rich sheik Karim Hatami (Nadim Sawalha). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi