Daniel Craig Movies
British actor Daniel Craig became known to audiences the world over when he was revealed as the new James Bond, slated to cement his role as the suave spy in 2006's Casino Royale. His status as an action star was quite sudden, and many were surprised at the announcement, thinking of him as an unknown. Ironically, the classically trained actor had put nearly 50 roles under his belt over the previous 15 years, from star-studded Hollywood features to highly respected independent ventures.Before Craig was a working actor, much less a famous one, he didn't just want to be an actor, he wanted to be a good one. At the age of six he was appearing in school plays in Liverpool, at 14 he was acting on his high school stage in West Kirby, and by 16 he auditioned for and joined the National Youth Theater's troupe for their tours of Manchester, Spain, and Russia. He went on to toil through low-paying jobs as he repeatedly auditioned for the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, determined to get in and undergo the classical training that would help him excel at his craft. Finally in 1988 at the age of 20, he was accepted and proceeded to study there for the next three years under the tutelage of Royal Shakespeare Company veteran Colin McCormack. After graduating in 1991, Craig had a whirlwind of activity to keep up with. In 1992 he began his career on screen, appearing in the film The Power of One. He also married Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, who gave birth to their daughter Ella that same year. He would appear in over ten films, TV movies, television shows, and failed pilots over the next two years, until his marriage to Louden came to an end in 1994. He got back in the game in 1995 with a role in the Disney film A Kid in King Arthur's Court, returning to England soon afterward to star in the acclaimed BBC2 miniseries Our Friends in the North and the four-part series Moll Flanders.
It seemed that the actor couldn't stay busy enough, working on several projects a year that ranged from highly respectable drama to trash TV horror. In 1997 he worked with German director Peter Sehr on Obsession where he met his future girlfriend, German actress Heike Makatsch. His first leading role in the U.K. came in 1998 with his portrayal of George Dyer, the intimate friend of painter Francis Bacon (played by Derek Jacobi) in John Maybury's Love Is the Devil. He was developing an impressive resumé and a great skill at taking on an entirely new persona with each new role. He would play a 19th century Irish refuge in Love & Rage, a young soldier in the WWI film The Trench, a framed Jesuit priest in the royal biopic Elizabeth (Starring Cate Blanchett), a Kenyan gamekeeper in the Kim Basinger film I Dreamed of Africa, and the manager of a run-down hotel and health-spa in the satirical comedy Hotel Splendide.
American audiences finally got a real taste of Craig's acting when he took a part in an action-packed summer blockbuster, 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Playing Angelina Jolie's present rival and former lover, Craig was so effective at his trademark immersion into his role that audiences hardly recognized him when he appeared the next year in The Road to Perdition as the spoiled son of an Al Capone-era mob boss, complete with a perfect American accent. His skill for blending so adeptly into his character and environment gave him the odd combination of being wildly praised but seldom recognized. He would appear in many more challenging and thought-provoking roles over the next few years, most notably as Ted Hughes, poet and husband to Sylvia Plath (Played by Gwyneth Paltrow) in the biopic Sylvia (2003). In 2004, he took British audiences on a thrill ride as a coke dealer without a name in Layer Cake, which became a sleeper hit in the U.S. as well. The following year found him playing significant roles in American films like The Jacket and Steven Spielberg's Munich.
The script that would mark his debut in the franchise would be Casino Royale, the only of author Ian Flemming's original James Bond books to have never been adapted into a screenplay for the film franchise, as its rights were purchased in 1967 to make a spoof of the film series rather than a real Bond movie. The choice of Craig for such a famous and well-loved character had some audiences scratching their heads, but those who'd taken a look at the actor's long and impressive filmography were ready to see him take on the job. To say his debut as Bond was a success is an understatment: Released in late 2006, Casino Royale quickly rung up the highest box-office tally of any Bond film, and it garnered the best reviews the franchise had seen in years. Audiences and critics alike became Craig loyalists. He would stick with the Bond franchise for years to come, but the veteran actor continued to take risks on the big screen with such efforts as Defiance, Cowboys & Aliens, Dream House, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
007 (Daniel Craig) becomes M's only ally as MI6 comes under attack, and a mysterious new villain emerges with a diabolical plan. James Bond's latest mission has gone horribly awry, resulting in the exposure of several undercover agents, and an all-out attack on M16. Meanwhile, as M (Judi Dench) plans to relocate the agency, emerging Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) raises concerns about her competence while attempting to usurp her position, and Q (Ben Whishaw) becomes a crucial ally. Now the only person who can restore M's reputation is 007. Operating in the dark with only field agent Eve (Naomie Harris) to guide him, the world's top secret agent works to root out an enigmatic criminal mastermind named Silva (Javier Bardem) as a major storm brews on the horizon. Albert Finney also stars in the 23rd installment of the long-running spy series. The film was directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) and shot by acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins (True Grit, The Reader, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig
- 2011
- R
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A discredited journalist (Daniel Craig) and a mysterious computer hacker discover that even the wealthiest families have skeletons in their closets while working to solve the mystery of a 40-year-old murder in this David Fincher-directed remake of the 2009 Swedish thriller of the same name. Inspired by late author Stieg Larsson's successful trilogy of books, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets under way as the two leads (Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara) are briefed in the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, whose uncle suspects she may have been killed by a member of their own family. The deeper they dig for the truth, however, the greater the risk of being buried alive by members of the family, who will go to great lengths to keep their secrets tightly sealed. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, (more)
- 2011
- NR
This highly artistic, nature-oriented documentary explores the very notion of life, following a wide variety of subjects throughout a variety of cyclical events, from conception to birth and beyond. Each scene features either a unique animal or a life-form viewed in a new and interesting way. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig
Director Steven Spielberg kicks off the big-screen Tintin trilogy with this computer-animated, motion-capture adaptation of Herge's beloved Tintin comic strip. Produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Kathleen Kennedy, the first installment in the series finds adventure-seeking Belgian reporter Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) and surly Captain Haddock (voiced by Andy Serkis) racing to recover a treasure that was lost at sea four centuries ago. Meanwhile, the malevolent Red Rackham (voiced by Daniel Craig) is determined to beat them to it. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Toby Jones provide additional voices for a film written by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, and Steven Moffat. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, (more)
A successful New York writer (Daniel Craig) discovers that the country holds just as much menace as the big city after moving his family to a cozy New England town and discovering that their gorgeous new home was once the site of a brutal murder. The closer the writer and his wife (Rachel Weisz) get to their new neighbor (Naomi Watts), the more that details begin to emerge about the slaying of a devoted mother and her two children. Jim Sheridan (In America, Brothers) directs a script by David Loucka (The Dream Team, Problem Child). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, (more)
Based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Cowboys & Aliens is set in 1800s Arizona, where the local cowboys, headed by gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), and the indigenous Apache tribe have been feuding fiercely for quite a while. Their skirmish is interrupted, however, by the appearance of a spaceship, commanded by an alien creature that's bent on enslaving the human race. It's time for a six-gun shoot-out between these cattle rustlers and space invaders, and there might even be a temporary peace between the cowboys and Indians as they both take aim at these extraterrestrial uninvited guests. Jon Favreau directs from a script by Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, with help from Lost's Damon Lindelof. Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell fill out the headlining cast. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, (more)
A devastating betrayal sends James Bond from Australia to Italy and South America on a mission of vengeance that pits the suave super-spy against a powerful businessman with diabolical intentions. Betrayed by Vesper, 007 (Daniel Craig) suppresses the urge to make his latest mission personal as he teams with M (Judi Dench) to interrogate Mr. White (Jesper Christensen). It soon becomes apparent that the organization behind the blackmailing of Vesper is more powerful than Bond and M had previously anticipated, and after discovering forensic evidence that links an MI6 traitor to a bank in Haiti, Bond immediately sets out to gather more intelligence.
Once in Haiti, a case of mistaken identity leads Bond into the company of the ravishing Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a dangerous beauty with her own vendetta. It's Camille who leads Bond to a ruthless businessman named Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is soon revealed to be the mastermind of a powerful but clandestine organization. Greene is conspiring to corner the market on one of the world's most precious natural resources, and in order to make that happen he has forged a deal with an exiled general named Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). By enlisting the aid of his many associates and using his vast resources to force contacts within the CIA and the British government into bending to his will, Greene plans to overthrow the current regime of a Latin American country and hand control over to General Medrano in exchange for a parcel of land that appears barren on the surface, but actually houses a natural resource that will make Greene the most powerful man on the planet. But Bond's mission to uncover the culprit who blackmailed Vesper and prevent Dominic Greene from exerting his will on the entire world won't be easy, because now everyone from the CIA to the terrorists and even M are out to get him. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Once in Haiti, a case of mistaken identity leads Bond into the company of the ravishing Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a dangerous beauty with her own vendetta. It's Camille who leads Bond to a ruthless businessman named Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is soon revealed to be the mastermind of a powerful but clandestine organization. Greene is conspiring to corner the market on one of the world's most precious natural resources, and in order to make that happen he has forged a deal with an exiled general named Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). By enlisting the aid of his many associates and using his vast resources to force contacts within the CIA and the British government into bending to his will, Greene plans to overthrow the current regime of a Latin American country and hand control over to General Medrano in exchange for a parcel of land that appears barren on the surface, but actually houses a natural resource that will make Greene the most powerful man on the planet. But Bond's mission to uncover the culprit who blackmailed Vesper and prevent Dominic Greene from exerting his will on the entire world won't be easy, because now everyone from the CIA to the terrorists and even M are out to get him. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, (more)
Having squandered his stint in the spotlight on hard drugs and reckless sex, washed-up Hollywood has-been Joe Scott (Daniel Craig) reflects on the summer of innocence and tragedy that would alter the course of his life after receiving news that his childhood best friend has suddenly died. As he makes his way back to the quiet English seaside village of his childhood in order to attend the funeral, he finds his journey into the past becoming a journey of both redemption and self-discovery as well. Oliver Twist star Harry Eden plays the young version of Scott in a drama also featuring Olivia Williams, Claire Forlani, and Eve. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Eve, (more)
Inspired by a true story, director Edward Zwick's epic World War II drama Defiance tells the tale of three Jewish Eastern European brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell) who narrowly escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis, subsequently vowing to avenge the deaths of their loves ones by launching a desperate battle against the forces that seek to exterminate their entire race. The year is 1941, and the setting is Nazi-occupied Belarus. The Final Solution is in full effect, and the Jews of Eastern Europe are being slaughtered wholesale. Tuvia (Craig), Zus (Schreiber), and Asael (Bell) have miraculously managed to escape into the dense surrounding forest. Having played in these woods since childhood, the brothers have a distinct advantage over their adversaries, and soon decide that simply surviving is not enough. In order to make a difference, they must take action, but in order to take action they will need support. As whispers of their bravery take wind, others like them appear determined to lay their lives on the line for the cause of freedom. Tuvia has become the de facto leader of the group, but he's still somewhat reluctant to take on such a heavy responsibility and his brother Zus expresses concern that his idealistic plan will ultimately bring about the group's downfall. With winter setting in, everyone works to create a functioning community that will help them endure the frigid months that lie ahead, and Asael reluctantly finds himself caught in the crossfire of his older siblings' rivalry. Is it possible to keep faith alive in a time when the world seems devoid of humanity and survival becomes a way of life? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, (more)
A mysterious, mind-altering epidemic has infected humankind, and when a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist discovers that the outbreak seems to be extraterrestrial in origin, she struggles to save her son from infection in this sci-fi thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment). The space shuttle has crashed, and investigators assigned to explore the wreckage have found something unimaginable in the debris -- something from the deepest reaches of outer space. Everyone who comes into contact with it soon begins to transform in ways that can't be explained by modern science. While their physical appearance remains completely unaltered, their emotions seem to be drained and their actions become strangely inhuman. The only people who know the truth about this extraterrestrial epidemic are Washington, D.C. psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Kidman) and her longtime friend Dr. Ben Driscoll (Craig). It seems that the alien virus attacks people in their sleep, and by the time they awaken, the transformation has already taken place. The contagion is spreading rapidly, and as more people fall victim to its eerie effects by the hour, it becomes impossible to differentiate the infected from those who can still be trusted. When Carol realizes that her young son may hold the only hope for saving the human race, she struggles to remain awake long enough to find the boy and prevent planet Earth from becoming host to a terrifying new breed of extraterrestrials. Based on the book The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, The Invasion was written by David Kajganich and co-stars Jeffrey Wright and Jeremy Northam. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, (more)
A young girl embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her best friend and fight the forces of darkness in director Chris Weitz's adaptation of the first installment of author Philip Pullman's best-selling fantasy trilogy. Screen newcomer Dakota Blue Richards stars as young heroine Lyra Belacqua, Casino Royale star Daniel Craig appears as Lyra's ruthless adventurer uncle, Lord Asriel, and Nicole Kidman assumes the glamorous guise of the villainous Mrs. Coulter. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, (more)
Douglas McGrath's Infamous represents the second major biopic about the avant-garde belletrist Truman Capote to be released within a year. It thus tells roughly the same story as Bennett Miller's earlier Capote, recounting the events that belied the writer's six-year authorship of the seminal "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood. The story opens with Capote (Toby Jones) visiting the site of the 1959 Clutter family homicide, on a Kansas research trip, accompanied by his close friend and colleague, author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). As Capote settles into the community, McGrath uses the preponderance of screen time to explore the emotional tapestry of Capote's increasingly risky emotional attachment to one of the two murderers, Perry Edward Smith (Daniel Craig), with whom he senses more than a few common bonds. McGrath weaves a decidedly bittersweet tale, contrasting the optimism and devil-may-care, "conquer all" attitude of Capote in his early years with a seemingly endless string of poor choices in the writer's later years, from addictions to drink and pills, to a failure to maintain healthy output as a writer, to poorly chosen romantic and sexual entanglements. Most significantly, however, McGrath reveals how the relationship with Smith virtually destroyed Capote as an artist and a human being, by inducing him to sell out on all levels to satisfy his lust for accomplishment and notoriety. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, (more)
In the labyrinthine streets of 21st century Paris, where every move is monitored and ever action recorded, a mysterious kidnapping sets into motion a catastrophic series of events that could ultimately prove the downfall of civilization. The year is 2054, and the Avalon Corporation has securely woven its way into every aspect of modern living by making youth and beauty the most valued commodity around. Troubles arises in the City of Lights when a high-profile scientist named Ilona (voice of Romola Garai) is kidnapped, and policeman Barthélémy Karas (voice of Daniel Craig) is assigned the task of solving the case. As his investigation leads Karas down a menacing path where death lurks around every bend, he soon discovers that events that took place in 2006 have cast a dark shadow over the future of humankind. A film that mixes Blade Runner aesthetics with stark, Sin City-style visuals, Renaissance was filmed using motion-capture animation and features extravagant production design by Alfred Frazzani (Immortel Ad Vitam). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Patrick Floersheim, (more)
Actor Daniel Craig assumes the role formerly occupied by such screen greats as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton to set out on the character's very first 007 mission. James Bond has earned his "00" status by masterfully executing a pair of death-defying professional assassinations. Now assigned the task of traveling to Madagascar to spy on notorious terrorist Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan) for his maiden voyage as a 007 agent, Bond boldly goes against MI6 policy to launch an independent investigation that finds him traversing the Bahamas in search of Mollaka's notoriously elusive terror cell. Subsequently led into the company of the mysterious Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian) and his exotic girlfriend, Solange (Caterina Murino), Bond soon realizes that he is closer than ever to locating well-guarded terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), the man who has personally bankrolled some of the most prevalent terrorist organizations on the planet. When Bond learns that Le Chiffre is planning to partake in an upcoming high-stakes poker game to be played at Montenegro's Le Casino Royale and use the winnings to establish his financial grip on the globe, M (Judi Dench) assigns beguiling agent Vesper (Eva Green) the task of watching over the fledgling agent as he plays against Le Chiffre in a covert attempt to destroy the nefarious gambler's well-established monetary stronghold in the underworld once and for all. Bond will need more than his legendary gambling skills in order to win this dangerous game, though, and after allying himself with local MI6 field agent Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and CIA operative Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), the endlessly suave super-spy puts on his poker face for a high-stakes game of cards in which the stakes are not measured in dollars, but human lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Eva Green, (more)
A troubled war veteran tries to unlock his memories of a terrible crime in this stylish thriller, the first American project for British filmmaker John Maybury. In 1991, Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) was an American soldier serving in the Persian Gulf when he was shot in the head; pronounced dead by a field surgeon, Starks somehow returned to life, though with no small number of psychological problems to show for his troubles. A year later, Starks is walking through the snowy Vermont wilderness when he discovers a woman whose truck has broken down, Jean (Kelly Lynch). Starks tries to help Jean and her young daughter, and later flags down a car for a ride into town; however, the car is being driven by a criminal on the run from the police (Brad Renfro), and not long after the car is cornered by police, Starks' memory goes blank. When he comes to, Jack is accused of killing a patrolman in the violent standoff that followed, and is told that the woman, her daughter, and the criminal existed only in his imagination. Declared insane in his murder trial, Starks is sentenced to a mental institution run by Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson), who seems to believe that the more brutal the treatment, the better. As Starks suffers frequent beatings and long spells in a frozen locker, his mind drifts from his harrowing past into the future, where he visits with Jackie (Keira Knightley), who once was the young girl Starks tried to help. The Jacket also features Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Lorenson, a compassionate doctor who tries to help Starks and his fellow patients. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, (more)
One young man's devastating voyage through the Holocaust sets the stage for this powerful drama. Gyorgy "Gyurka" Koves (Marcell Nagy) is a 14-year-old Jewish boy living in Hungary when the Nazi pogroms begin sweeping through the country. Gyura's father (Janos Ban) has his business taken away from him not long before he's taken away to a concentration camp, and as he's led away, Gyura agrees to his father's request to look after his stepmother while he's gone. However, Gyurka takes a bus rather than the train to work the following morning, believing it to be safer, but before it can reach its destination, police stop the vehicle and take the Jewish passengers into custody. Gyurka is sent to Auschwitz, but is later transferred to Buchenwald, and finally to Zeitz; at each stop the teenager is witness to greater and greater horrors, as different varieties of torture and violence are introduced with each passing day, until his emotions begin to wear away. When American troops finally liberate Zeitz, Gyurka has been shocked into a placid serenity, and when he returns to the wreckage that is Budapest, his ravaged body and ghostly calm go mostly overlooked by the other survivors attempting to rebuild. Sorstalansag (aka Fateless) was adapted from a novel by Imre Kertesz, a Nobel Prize-winning author who is himself a survivor of the Nazi death camps. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcell Nagy, Aron Dimeny, (more)
Much as Steven Spielberg followed 1993's special-effects blockbuster Jurassic Park with a far more downbeat and personal project later the same year, Schindler's List, in 2005 after tearing up the box office with War of the Worlds the director closed out the year with a powerful and thoughtful drama about the human costs of international terrorism. The 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, were supposed to be a peaceful gathering of outstanding athletes from around the world, but on September 5, the games took a sinister turn when eight masked Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic village, killing two Israeli athletes and abducting nine others. The kidnappers demanded safe passage out of Germany in addition to the release of Arab prisoners in Israeli and German prisons, but when they arrived at the Munich airport they were met by German police and military forces, and in the melee that followed, all nine hostages were killed. In the wake of the killings, the Israeli government gave Mossad, the nation's intelligence agency, a special assignment -- to track down and eliminate the Palestinians responsible for the death of the Israeli athletes. A young and idealistic Mossad agent (Eric Bana) is assigned to the four-man unit created to wipe out the Olympic terrorists, but while he believes in serving his country, as their bloody work goes on he begins to buckle under the weight of his work and wonders if he can morally justify his nation's acts of revenge. Munich also stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Ciarán Hinds. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, (more)
After nearly a half-a-century of silence, the final secret of Josef Stalin reveals itself to a former Oxford historian who is currently attending a Russian conference for the newly opened Soviet archives in a tense international thriller starring Daniel Craig (Casino Royale). Fluke Kelso (Craig) is on his way out of Russia when an unexpected visit from an ex-officer of the Soviet Secret Police offers hints of a deadly scandal. Later, when the mysterious former agent is found brutally slain, Kelso enlists the aid of the man's daughter Zinaida in finding the answer to a mystery that was presumably buried along with the Soviet Union dictator back in 1953. When Fluke and Zinaida travel to the remote Russian seaport of Archangel in search of the elusive truth, the vengeance of both the Russian authorities and the dangerous underworld threatens to silence them both and keep Stalin's secret buried for yet another half-a-century. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Yekaterina Rednikova, (more)
Enduring Love is director Roger Michell and screenwriter Joe Penhall's adaptation of Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel. Joe (Daniel Craig, who starred in Michell's previous film, The Mother), a college professor, is out on a romantic picnic with his long-time girlfriend, Claire (Samantha Morton), a sculptor. Joe seems about to propose marriage to Claire when their world is upended by a freak accident. A hot air balloon lands in the field behind them -- its passengers in obvious distress. Joe and a handful of other men run to help. Despite their efforts, a man falls to his death. Standing helplessly over his shattered body, Joe is joined by another would-be rescuer, Jed (Rhys Ifans, who co-starred in the director's Notting Hill), who suggests they kneel and pray. Joe, strictly a rationalist, does so reluctantly. Joe tries to get back to his routine, but he can't get the incident out of his head, and he is haunted by feelings of guilt and by ruminations about how things might have gone differently. Jed calls him out of the blue and urgently suggests that they meet. Jed soon makes it clear that he feels a connection to Joe that goes beyond their shared participation in the traumatic accident. He begins turning up everywhere Joe goes, sitting outside Joe's apartment at night. Worse yet, he insists that Joe is somehow sending him secret messages and leading him on. This potentially dangerous stalker begins to put a strain on Joe and Claire. As their relationship starts to disintegrate, Joe finds himself being pushed further and further from the rational, secure life he lived before that fateful day. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig
A mechanic in the British drug trade finds himself caught in the middle of some dangerous circumstances in this crime thriller. XXXX (Daniel Craig) is a nameless go-between in the British mob who buys drugs from underground wholesalers and them sells them to street dealers, keeping the system flowing and making a tidy profit in the process. XXXX is looking forward to getting out of the game, and has displayed both smarts and caution in how he's handled his business, but before his overseer Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) will let him go, he has a couple of favors that need to be done. First, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon) is a mob boss whose daughter has gotten hooked on hard drugs and run away from home; Jimmy needs XXXX to find them girl and bring her to him before Eddie's men can get hold of her. Second, Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) is a Ecstasy wholesaler who has had a large shipment stolen by Duke (Jamie Foreman); Jimmy wants XXXX to get the Ecstasy back to Dragan, but Duke isn't eager to sell and Dragan is becoming impatient. Between these two matters, XXXX isn't so sure he'll get out of the business alive, especially after he finds himself falling for Duke's nephew's girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller). Layer Cake marked the directorial debut for Matthew Vaughn, best known as a producer for Guy Ritchie's lad-centric crime movies. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, (more)
The life of poet and novelist Sylvia Plath -- one of the most celebrated literary figures of her generation -- is brought to the screen in this controversial screen adaptation. Born in Boston, MA, in 1932, Plath (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) developed a precocious talent as a writer and published her first poem when she was only eight years old. That same year, tragedy introduced itself into her life as Plath was forced to confront the unexpected death of her father. In 1950, she began studying at Smith College on a literary scholarship, and while she was an outstanding student, she also began suffering from bouts of extreme depression; following her junior year, she attempted suicide for the first time. Plath survived, and, in 1955, she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study in England at Cambridge. While in Great Britain, Plath met Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig), a respected author who would later become the British Poet Laureate; the two fell in love, and married in 1958. However, marriage, family, and a growing reputation as an important poet failed to bring Plath happiness, and as she became increasingly fascinated with death in her later poetry and her sole novel, The Bell Jar, and after Hughes left her for another woman, her depression went into a tailspin from which she would never fully recover. Sylvia was adapted in part from Birthday Letters, a collection of poems Ted Hughes published in 1998, in which he dealt with his marriage to Plath in print for the first time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, (more)
Hanif Kureishi wrote this drama about a woman whose late-blooming romance causes a serious rift with her family. May (Anne Reid) and Toots (Peter Vaughan) are an elderly couple who travel to London to visit their two grown children, Bobby (Steven Mackintosh) and Paula (Cathryn Bradshaw). While Bobby tries to be attentive to his parents, he's busy with his two young children, a major project at work, and completing some renovations on his large and expensive house, while his wife, Helen (Anna Wilson-Jones), shows little interest in her in-laws. Meanwhile, Paula is unsatisfied with her work and carries on an affair with Darren (Daniel Craig), a builder who is working on Bobby's home. When Toots suddenly dies, May moves in with Paula, but with Paula at work all day, she has little to do. Darren stops by Paula's flat periodically, and soon he strikes up a friendship with May; their conversations soon develop into flirtation, and before long, the two have become lovers, meeting regularly for afternoon trysts in Paula's spare room. While May's relationship with Darren makes her feel happier and more alive than she has in years, it leads to an ugly confrontation when Paula learns about the affair. The Mother was screened as part of the Director's Fortnight series at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, (more)
Adapted from the Tony award-winning play by Michael Frayn, Copenhagen is set in the titular Denmark capitol in the year 1941. According to existing records, it was in that city and year that German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his Danish mentor Neils Bohr met together on the brink of WWII. It will never be known what these two men, so politically divergent yet so much alike in their scientific goals, discussed during that fateful meeting (several attempts to reconstruct their conversation from memory proved both futile and bitterly divisive), though it is a matter of record that both men had discovered the methodology for splitting the atom -- which, of course, was the foundation for the atomic bomb. Frayn's play offers a fanciful yet utterly believable and incredibly witty and charming speculation on the words that might have passed between the idealistic Bohr (played by Stephen Rea) and the pragmatic Heisenberg (Daniel Craig) -- as recalled decades later by the principal characters from the vantage point of the Afterlife. Co-produced by Britain's BBC and U.S. public-TV outlet KCET, Copenhagen was first broadcast as an episode of the PBS Hollywood Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Daniel Craig, (more)
- 2002
Eight master directors of world cinema combine forces for this omnibus film that focuses cumulatively on the subject of time. Bookended by cello interludes, Ten Minutes Older: The Cello presents just one parameter to each of its filmmakers: no final entry can be more or less than ten minutes long. The resulting films run the gamut of styles and moods, beginning with Bernardo Bertolucci's Histoire d'Eaux, which presents an Indian fable about a mentor's impatience. In Mike Figgis' entry About Time 2, the director continues with the experimental structure he pioneered in Timecode; similarly, Jean-Luc Godard uses his time allotment to present a fractured series of clips on youth, death, and love. Another non-narrative entry, Volker Schlöndorff's The Enlightenment presents a series of images on racism. Claire Denis' effort Vers Nancy chronicles a philosophical discussion on time between a teacher and student on a train ride; in Jirí Menzel's Ten Minutes After, the effects of time on aging Czech actor Rudolf Hrusinsky are documented. In perhaps the film's most narrative-oriented segment, director Michael Radford offers up a sci-fi vision of an astronaut returning to earth to find that his son has aged faster than he has. Ten Minutes Older: The Cello is a companion piece to 2002's Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, which aired in the U.S. on the Showtime cable network. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Amit Arroz, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, (more)
The acclaimed graphic novel from crime writer Max Allan Collins becomes this big budget Dreamworks drama from director Sam Mendes and screenwriter David Self. Tom Hanks stars as Michael Sullivan, a morally conflicted Depression-era hit man committing murder in the name of his employer, John Rooney (Paul Newman). A kindly, aging Irish crime boss who raised Sullivan as his surrogate son, Rooney is affiliated with Al Capone in Chicago and thus wields great power in the "Tri-Cities" of Moline, IL; Rock Island, IL; and Davenport, IA. Curious about his father's mysterious profession, Sullivan's son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin), stows away in his father's automobile one night and witnesses the execution of a man at the hands of Sullivan and Rooney's biological son, Connor (Daniel Craig). Although Michael keeps his promise to remain silent about what he's seen, the paranoid and unstable Connor tries to wipe out the entire Sullivan clan anyway, succeeding only in killing Sullivan's wife, Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and youngest son, Peter (Liam Aiken). Enraged at this and another surprise betrayal by the Rooneys, Sullivan embarks on a path of bloody retribution, Michael in tow. Although he intends to leave his boy with relatives in the rural town of Perdition once the coast is clear, he ends up exposing Michael to the goriest aspects of his talents, slaughtering former associates as he dodges contract assassin Maguire (Jude Law) and cripples the cash flow of the Rooney and Capone organizations through a series of bank robberies, attempting to force either mob family to offer up the sequestered Connor as a sacrifice. Inspired by the popular Japanese comic book series Lone Wolf and Cub and based loosely on an episode from the life and career of notorious real-life crime figures John and Connor Looney, Road to Perdition co-stars Stanley Tucci as legendary Chicago mobster Frank Nitti. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, (more)
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