Lolita Davidovich Movies

Director Christopher Cain takes an up-close look at the devastation wrought by religious fanaticism with this romantic drama set against the backdrop of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. As a wagon train of westward-bound settlers makes its way across southern Utah, a confrontation with a congregation of Mormons soon leads to deadly consequences for all involved. Jon Voight, Lolita Davidovich, and Jon Gries co-star in a historical drama centered on the massacre, which continues to stir controversy over a century and a half after the fact. Terence Stamp and Dean Cain contribute small roles as Brigham Young and Joseph Smith, respectively -- who were not directly involved with the massacre but are pictured in flashbacks. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A cop's personal code of justice begins to change after a number of incidents lead his city to a tragic wave of violence in this police drama. Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell) is a veteran cop with the LAPD's Special Investigations unit, a man who isn't above bending the law if it means putting people behind bars who deserve the treatment. As Los Angeles waits on the verdict in the Rodney King police beating trial, Perry is presenting testimony to Assistant Chief of Police Arthur Holland (Ving Rhames), who is well aware of the corruption in the SIS unit and wants to stop it. Perry, however, twists some facts as he speaks in the defense of his new partner, Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman), who is being investigated for inappropriate use of deadly force. For lack of honest testimony, Keough is let off the hook, and soon he and Perry have a new case to investigate -- a robbery at a liquor store than turned into a quadruple homicide. Perry and Keough quickly track down two likely suspects, Orchard (Kurupt) and Sidwell (Dash Mihok), but Perry is surprised when the head of SIS, Van Meter (Brendan Gleeson), tells him to let Orchard and Sidwell go, and instead points the finger at two ex-cons who should be taken off the street, even though they're innocent of this crime. Perry follows Van Meter's orders, despite Keough's misgivings, but in the wake of the L.A. riots, Perry has a change of heart, and decides to start working with Holland against Van Meter's corrupt methods. In the midst of it all, Perry is trying to hold together his troubled marriage to Sally (Lolita Davidovich), while Keough finds himself romancing a fellow officer, Beth (Michael Michele). Dark Blue was adapted from an original screenplay by noted crime novelist James Ellroy; originally set against the backdrop of the 1965 Watts riots, the story was later updated to 1992. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A boy learning the lessons of the Torah wonders if they can be used to avenge an attack on his best friend in this drama based on the novel by Pete Hamill. Michael (Peter Tambakis) is an 11-year-old boy growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1947. While looking for a place to get out of the weather in the midst of a freak snowstorm, Michael meets Judah Hirsch (Stephen Rea), a rabbi from Czechoslovakia, and the two become unlikely friends. Judah fascinates Michael with tales from Jewish folklore, and Michael gives Judah a crash course in the finer points of baseball. But not everyone in Michael's neighborhood is as open-minded as he is, and Judah is attacked by a gang of anti-Semitic toughs. As Judah's life lies in the balance, Michael wonders if Judah's tales of magic and mysticism might hold a key to getting justice for his friend. Snow in August also features Lolita Davidovich as Michael's mother. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

After covering baseball in Bull Durham, basketball in White Men Can't Jump. and golf in Tin Cup, writer, director, and obvious sports fan Ron Shelton takes on the world of boxing in this comedy. Vince Boudreau (Woody Harrelson) and Cesar Sota (Antonio Banderas) are close friends and aspiring boxers struggling on the lowest rungs of the fight game. When a major boxing promoter needs to fill out the card for a heavyweight bout in Las Vegas, Vince and Cesar both get the call to head out to Sin City. But the excitement sours when they realize that there's a small problem: the promoter's schedule has the two pals fighting each other. Play It to the Bone also features Lolita Davidovich, Lucy Liu, Tom Sizemore, and Robert Wagner. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Veteran Canadian filmmaker Mort Ransen follows the critical and commercial success of Margaret's Museum (1995) with this unusual romance between a young man and a much older woman in the backwaters of British Columbia. Carrie (Lynn Redgrave) is an aging, hard-drinking widow. Her estranged daughter Sylvie (Lolita Davidovich) is trying to sell Carrie's café, the locals are trying to kick Carrie out of her house, and Carrie's dead husband's friend Burt is making romantic advances on her. All seems bleak until a dashing young stranger named Shawn (Tygh Runyan) suddenly ingratiates himself into Carrie's house, life, and eventually her bed. Soon she awakens from her drunken tailspin and reaches out to her daughter. Though Shawn seems utterly unfazed by the 40-some year gulf between he and Carrie, he also proves to be deeply unbalanced. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In this comic drama about fame, sports, and small-town life, Mystery, Alaska is a small town in one of the least accessible parts of the coldest state in the union. It's a town where everyone knows each other and there isn't much to do. In places like this, small things tend to become very important, and in Mystery, the one thing that keeps everyone sane is hockey. Most of the men of Mystery are obsessive hockey fans, and a local hockey league has sprung up, with pools of neighborhood talent facing off on the ice every week. When a national sports magazine does a story on the hockey fans of Mystery, Alaska, someone at the National Hockey League gets an idea for a publicity stunt: send the New York Rangers to Mystery to play the local all-stars in a nationally televised game. Most of the locals are thrilled; the game will give the people of Mystery a chance to bask in the limelight and make their sleepy town a household word. On the other hand, in a small town where everyone knows everyone else's secrets, this event could cause everyone to start airing their dirty laundry in public, with the whole world watching. Mystery, Alaska was directed by Jay Roach, who enjoyed considerable success with the two Austin Powers films, and stars Russell Crowe as John Biebe, Mary McCormack as his wife Donna, Burt Reynolds as Judge Burns, and Lolita Davidovich as Mary Jane. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Gods and Monsters was promoted from the outset as an artistic drama, but the publicity tended to play coyly on the possibility of a homosexual romance between the retired film director James Whale, played by Ian McKellen and his hunky gardener Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser). While the film does involve romance, the central relationship between the director and his gardener is about the development of a genuine friendship between two outwardly dissimilar but inwardly kindred spirits. In the story, Whale has been living for many years in peaceful, if not entirely contented retirement, under the loving and watchful eye of his contentious and argumentative Hungarian housekeeper (Lynn Redgrave). His earlier celebrity as the director of the original Frankenstein movie and its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, results in his being visited occasionally by disagreeable young men who have come to bask in the reminiscences of this creator of two "camp" classics. His reputation as a fairly outrageous homosexual comes into play here, when one particularly unpleasant and effeminate young man comes by seeking cinematic tidbits: the director challenges the boy to a game of stripping off one article of clothing for every revelation he shares about his moviemaking past. He had gotten the boy down to his briefs when he is stricken with one of his ever-recurring bouts of epilepsy, the result of a series of strokes. By way of contrast, while he is clearly interested in his gardener as a sex-object, gradually luring him into ever closer association, the openness and vulnerability of this awkwardly aggressive heterosexual boy inspires him to reveal the history of his heart. It turns out that, like the young man who is modeling for his supposed artworks, he came from a poor and difficult background. By the time naïve gardener learns of the director's homosexuality from the housekeeper, he has been drawn too deeply under the man's spell to stay away from their meetings for long. While the tension between the men never departs, a genuine relationship of caring develops between them. Meanwhile, Whale has been clearly observing the progressive deterioration of his mental faculties, and is increasingly being overwhelmed by vivid memories and visions. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

During a confrontation with a Wyoming cult, Santa Fe cop Paul Thomas (Gary Cole) saved his wife, daughter, and others but also caught a SWAT sniper's bullet, leading to eight months of rehab. Finally released from the hospital, Thomas finds his wife Leah (Sheila Kelly) involved with a local healer. Hoping to rejoin the police force, he sits through a review board procedure. Haunted by the cult experience, he launches a school program to warn youngsters about cults. Following his wife's suggestion, he attends a retreat run by counselor Eleanor Braddock (Lolita Davidovich). Although he initially dislikes Eleanor, the two are later brought together by a personals ad, and a romance develops. Shown at the 1997 Fort Lauderdale Film Festival and the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A tense hostage situation erupts when three escaped convicts commandeer a school bus full of deaf children and take them and their courageous teacher (Marlee Matlin) to an abandoned slaughterhouse to negotiate with the cops. No sooner are the crooks and their captives inside the plant than it is surrounded by policemen. An FBI unit led by John Potter (James Garner) arrives. Though a veteran agent, Potter has been laid off since he was accused of botching a bombing situation in Texas. He and the leader of the police force Budd (Kenneth Welsh) are immediately at loggerheads as to how to handle things. The situation is worsened when a publicity hungry assistant D.A. (Charles Martin Smith) shows up with a camera crew. Meanwhile, the clever and determined Melanie devises her own imperfect solution to the problem. Though basically a routine thriller, it does feature a couple of surprising twists at the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Canadian defense attorney Gina Antonelli (Lolita Davidovitch) takes on her most unusual case--and her biggest professional challenge--when she agree to defend Pauloosie (Paul Gordon), a 19-year-old Inuit living in a remote Arctic village. Accused of sexual assault of a minor, Pauloosie has by the standards of his people alrady done penance for his crime (which in his eyes was not a crime), pleading unconditional guilt and offering a gift of atonement to the girl's family. But ambitious prosecutor Daniel Metz (Henry Czerny) intends to make an example of Pauloosie by demanding the maximum sentence under Canadian law, a move that has divided the region's political interests straight down the middle. It is up to Gina to burrow through a maddening maze of cultural conflicts and arrive at a legal decision that will satisfy both the government and the natives--and also will assure the fairest amount of justice for the stoic Pauloosie. Produced for Canadian television in 1994, Trial at Fortitude Bay first aired in the US over the Lifetime cable network on March 15, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi