Hope Davis Movies
Displaying a sort of weary Botticelli beauty and a crisp brand of intelligence, Hope Davis has made a name for herself portraying good women wronged by bad men. Playing such characters in her two breakthrough films, The Daytrippers and Next Stop Wonderland, Davis displayed a remarkable blend of lovable bitterness and cynical charm, endearing herself to legions of art house filmgoers who recognized an unmistakable ring of truth in her performances.Born in Englewood, NJ, Davis had a childhood that was notable in part for her friendship with her neighbor across the street, Mira Sorvino. Davis' first brush with acting came when the two girls -- then eight or nine -- wrote a play and performed it for their neighbors. The actress' next encounter with fame came some years later, in the rather dubious form of her bit part as one of Billy Baldwin's used-and-abused girlfriends in the 1990 film Flatliners. Following a bit role as a French ticket agent in the same year's Home Alone, Davis had yet another dubious brush with fame in Kiss of Death (1995), in a role memorable for the sole reason that it required Davis to be bench-pressed by co-star Nicolas Cage.
The following year brought with it more auspicious work in The Daytrippers, an independent comedy in which Davis played the suspicious wife of philandering Stanley Tucci. Co-starring Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, and Anne Meara, the film was a hit on the independent circuit and Davis was next seen in Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Guy, another small yet critically acclaimed venture. After a bit part in the Ellen DeGeneres flop Mr. Wrong (also 1996), Davis had a substantial role in Bart Freundlich's 1997 drama The Myth of Fingerprints. Despite a stellar cast, including Blythe Danner, Noah Wyle, Julianne Moore, and Roy Scheider, the film did almost no box office and met with very mixed reviews. Davis followed it with another independent feature, The Impostors (1998), which was directed, written, produced, and starred in by her Daytrippers co-star Stanley Tucci. Unfortunately, like Fingerprints, the film was a relative failure despite an excellent cast and strong director. However, Davis subsequently struck indie gold that same year with her starring role in Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. Critics drooled over her performance as Erin, a nurse recovering from a major -- and bitterly hilarious -- breakup with her activist boyfriend (played with joyful loathsomeness by Philip Seymour Hoffman). The actress managed to make a potentially cold and unsympathetic character into someone the audience could relate to and support, an achievement that Hollywood chose to reward by placing her in a substantial role in the 1999 Jeff Bridges/Tim Robbins thriller Arlington Road. She gained additional exposure that year in Mumford, Lawrence Kasdan's loopy comedy about a small-town psychiatrist with a past. A few more small films followed (most notable among them was Stanley Tucci's Joe Gould's Secret) before Davis was cast as Jack Nicholson's estranged daughter in Alexander Payne's About Schmidt in 2002. Despite some unfavorable reviews, the film was a relative success, and a high-profile one at that, thanks to Nicholson's Best Actor Oscar nomination. Davis followed her turn in that film with a stellar performance in American Splendor (2003), Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's part-documentary, part-feature film about the underground comic book artist Harvey Pekar, played onscreen by Paul Giamatti. Cast as Pekar's wife, the highly neurotic Joyce, Davis pulled off a skillful performance that managed to prevent Joyce's quirks from disintegrating into caricature, and was undoubtedly one of the reasons that American Splendor won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Jack Nicholson plays retiring insurance actuary Warren Schmidt in Alexander Payne's About Schmidt. Schmidt has settled into a dormant life. He has an unfulfilling marriage to Helen (June Squibb), and conspires to spend as much time away from her as possible. Schmidt's daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis) is engaged to Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), a man Schmidt believes is entirely unworthy of his daughter. When Helen unexpectedly dies, Warren is adrift until he discovers old love letters sent to his wife from his best friend. This inspires Warren to make a valiant effort to stop his daughter's wedding. His plans start to go awry when he meets Randall's extroverted mother, Roberta (Kathy Bates). About Schmidt was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where many were surprised that Nicholson did not take home the Best Actor award. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, (more)
The documentary directing team of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman makes their narrative feature debut with the biographical comedy drama American Splendor. Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) is a comic book writer inspired by the work of his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). Pekar writes his comics about the sad monotony of everyday life, based on his own life in Cleveland, OH, working as a file clerk at a veteran's hospital and spending his time reading books and listening to jazz. He meets up with Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis) and they enjoy a depressive relationship together. The filmmakers employ a combination of live-action film, video, and animation, including narration and commentary from the real-life Harvey Pekar. The screenplay was based on Pekar's comic book series American Splendor, which he has been writing since 1976 on Dark Horse Comics, and the 1994 book-length comic Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and Brabner. American Splendor won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic Competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, (more)
In this tense thriller, a man begins to suspect his neighbors are not what they appear to be -- and their secrets could be deadly. Michael Faraday (played by Jeff Bridges) is a college professor whose wife, an FBI agent, was killed in the line of duty by members of an extremist right-wing terrorist group, leaving him to raise their nine-year-old son by himself. One day, he saves the life of a boy he sees on the street. The child turns out to be the son of his new neighbors, Oliver and Cheryl Lang (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack). Michael soon becomes friendly with the grateful Langs, who seem as cheerfully bland as anyone could hope from denizens of suburbia. But the better Michael gets to know Oliver, the more he becomes convinced that something isn't quite right; Oliver seems almost too clean and perfect, and Michael begins to notice that small details in Oliver's stories don't quite add up. The question is whether Michael's well-founded paranoia about the radical right is getting the better of him, or are the Langs up to something a lot more sinister than their cheerful smiles and manicured lawn would suggest? Ehren Kruger's screenplay for Arlington Road won the Motion Picture Academy's Nicholl Fellowship prize in 1996; the film was the second directorial effort for Mark Pellington, who debuted with Going All the Way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, (more)
Longtime film editor Jon Poll (Meet the Fockers and Austin Powers in Goldmember) makes his directorial debut with this coming-of-age comedy about a wealthy public school system newcomer (Anton Yelchin) who wins over his skeptical classmates by serving as a surrogate psychiatrist to the troubled student body. Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, and Kat Dennings co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
- 2000
Hoping to revive the glory days of Lou Grant, NBC, in association with Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, came forth with the weekly, one-hour newspaper drama Deadline. Oliver Platt starred as Wallace Benton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter whose dauntless dedication was matched by his short temper and gift for deception. Aided by Beth Khambu (Christina Chang) and Charles Foster (Damon Gupton), two students from the graduate journalism class that he taught in his spare time (what spare time?), Benton regularly riffed on the rich, powerful, and corrupt in his daily column "Nothing But the Truth." Because he ignored such journalistic niceties as press passes and off-the-record statements, Benton was the source of many a headache for his lawsuit-fearing publisher Si Beekman (Tom Conti) and his managing editor Nikki Masucci (Bebe Neuwirth). And because he cared more about "The Truth" than financial compensation, Benton was forever behind in alimony payments to his three ex-wives -- one of whom, Brooke Benton (Hope Davis, worked side-by-side with Benton on the same newspaper. Also featured was that singular actress Lily Taylor as Hildy Baker. Debuting October 2, 2000, Deadline was almost universally panned by real-life journalists, who complained that the sort of melodramatic pyrotechnics engaged in by Wallace Benton hadn't been used since the gonzo days of The Front Page -- and even worse, Benton was a poor and clumsy writer, whose stilted headlines and purple prose seemed calculated to drive readers to other sources of news. Undaunted, the series' producers described Deadline as "Columbo in a newspaper office," so the viewer knew exactly what to expect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Platt, Christina Chang, (more)
Carroll Ballard, director of The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf, presents another story of an unusual relationship between humans and animals in this drama. Xan (Alexander Michaletos) is a young boy who lives with his father and mother (Campbell Scott and Hope Davis) on a ranch in Kenya. One day, Xan and his folks discover a cheetah cub whose mother has died. With no one to care for the cat, Xan and his family take the cheetah under their wing, and after naming the cub "Dooms" (from "Duma," which means "male cheetah cub" in Swahili), Xan and his new friend become inseparable. However, Xan and his parents discover in time that nature doesn't always have a happy ending planned for a little boy. Duma was based on a book for children called How It Was With Dooms: A True Story From Africa, by Carol Cawthra Hopcraft and Xan Hopcraft, which told the story of Xan's real-life friendship with a cheetah. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexander Michaletos, Eamonn Walker, (more)
A man struggles to prove he isn't insane -- which is no mean feat when you're certain you're been transported 400 years into the future. Anne (Hope Davis) is a psychiatrist working at a hospital for the criminally insane whose latest charge is Bill Tyler (Denis Leary), a man who was recently admitted when he was found inside a wrecked truck found in a quarry. Bill isn't sure just where he is or what's happened to him, but he's certain he's traveled four centuries into the future, and if he can't find a way to get back to the past within 48 hours, assassins will execute him by lethal injection. Anne is bemused by Bill's odd story, but doesn't challenge him on it, instead questioning him in detail about everything he can recall about his past prior to being brought in. As Bill rants about lasers and holographic images, shares his periodic hallucinations, and discusses his feelings about his family and his former girlfriend, he becomes increasingly lucid, and Anne has to figure out how much of Bill's story is fantasy, and how much is fact. Final was written by Bruce McIntosh, who based the script on his own stage play; the feature (shot on digital video) was directed by actor Campbell Scott. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Leary, Hope Davis, (more)
Despite its occasional lapses into silly self-consciousness, Flatliners is one of the most intriguing and well-constructed supernatural thrillers of the 1990s. A group of brilliant medical students decide to literally play with life and death. They put themselves in suspended animation, electronically inducing a near-deathlike state and then pulling out of it at the last possible moment. Things get hairy when one of the students (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes obsessed with the notion of really dying, the better to experience the Afterlife before being revived--if he can be revived. In her first dramatic starring role (playing a sensitive young lady on a misguided guilt trip), Julia Roberts is very, very good--completely bereft of movie-star mannerisms. Audiences flocked to see Flatliners back in 1990 due to the highly publicized off-screen romance between Roberts and Sutherland. Oh, yes: Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin are in the picture, too. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, (more)
- 2008
In the wake of a family tragedy, an English ex-patriot living in the United States decides to relocate himself and his daughters to Italy, only to discover that tragedy may have followed them overseas when the youngest girl proves unable to move past her acute emotional pain. An Englishman at heart, Joe (Colin Firth) now lives a happy life with his wife and daughters in the United States. Their happy existence is turned upside down in an instant, however, when his wife is driving their daughters home one day and becomes momentarily distracted from the road. Later, as Joe and his daughters attempt to contend with the thick fog of grief hanging over their household, the loving father surmises that a change of scenery may be in order; accepting a teaching job in Italy in hopes that it will help them contend with their bereavement. For teenage daughter Kelly (Willa Holland), at least, the move works miracles: though Kelly was sullen and withdrawn back home, she seems awakened by the endless possibilities that the future may hold in Europe - even entering into a clandestine romance with a handsome Italian boy. Kelly's younger sister Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine), unfortunately, is another case entirely. Despite her father's most valiant efforts to assuage her grief, Mary just doesn't seem capable of shaking the loss. Meanwhile, as Joe rekindles an old friendship with a university colleague (Catherine Keener), his family soaks in the marvelous medley of medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary influences of the scenic, northern Italian city. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Firth, Perla Haney-Jardine, (more)
- 1996
- R
Simply switch on the nightly news and you will see that the media has become increasingly intrusive into the lives of people involved in extraordinary circumstances. What is the true impact of the omnipresent camera upon those circumstances? How does it change the existence of those living beneath a publicly broadcast microscope? This provocative drama takes the notion of the intruding camera a step further to follow the machinations of a determined documentary filmmaker who chooses an ordinary man on the street for the subject of her latest probing film. In following her attempts to chronicle even the most intimate details of his mundane existence the film offers a double character portrait, not only of the victim himself, but also of the disaffected (and but for her hands, unseen) filmmaker who is unable to relate to life without the barrier of a hand-held camera to protect her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Hope Davis, (more)
One of the short stories in a best-selling collection by author Stephen King becomes this mystery adapted for director Scott Hicks by screenwriter William Goldman, who previously transformed a King story into a box-office hit (Misery, 1990). In the summer of 1960, young Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) is sharing adventures with his best friends Carol (Mika Boorem) and Sully (Will Rothhaar) when an enigmatic lodger named Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) rents a room in his family's boarding house. Bobby's self-absorbed, widowed mother Liz (Hope Davis) couldn't care less about her son, so Bobby, who is being tormented by local bullies, quickly befriends the otherworldly Ted, becoming his confidante, and reading the paper to him to save the aging man's failing eyesight. Soon, Bobby learns that Ted possesses supernatural gifts, has a haunted past, and is being pursued by sinister men whose intentions are unclear. Hearts in Atlantis co-stars David Morse, who appeared in the previous King adaptation The Green Mile (1999), as the adult Bobby. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, (more)
Home Alone is the highly successful and beloved family comedy about a young boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family takes off for a vacation in France over the holiday season. Once he realizes they've left him "home alone," he learns to fend for himself and, eventually has to protect his house against two bumbling burglars (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) who are planning to rob every house in Kevin's suburban Chicago neighborhood. Though the film's slapstick ending may be somewhat violent, Culkin's charming presence helped the film become one of the most successful ever at the time of its release. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, (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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, (more)
- 2000
- R
This historical comedy-drama is based on the true story of Joe Gould, a bohemian eccentric who was a fixture in New York's Greenwich Village from his arrival in 1916 to his death in 1964. Gould, who claimed to be a graduate of Harvard, would cadge drinks and subsist on catsup as he regaled patrons of neighborhood saloons with stories, poems, opinions, and his imitation of a seagull. In a 1942 New Yorker profile by journalist Joseph Mitchell, Gould spoke of his life's work, a book entitled An Oral History of Our Times, which he claimed would be eleven times longer than the Bible, contain a variety of overheard conversations from throughout the years, and document the decline of 20th century culture. Mitchell kept tabs on Gould, and tried to introduce him to publishers who might put his work into print, but nothing ever came of it, and it wasn't until Gould's death that Mitchell discovered the surprising truth about his friend. Directed by Stanley Tucci, Joe Gould's Secret stars Tucci as Mitchell and Ian Holm as Gould; Hope Davis, Steve Martin, Susan Sarandon, and Patricia Clarkson highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Holm, Marc Alan Austen, (more)
A convict agrees to go undercover and gather evidence on a notorious crime lord in order to win an early release from prison in this tough, gritty crime drama. Much of the tension develops from the inner conflict of Jimmy Kilmartin (David Caruso), who feels torn between his desire to win freedom for the sake of his family and his belief in a code of honor that sees ratting on others as an unforgivable sin. His misgivings are compounded by fear when he learns that his target is to be the notorious Little Junior (Nicolas Cage), a violent eccentric with a hair-trigger temper. Luckily for the ex-con, Junior takes a shine to Jimmy, welcoming him into his inner circle. While this pleases the investigators, it means further trouble for Jimmy, who would undoubtedly be killed were his deception ever discovered. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Caruso, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
Popular comic and television personality Ellen DeGeneres had her first starring role in a feature film in this black comedy. Martha Alston (DeGeneres) is a thirtysomething single working as a producer for a talk show. Ever since Martha's younger sister got married, her parents have been after her to settle down, but Martha has had little luck finding the right guy. On Valentine's Day, Martha is depressed and drinking at a bar when she meets Whitman Crawford (Bill Pullman), who seems like the perfect man -- he's good looking, sensitive, intelligent, and affectionate. However, when she makes the mistake of telling her new beau that he can be himself around her, she discovers the real Whitman -- he's a horrible poet, he likes awful music, he enjoys shoplifting ("Stolen beer just tastes better!"), and he's a borderline psychotic who doses her with LSD for fun. What's more, his mother (Joan Plowright) and ex-girlfriend (Joan Cusack) hate Martha's guts and don't mind telling her so. So how can Martha convince her friends and family that she wants nothing to do with the man of her dreams? More importantly, how does she convince Whitman? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, (more)
Lawrence Kasdan wrote and directed this comedy about a young psychologist named Mumford (Loren Dean), who arrives in a small town and sets up a practice. Mumford's style is short on analytic mumbo-jumbo and long on practical advice, and he soon finds that he has a long list of satisfied clients in his new home town, including many of the city's most prominent citizens. Mumford's advice also helps love bloom among the city's single residents. However, the city already had a psychologist, Ernest Delbanco (David Paymer), who is quickly losing business to Mumford. So Ernest starts asking questions: who is this Mumford, and just what are his qualifications? Mumford's supporting cast includes Ted Danson, Martin Short, Alfre Woodard, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loren Dean, Hope Davis, (more)
An independent romantic comedy, Next Stop, Wonderland (1998) made headlines at the Sundance Film Festival when it became the object of a bidding war, ultimately won by Miramax Pictures to the tune of $6 million. Hope Davis stars as Erin Castleton, a night-shift nurse who's cruelly dumped by her boyfriend Sean (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a political activist. When her mother Piper (Holland Taylor) places a wildly inaccurate personals ad in the local paper, Erin is at first enraged, but then becomes curious. After she dates a variety of men who are all wrong for her, she meets Andre (Jose Zuniga), a handsome Brazilian music expert who invites her to Sao Paulo. Although Erin likes Andre, her Mr. Right is actually Alan Monteiro (Alan Gelfant), a plumber she's never met, though the two keep crossing paths. Trying to break out of his working class existence, Alan is studying marine biology but is indebted to a local mob boss, who wants him to kidnap a star blowfish from the local aquarium. Actress Taylor, the real-life aunt of co-writer, editor and director Brad Anderson, also appeared in his next film, Happy Accidents (1999). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, (more)
A woman struggles to come to terms with the potentially dangerous legacy of her late father in this drama based on the award-winning stage play by David Auburn. Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a woman in her late twenties who is strongly devoted to her father, Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant and well-known mathematician. While Robert's skill in the world of numbers still appears to be strong, his grip on reality begins to slip away, and as Robert descends into madness, Catherine begins to wonder if she may have inherited her father's mental illness along with his mathematical genius. After Robert's passing, Catherine is confronted by Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), a gifted but zealous student of Robert's who wants to look through the late man's notes in hopes of finding his last great work. While Catherine is hesitant to look too deeply into her father's work for fear of what it might suggest about her own future, she allows Hal to do so, and when one notebook reveals a mathematical proof of potentially historic proportions, it sets off shock waves in more ways than one. Proof also stars Hope Davis as Catherine's well-meaning but shallow sister, who doubts Catherine's ability to take care of herself. Paltrow had previously played Catherine to stellar reviews during the original play's run in London's West End. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, (more)
In this action thriller, a Gulf War veteran is America's only hope for salvation when a group of ex-Soviets threatens to take over. Written and directed by Richard W. Haines, Run for Cover stars Tom Dunne as a hero in a race against time to save the country from the clutches of evil. The film also features appearances by political figures Ed Koch and Rev. Al Sharpton. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Originally developed for the WB network, the hour-long drama series Six Degrees ultimately made its debut courtesy of ABC. In the tradition of the Oscar-winning theatrical feature Crash, the series offered a sextet of diverse Manhattanites whose lives intersected in strange and mysterious ways. The title was, of course, derived from the familiar conceit that everyone on the face of the earth is divided by only six degrees of separation (and no, Kevin Bacon did not appear on the show). Filmed on location in New York, the series' multigenerational ensemble cast included Laura (Hope Davis), a single mother grieving over the death of her war-correspondent husband; Steven (Campbell Scott), a washed-up, formerly successful photographer; Whitney (Bridget Moynahan), a publicist who gives Steven a major professional break and also befriends Laura; Carlos (Jay Hernandez), an idealistic public defender; Damian (Dorian Missick), a limo driver and chronic gambler; and "mystery woman" Mae (Erika Christensen), who while on the run from an unknown pursuer was defended by Carlos on a charge of public indecency, and who, while donning one of her many disguises and adopting one of her aliases, was hired by Laura as a nanny -- and who, inevitably, was somehow connected to the troubled Damian. Six Degrees first aired on September 21, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jay Hernandez, Bridget Moynahan, (more)
Synecdoche, New York marked the directorial debut of iconoclastic, cerebral screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Caden Cotard, an eccentric playwright who lives with artist Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) and their daughter Olive in Schenectady, upstate New York. Prone to neuroses, misgivings and enormous self-doubt, Caden also begins suffering from accelerated physical deterioration - from blood in his stools to disfigured skin. Upon receiving a prestigious MacArthur grant, Caden decides to use the money to concoct one gigantic play as an analogue of his own life; he builds massive sets amid a New York City warehouse, casts others as his friends, family and acquaintances, and casts others to play the ones he’s casting. After Adele whisks Olive off to Europe but demonstrates no sign of returning soon, Caden drifts into a series of relationships with lovers - first with box office employee Hazel (Samantha Morton), who purchases and moves into a house that is perpetually on fire; then with Tammy (Emily Watson), an actress assigned to play Hazel in the theatrical project; and subsequently with others. Unfortunately, the play itself grows so big and unwieldy - and rehearsals go on for so long, taking literally decades - that it becomes unclear if the production itself will ever launch.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, (more)
- 1996
- R
The debut from writer/director Greg Mottola, The Daytrippers follows a Long Island family as they make a disastrous journey into New York City. The impetus is a love letter discovered by suburbanite Eliza (Hope Davis) which seemingly incriminates her publisher husband Louis (Stanley Tucci) in an extramarital affair. To solve the mystery, Eliza, her parents (Anne Meara and Pat McNamara), her oddball sister Jo (Parker Posey) and Jo's boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber) all pile into the family station wagon in a misbegotten attempt to track Louis down. Beginning as a playful, satiric look at family dynamics, The Daytrippers occasionally loses its way, becoming increasingly dark and venomous as it rushes towards the revelations of its final moments. For all of its flaws, however, it's often an engaging debut. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hope Davis, Pat McNamara, (more)
Director Lasse Hallström offers a brisk account of the scam that shook the literary community with this semi-comic biographical drama starring Richard Gere as the man who sold a fraudulent biography of Howard Hughes to publishing giant McGraw Hill. The year was 1971; the Vietnam War was raging and protestors filled the streets. Clifford Irving (Gere) was a struggling author with bold ambitions, and the determination needed to see them through. When Irving's attempt to sell his latest novel to McGraw Hill via his in-house publisher, Andrea Tate (Hope Davis), falls through at the last minute, the frustrated author loudly proclaims that his next novel will be "the book of the century." Upon returning to his wife Edith's (Marcia Gay Harden) makeshift studio, the humiliated author catches a glimpse of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes on a magazine cover. Later, almost jokingly, Irving and his best friend Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina) begin to fantasize about a scenario in which the author convinces his publishers that he has been personally selected by Hughes to pen the billionaire's memoirs. The revenge fantasy becomes a complicated reality, however, when Irving and Suskind approach skeptical McGraw Hill heavy Shelton Fisher (Stanley Tucci) with a series of forged letters presumably written by Hughes himself and offering unwavering support for the project. His credibility continually questioned as the ante is upped at every turn, Irving is forced to maintain the increasingly difficult charade as he strong-arms McGraw Hill to pay "Hughes" an unheard-of one million dollars for the rights to his life story, acquires a the illegally procured documents that will provide the foundation for the book, and works around the clock to meet his publisher's deadline. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Alfred Molina, (more)
