Minnie Driver

Philippe Caland directs and stars in this karmic drama about a hip, new age clothing designer from Lebanon who attempts to engineer redemption after realizing that a mistake from his past may have destroyed his entire future. Amer Atrash (Caland) is a first generation immigrant who's perpetually on the verge of the American Dream. But despite his repeated attempts to achieve financial success, it seems that complications always arise at the eleventh hour that set him directly back to square one. Now, after years of struggling, Amer is set to debut a cutting edge clothing line that could put him on top of the world. When the rug is pulled out from under Amer's feet once again, his efforts to hustle his way through the predicament ultimately amount to naught. Later, when Amer's wife Sherry (Virginia Madsen) admits that she's been feeling neglected and needs time to decide whether it's worth working to save their marriage, the dejected designer tells her a secret that he's never revealed to another living soul. Fifteen years earlier, Amer was involved in an accident that left a man named Phillip Blackman (Forest Whitaker) wheelchair bound. Could it be that all of Amer's current life problems somehow stem back to that one fateful night? Upon hearing Amer's story, Sherry encourages her husband to seek out Phillip and make amends. Later, after locating Phillip's beautiful wife Kitty (Minnie Driver), Amer begs for forgiveness by citing all the bad things that have happened to him since the accident. When Phillip and Amer set out on a journey designed to alter Amer's current state of mind and finally bring him nearer to enlightenment, the lives of both men are profoundly changed in ways that neither could have ever anticipated. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Virgin of Juarez stars Minnie Driver as a reporter investigating numerous deaths in the border town of the title. During the course of her work, she befriends a young woman named Mariela who claims to have survived a vicious attack by the assailant. Since the attack, she believes she has visions of the Virgin Mary. When she begins talking about this, many desperate people begin to look to her as a spiritual leader. As the small town becomes engulfed in this religious hysteria, the reporter has a more and more difficult time completing her assignment. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular stage musicals in the history of Broadway and London's West End makes its long-awaited arrival on the motion-picture screen in this lavish adaptation directed by Joel Schumacher. Christine (Emmy Rossum) is a beautiful and gifted young woman who longs to join the company of the Paris Opera House. During rehearsals for one of the opera's grand productions, a backdrop falls and crashes to the floor, nearly crushing leading lady Carlotta (Minnie Driver). When several members of the company suggest this could be the work of the "Phantom of the Opera," a spectral presence said to haunt the building, Carlotta drops out of the show, and the fates permit Christine to step in as her replacement. Christine's performance is a triumph, and on opening night she becomes reacquainted with Raoul (Patrick Wilson), a former childhood friend who is now a wealthy and well-known nobleman. Christine soon finds herself smitten with the handsome Raoul, but the same evening she makes a startling discovery -- the story of the Phantom is not just a legend. A brilliant but horribly disfigured composer (Gerard Butler) lives deep in the depths of the opera house, and taken with the beauty of Christine's voice, he abducts her and brings her to his lair, where he offers to help her perfect her talents, offering to write an opera especially for her. As the terrified Christine is comforted by Raoul, the two fall in love, but the phantom sees her affection for Raoul as a tremendous betrayal, and the jealous phantom nearly kills Christine as he nearly killed Carlotta. When the phantom emerges to present the opera's management with the piece he has written for Christine, the singer is asked to put her life on the line in an effort to capture the mad genius once and for all. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Gaston Leroux's novel, which had already enjoyed several stage and screen adaptations in the past, opened in London in 1986 and has been a popular favorite around the world ever since; the show was still running in New York and London when the film version premiered in late 2004. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Not a sequel to 1998's Hope Floats, Hope Springs is a romantic comedy based on the 2001 novel New Cardiff, the first new book in over 20 years by Charles Webb, author of The Graduate. Directed and written for the screen by Mark Herman (Brassed Off), the film stars Colin Firth as lovelorn British artist Colin Ware. After being left by his fiancée Vera (Minnie Driver), Colin takes to sulking about in a small Vermont hotel run by Joanie Fisher (Mary Steenburgen). When Joanie becomes aware of Colin's broken heart, she decides to match him up with a local woman named Mandy (Heather Graham). But just as romance begins to ensue between Colin and Mandy, Vera suddenly pops back into the picture with intentions of rekindling her relationship with Colin. Oliver Platt heads up the supporting cast that also includes Frank Collison and Chad Faust. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Greed and obsession fuel a deadly showdown in this thriller. When Trina (Minnie Driver) was a girl, her mother and father were determined to find a fortune in diamonds that had supposedly been buried in the desert in Mexico many years before. Now that her parents have passed on, Trina has inherited their obsession, and continues to search for the stones against the advice of Frank (Stuart Wilson), a geologist and longtime friend of the family. But Trina is not about to give up, and when she discovers that a pair of escaped convicts (James Spader and Josh Brolin) have happened upon the diamonds, she is grimly determined to steal the jewels from the fugitives. Incidentally, Slow Burn features characters named Frank Norris and Paulina McTeague, apparent references to Erich Von Stroheim's Greed, which also deals with thieves trying to outwit each other in the desert, and was based on the novel McTeague by Frank Norris.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Academy Award-winning actress Sally Field makes her debut as a director of a theatrical feature with this gently satiric comedy. Mona Hibbard (Minnie Driver) is a woman from a small town in Illinois who never enjoyed much of a rapport with her parents. Looking for approval and validation, Mona began entering local beauty pageants in her early teens; now in her early 20's, Mona is still grimly determined to one day walk away a winner as she finds herself in the early innings of the Miss American Miss competition, organized by Verna Chickle (Kathleen Turner). Somewhere along the way, Mona became a single mother; determined not to let this stand in the way of a pageant victory, Mona has persuaded her best friend Ruby (Joey Lauren Adams) to raise her daughter Vanessa (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) as her own. However, Vanessa seems to have sensed that something is wrong; she feels a much greater bond with Mona than her "mother," and (like nearly everyone else), she's noticed that she looks a lot more like Mona than Ruby. Beautiful also features Kathleen Robertson, Bridgette Wilson, and Leslie Stefanson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Barbara Streisand produces this documentary look at four early cinematic female innovators -- Alice Guy, Lois Weber, Frances Marion, and Dorothy Arzner -- narrated by Shirley MacLaine, Susan Sarandon, Hilary Swank, and Minnie Driver, respectively. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Author Edgar Rice Burroughs once suggested that animation would be the ideal medium to bring his Tarzan to the screen, and 81 years after the first film about the famous ape-man, Disney brings us the first full-length animated film starring the King of the Jungle. After a disaster at sea causes their ship to sink off the coast of Africa, a British couple finds their way to shore with their infant son in tow. However, the parents are killed by a leopard, leaving the baby to fend for himself. The child is discovered by a gorilla named Kala (voice of Glenn Close), mate of Kerchak (voice of Lance Henriksen), the leader of the tribe of apes. While Kerchak is taken aback by the foundling and would just as soon leave him in the jungle, Kala's maternal nature is stirred. Kala and Kerchak take the baby with them, naming him Tarzan and raising him among their own. Although Tarzan (voice of Tony Goldwyn) grows up painfully aware that he's different from the apes, he comes to love and respect the gorillas and learns their ways, while they accept him into their tribe as he grows to adulthood. However, Tarzan's idyllic life in the jungle is changed forever by the arrival of Professor Porter (voice of Nigel Hawthorne), his daughter Jane (voice of Minnie Driver), and their guide, a hunter named Clayton (voice of Brian Blessed). The Professor and Jane have arrived in Africa to study the wildlife in its natural habitat, although Clayton would prefer to bag as many trophies as he can. When the explorers encounter Tarzan, they at first think they've discovered the missing link, although soon realize that he's as human as they are. Tarzan finds himself torn between his desire to be with his own kind (and the new, unfamiliar emotions that he feels for Jane) and his loyalties to the gorilla family that raised him -- especially since Clayton sees the apes not as friends but as prey. Dominated by fast-paced jungle action sequences, Tarzan also features voices by Rosie O'Donnell and Wayne Knight, as well as new songs by Phil Collins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Minnie Driver, her sister Kate Driver, and Nigel Hawthorne teamed as the executive producers of this $2.5 million romantic comedy about a mismatched couple. Writer-director John Huddles describes it as "a modern-day fable about what happens when your worldly ambition collides with the love of your life." At Satchem Farm in California's Simi Valley, an expatriate family of transplanted Brits includes maxim-mouthing Cullen (Hawthorne) and ambitious but bankrupt Ross (Rufus Sewell), a failed entrepreneur who plans to sell off his family's final remaining asset, their famed wine collection, in order to purchase an obsolete manganese mine. The manic Ross is engaged to his opposite, cool businesswoman Kendal (Minnie Driver), who succeeds where Ross fails. Kendal kindles her relationship with Ross -- while carrying the torch for someone else. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Most people have trouble deciding what to say when they're asked what they've been doing with their lives at a High School reunion, but Martin Blank (as played by John Cusack) has a different problem than most -- he has to make his career sound less interesting than it actually is. Martin is a former CIA operative who is now a freelance hit man, making good money for killing people he doesn't know. However, Martin's game has been a bit off lately; he's no longer happy in his work, and both his secretary Marcella (Joan Cusack) and his psychiatrist, Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin), who is more than a bit nervous about having a hired assassin as a patient, think that Martin should accept an offered assignment in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, his old home town, which would conveniently coincide with his ten year high school reunion. While in Grosse Pointe, Martin discovers that his high school sweetheart, Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver), is still living in town, and still holds a grudge against him for standing her up on prom night. While Martin tries to sort out his past and tie up loose ends with Debi (whom he still loves), he discovers someone in Grosse Pointe is out to kill him; he's also confronted by the highly unstable Mr. Grocer (Dan Aykroyd), a fellow hit man who wants Martin to join forces with him and form a union and isn't keen on taking no for an answer. Grosse Pointe Blank was a pet project for star John Cusack, who co-wrote the screenplay and also served as co-producer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This $20 million animated adventure/fantasy quickly became the highest grossing Japanese film in Japanese film history (making $150 million in Japan during its first seven months). Set in the 14th century, the ecology-themed epic was directed by Hayao Miyazaki whose previous films were acquired by Disney for U.S. distribution plus other territories. Princess Mononoke depicts a mystical battle between Animal Gods of the forest and humans during Japan's Muromachi Period. Young Ashitaka receives a fatal infection after a demonic wild boar attacks his northern village. Seeking a cure, he sets out to locate the deer-like god Shishigami. Along the way, he sees the rape of the Earth by a mining village. The constant plundering by the village has brought the wrath of the Wolf God, Moro, who attacks the village along with San, a human who was raised by the wolf god. She communicates with the nature spirits -- which is why she is called Princess Mononoke ("spirits of things"). Ashitaka wants these opposing forces to co-exist, and he hopes to bring peace between San and the ironworks owner, Lady Eboshi. However, he is thwarted as higher powers, intent on killing the Shishigama, intrude, and a battle erupts over the future of all nature. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide