Andrew Lincoln
An aspiring West End actress intent on maintaining her famous mother's legacy finds her dreams suddenly clouded by the warplanes that buzz overhead in this bittersweet war drama from director Julia Taylor-Stanley. Diana (Zoe Tapper) is a London actress who knows deep within that she has what it takes to become a true star of the West End stage. Faced with constant rejection but eternally optimistic that her day will soon come, Diana enters into a passionate love triangle with talented playwright Robin (David Leon) and powerful director Christopher (Andrew Lincoln). Later, when Diane is finally cast in a headlining role, the drums of war begin beating as Hitler's army prepares for their devastating London Blitz. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A handful of couples discuss their romantic and erotic tribulations on a sunny afternoon in this romantic comedy drama. It's a beautiful day in London, and a number of people head out to Hampstead Heath Park to enjoy the weather, though not every couple on hand is as comfortable as the weather might suggest. Julia (Gina McKee) and Gerry (Hugh Bonneville) are having a picnic as part of a blind date, but they don't seem to be enjoying one another's company. Billy (Ewan McGregor) and Brian (Douglas Hodge) are a gay couple at a crossroads -- Billy wants to settle down and adopt a child, but Brian doesn't believe this will stop his partner's chronic infidelity. Iris (Eileen Atkins) and Eddie (Benjamin Whitrow) were an item many years ago, but aren't sure what to make of one another when they meet by chance in the park. Sara (Catherine Tate) and Pete (Adrian Lester) discover how much they care for one another just as they're on the verge of divorce. Jamie (Andrew Lincoln) finds he has some explaining to do when his wife Molly (Holly Aird) catches him ogling a pretty young woman (Eglantine Rembauville) who is inadvertently exposing her underwear. Ludo (Nick Sidi) and Anna (Sophie Okonedo) are a couple whose romance doesn't seem fated to live out the day. And Noel (Tom Hardy) is a lecherous sort who is looking for a woman as interested in sex as he is. Scenes of a Sexual Nature was the first feature film from director Edward Blum; the picture was shot on a shoestring budget, with the actors being paid union scale in exchange for a share of the film's profits. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Sophie Okonedo, (more)
- 2006
Four Jewish women juggle love, sex, new relationships, work and parenthood in this romantic comedy from France. Isa (Michele Laroque) has split with her husband, and is busy looking after their three children while running her business, a beauty salon. While Isa has precious little spare time, she's trying to make room in her life for a British businessman who has struck her fancy. Alice (Valerie Benguigui) is Isa's sister, and has come to envy her sister's single status after a few years with her husband Gilles (Alexandre Astier), who appears to hate personal grooming as much as he loves golf. Alice's misgivings about her marriage grow stronger when she becomes friends with a handsome and charming divorced dad. Lea (Aure Atika) has recently parted ways with her husband, and devotes her days to pampering herself when she isn't taking care of her child. And Nina (Geraldine Nakache) has never been married and is looking for a man to settle down with, but she lacks confidence about her appearance even though she's young and pretty. Comme T'y es Belle (aka Hey Good Looking) was the second feature from director Lisa Azuelos, and was a major box office success in France. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Laroque, Aure Atika, (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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig
Thanks to the wonders of GHB, a young London woman loses all memory of her own rape and her best friend's murder in this two-part British television thriller. Plain-Jane Ros (Eve Best) lives with her party-girl mate, Jo (Stacey Roca). When Jo turns up dead and Ros is found drugged and raped, suspicion naturally falls on Jo's married lover, smug businessman Gerry Henson (Paul McGann). But when Gerry's accommodating wife (Amanda Mealing) provides him with an alibi, police inspector Will Tomlinson (Andrew Lincoln) is outraged -- especially given the feelings he's begun to develop for Ros. Unwilling to let the man she knows to be guilty walk free, Ros pretends to recover her memory and helps send Gerry to prison. Unfortunately, though, an anonymous campaign of harassment soon convinces Ros and Will that not only does somebody know about their deception, but they've helped convict the wrong man. Originally broadcast November 15-16, 2004, on Britain's ITV network, Lie With Me made its stateside bow June 5-6, 2006, on BBC America. Director Susanna White, who previously teamed with Lincoln for the dramedy Teachers, would go on to direct the BBC miniseries Bleak House and Jane Eyre. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
All of London is in love -- or longing to be -- in Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy," Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away (Rodrigo Santoro), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to cash in and get laid -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. A working print of Love Actually premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, (more)
A controversial case threatens to unhinge a single mother and criminal psychologist still recovering from the pain of her ex-husband's infidelity in veteran television director Christopher Menaul's psychological drama. Asked to determine if Julian Latimer (Andrew Lincoln) is guilty of murdering his wife despite the fact that the accused has no memory of the crime, criminal psychologist Grace Hazlett (Niamh Cusack) can't deny the parallels between the challenging case and her husband's stinging betrayal. Her objectivity waning as she dives ever deeper into the case, Grace soon finds that her decision may take more of a toll on her than she had previously anticipated. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Niamh Cusack
- 2002
A pair of professional slackers are confronted by their guardian angels in actor Andrew Rajan's directorial debut, Offending Angels. Forsaking his career in the hustle and bustle of London for a life of leisure, irresponsibility, and the occasional sexual conquest, Baggy's (Rajan) substantial immaturity is dwarfed by that of roommate Sam (Andrew Lincoln), a former department-store security guard who recently lost his job after Baggy used the store to embark on an affair with a married woman. With dashed dreams and commitment issues to spare, the duo is soon confronted by guardian angels Zeke (Shaun Parkes) and Paris (Susannah Harker), formerly a squirrel and a dolphin, respectively. Will Sam and Baggy be able to pull themselves together in time to realize their dreams and pull themselves out of a life of comfortable laziness, or are they destined to spend the rest of their lives in a slacker coma? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susannah Harker, Andrew Lincoln, (more)
A portrait of a cold-blooded young gangster living and loathing in 1960s London, this drama features Malcolm McDowell in a major role in his first British picture in years. McDowell opens the film as the present day Gangster 55, who learns that an old associate, gangster Freddie Mays (David Thewlis), has just been released from prison after serving a 30-year sentence. The story then flashes back to 1968, when the young Gangster 55 (Paul Bettany) makes Mays' acquaintance and subsequently wins his trust by dealing with his enemies from a rival gang. The relationship between the two men is threatened when Mays falls for Karen (Saffron Burrows), a no-nonsense dancer. When 55 learns that Lennie (Jamie Foreman), a rival gang leader, plans to ambush Mays and Karen one night, he pits the two gangs against one another so that he can emerge as Gangster No. 1. The film was directed by Paul McGuigan, who previously examined the crusty underbelly of British society with his screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh's The Acid House (1998). ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis, (more)
Along a dark country road in Cumberland, England, a ghoulish woman in white steps from the shadows to confront a foot traveler, Walter Hartright (Andrew Lincoln), bound for Limmeridge House three miles off. She asks senseless questions: "You don't suspect me of wrong, do you, Sir? Why do you suspect me of wrong?" Hartright assures her he suspects her of no wrong, but she gibbers on. When a carriage happens by, the woman dissolves into the darkness and Hartright accepts the offer of a ride the rest of the way to Limmeridge House, a mansion where eccentric esquire Frederick Fairlie (Ian Richardson) has arranged for Hartright to tutor his nieces -- half-sisters Marian and Laura Fairlie -- in the art of drawing. Soon, Hartright falls in love with Laura, a wealthy heiress. Strangely, she is the near mirror image of the woman in white. Laura, in turn, falls in love with him. Marian, who wants only the best for Laura, approves of the romance. Unfortunately, Hartright loses his job when falsely accused of bad conduct. Before he leaves Limmeridge House, he warns Laura that she and her sister are in grave danger. Deeply disappointed in him, Laura ignores his caveat and fulfills a pledge to marry Sir Percival Gylde (James Wilby). He seems amiable and even invites Marian to live with him and Laura after the wedding. But when Laura returns from the honeymoon, she is melancholy and morose, hardly speaking a word to Marian. Glyde and a sinister visitor named Count Fosco (Simon Callow) are the reasons. Apparently, they are plotting to seize her inheritance using the tidiest of stratagems: murder. Meanwhile, dark secrets unravel involving Glyde's family background and the mysterious woman in white, and Hartright returns in an attempt to save the sisters and exorcise the evil possessing Limmeridge House. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tara Fitzgerald, James Wilby, (more)
- 1995
- R
In Britain, when bored street punks go on violent destructive sprees late at night through local yards and neighborhoods it is called a "Boston kickout." Combining elements of humor, gritty realism, and drama, this youthful film, set in dismal Stevenage, a hastily built post-war town where unemployment and despair runs rampant and the youth, bored and without hope for the future, engage in violent crime and drug use. Under these conditions, four teenage friends struggle to somehow make their way to manhood and a better future. Much of the story centers on Phil, a young man living with his father Ray and the grim memory of his mother's 1982 suicide in London. It was young Phil who found her hanging from a rope at the top of the stairs. Soon afterward, to escape the awful memory, Ray moved them to the suburb. That was years ago and now Phil hangs out with his best mate Ted and tries to figure out what to do with his life. Ted tires of their aimless, empty lives, rebels and leaves after a violent incident. Lonely Phil begins hanging out with Matt and Steve. Matt has recently married and doesn't seem to mind the stultifying life in Stevenage while Steve is emotionally unstable and ready to fall apart. Before the arrival of Shona, his lovely Irish cousin, Phil contemplates what he sees as his two life options, college with its hollow promise of a job, or a life of crime. Shona thinks he has talent as a photographer and encourages him as they embark upon a brief romantic fling. Just when Phil begins to dream of a better life, his bereaved father attempts to kill himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Simm, Emer McCourt, (more)
