Ellen Dinerman Little Movies
Charles Martin Smith's romantic adventure film The Snow Walker concerns a brave risk-taking pilot (Barry Pepper) and an Inuit woman in frail health who is his passenger. When the pair experience a plane crash, each is forced to learn from and help the other in order to survive the variety of obstacles the harsh landscape throws in their path. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Pepper, Annabella Piugattuk, (more)
- 2003
- NR
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British filmmaker John Irvin directs the musical comedy drama The Boys From County Clare. Set in the late '60s, the story involves a pair of rival brothers reuniting for the All-Ireland Traditional Music Competition in County Clare, Ireland. As defending champion John Joe (Bernard Hill) gets his local Celtic band ready to compete, his estranged brother, Jimmy (Colm Meaney), blows into town from Liverpool with his own band. John Joe's pianist, Maisie (Charlotte Bradley), isn't happy to see Jimmy, who had left her years ago to raise their daughter, Anne, all by herself. Now the town's star fiddle player, Anne (Andrea Corr of the Irish pop group the Corrs) goes against her mother's wishes in order to seek romance with Jimmy's flute player Teddy (Shaun Evans). The Boys From County Clare was shown at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colm Meaney, Bernard Hill, (more)
One of William Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Titus Andronicus was staged in New York by award-winning theatrical director Julie Taymor in an acclaimed 1995 production, before her widely praised Broadway version of The Lion King. Taymor revisits that production for her first motion picture, with the addition of a star-studded cast. Roman General Titus Andronicus (Anthony Hopkins) has returned from defeating the Goths in a bloody battle, but the victory has left him with mixed feelings, as the war took the lives of several of his sons. Titus is reminded by his first-born son Lucius (Angus Macfadyen) that their faith demands the sacrifice of an enemy prisoner as a gift to the gods for their victory. Titus chooses the eldest son of Tamora (Jessica Lange), the Queen of the Goths, who has since been taken hostage by Titus's troops. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but Titus goes ahead with the sacrifice. She then becomes the lover of the new emperor of Rome, Saturninus (Alan Cumming), a weak-willed and corrupt man. Tamora uses her connection to the throne for her own ends: in retaliation for the death of her son, Tamora and her surviving sons, Chiron (Jonathan Rhys Myers) and Demetrius (Matthew Rhys), brutally rape Titus's beloved daughter, Lavinia (Laura Fraser). This act sets in motion an ever-tightening spiral of revenge and retaliation that leaves few of the participants unscathed. The supporting cast includes Colm Feore as Marcus, Harry Lennix as Aaron, and James Frain as Bassianus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, (more)
Richard Loncraine takes Shakespeare's classic tale of treachery, Richard III, and transplants it to the 1930s. Ian McKellen is Richard who, as the film opens, begins plotting against his brother Edward, who has just ascended to the throne after a bloody civil war. Richard begins by seducing and wedding Lady Anne (Kristin Scott Thomas), whom he made a widow during the war. With the help of some loyal henchmen, Richard succeeds in murdering his older brother Clarence (Nigel Hawthorne), which so upsets Edward that he dies. Eventually, the crown falls to the young Prince of Wales (Marc Williamson). Richard is assigned to be the young king's protector, but instead, he has the boy and his brother jailed in the Tower of London. Richard seizes control over the country, but his ruthless quest for power eventually makes him powerful enemies, led by Henry Richman (Dominic West), who attempt to stop him. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, (more)
