Jayne Eastwood Movies

Rising business executive Jake Peterson (Tim Matheson) is given a make-or-break assignment when he is sent to a small town for the purpose of severely downsizing the local tractor factory. Upon his arrival, Jake is mistaken by the townsfolk as the man sent to save rather than destroy their community, and is treated as such, much to his discomfort. Making his task even more difficult is Jake's blossoming romance with factory employee Emma Murphy (Melissa Gilbert), whose daughter Noelle (Michelle Trachtenberg) regards our hero as Santa Claus Incarnate. Made for the CBS TV network (and filmed under the title A Holiday for Love, Christmas in My Hometown premiered December 10, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After promising a rock star he would find a particular guitar-maker to procure his valuable products, a musician takes a road trip in search of the legend. On his way, he meets various people who have--at one time or another-- been involved with the elusive guru. After he finally meets the man, he realizes that there is much more to one's art than financial reward. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Cold Comfort is an award-winning Canadian-made psychodrama about a psychotic father who kidnaps a man to keep his teen-aged daughter company. Stephen (Paul Gross), a handsome traveling salesman, is Floyd's (Maury Chaykin) birthday gift to his daughter Dolores (Margaret Langrick). Dolores and Stephen become increasingly attached and Stephen agrees to help Dolores escape from her father, to whom she is emotionally bound. When Dolores and Stephen try to escape, Floyd catches them and chains Stephen to a wall. Only Dolores can rescue him. Cold Comfort is grim, slow, and certainly not for everyone, but for those who appreciate intricate psychodrama, Cold Comfort is well worth viewing. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

In 1988, Marlene Moore, the first woman to be designated a "dangerous offender" by Canada's legal system -- even though she had never committed a serious crime -- killed herself in a Kingston, Ontario federal woman's prison. The Canadian TV movie seeks to explain the circumstances that brought the unfortunate Moore to this tragic turn of events. As played by Brooke Johnson, Marlene is shown to be an awkward, withdrawn young girl, cruelly maligned and sexually abused by family and peers alike, and never afforded the moral support or mental-health treatment she deserved. Under these circumstances, Marlene's subsequent self-destructive, sociopathic behavior seems almost predestined, and her many years behind bars for various minor crimes a logical extension of her miserable upbringing. The climactic efforts by her dedicated lawyer to prevent Marlene from being entombed in prison for an indefinite term are heartrending, and Moore manages to evoke audience sympathy almost in spite of herself by the final fade-out. The film earned two Gemini Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Emmies) for both Brooke Johnsonand supporting actress Jayne Eastwood (as Marlene's mother). Originally telecast by the CBC, Dangerous Offender was first seen in America via the Lifetime network on November 7, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aspiring TV journalist Sally McCormick (Suzanne Somers) can't get anyone to hire her--and the reason, she concludes, is that she is simply too chubby for the small screen. Although her boyfriend Andrew Burns (William Katt) tells her that eventually her talent will be judged separate from her weight, Sally would give anything to be thin; in fact, she would even sell her soul. Enter Seymour Kecker (Dabney Coleman), a somewhat diabolical spokesman for a popular weight-loss product. Entering into the standard Faustlike deal with Seymour, portly Sally becomes a sylphlike "Size Six" literally overnight, and before long she is anchoring the news at top-rated WPKV-TV. Of course, there's a price to be paid for this success--and the devilish Seymour intends to be paid in full! Produced for the Lifetime cable network, Devil's Food debuted September 2, 1996, originally shown in tandem with Devil's Diet, a documentary about the famous "full-figured" women of history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this slapstick chase-adventure, some unlikely heroes try to outwit each other for possession of a huge stash of cash hidden on the train they are all riding together. The comedy is a little uneven here or at least not to everyone's taste, and the pace is fast-forward frantic. Josef (Ed Lauter) and Georgiana (Pamela Stephenson) manage to break into her father's estate and swipe $5 million in cash from the safe, with plans to spirit the money across country on a train. Meanwhile, Michael (Michael O'Keefe) is a con man being chased by irate women on a roller derby team who have reason to be angry with him. He zips into a second-hand clothing store and dons the disguise of an army uniform, hoping to board a train for New York unnoticed. But when an officer gets suspicious at the station, Michael retorts that he is escorting a nearby coffin -- a coffin that actually contains the stolen $5 mil. The thieves are also nearby, but for reasons of their own, they go along with Michael's charade. Along for the ride are a neurotic woman (Beverly D'Angelo), an eccentric train conductor (David Wayne), a stowaway Vietnam defector, a blond woman of the underworld, a nymphomaniac, and briefly, a crafty con man (Louis Gosset Jr.). From that point onward, episodic vignettes are tossed here and there as the train moves ever closer to New York, and the protagonists try to outmaneuver each other for the money. Viewers may note that along for his fourth cinematic ride is Jim Carrey in a bit part. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A young mother and her daughter end up on the streets in this grim made-for-television movie. Mare Winningham stars as Theresa Johnson, a young mother whose life falls apart when she finds herself suddenly single, unemployed and homeless. With nowhere to turn, Theresa and her daughter Hillary (Grace Johnston) drift through the social system, wandering from shelter to shelter with little hope for the future. Gripping in its portrayal of the cycle of poverty, the film offers no simple solutions -- much like real life. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Sean Astin stars as the title character in this creepy made-for-cable adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut classic. Set in a future America, where a small, elite group controls the masses, teen Harrison Bergeron is chosen to lead a movement that promotes mediocrity. Christopher Plummer stars as John Klaxon, the mastermind behind the attempt to uniformly dumb-down Americans. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Retired from rock 'n roll, ex-musician Joe is busy preparing for his upcoming wedding to the conservative daughter of a wealthy demolitions expert, in the full expectation of being trained in the family business. His dreams are shattered when he is kidnapped by a leather-clad performance artist who is upset that the boy's soon-to-be father-in-law is evicting her from her groovy loft apartment. She chains him to a huge metal ball, claiming that it is a mine, and holds him hostage. Since she is a "performance artist," it's difficult at first to determine whether she is serious or not. In time, it becomes clear that, demented or not, she is a more suitable spouse for the hapless musician than his fiancee. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

One woman's rocky road to the altar gets played for laughs in this comedy, adapted from the one-woman off-Broadway show written by and starring Nia Vardalos. Toula (Vardalos) is a Greek-American woman who is in her early thirties and single, with no immediate prospects of changing that status any time soon. This bothers Toula a bit, but not half as much as it distresses her mother (Lainie Kazan) and father (Michael Constantine), who want to send her to Greece in hopes of finding a husband in the old country. Toula isn't interested in leaving the country to find a man, but since she works in the family business -- a Greek restaurant in Chicago called Dancing Zorba's -- she has to hear about it whether she likes it or not. One day, after seeing a handsome stranger in the restaurant and not having the courage to talk to him, Toula decides she needs a bit of self-improvement. Despite her dad's misgivings, Toula signs up for a night-school class studying computers, trades in her glasses for contact lenses, gets a different job at a travel agency, and spruces herself up with a new look and a new attitude. To her very pleasant surprise, she once again encounters the handsome stranger, who soon asks her out on a date. Schoolteacher Ian Miller (John Corbett) is seemingly perfect -- he's tall, handsome, smart, good-natured, and soon in love with Toula -- except for two little things: he's not Greek, and he's a vegetarian, both of which horrify Toula's family. When Ian pops the question (and Toula says yes), the bride-to-be has to negotiate a reasonably peaceful meeting between Ian's upper-class parents and her own working-class extended family. There's also the matter of the wedding, which Toula's mother is planning around the notion that quantity IS quality. My Big Fat Greek Wedding also features Ian Gomez (Vardalos' real-life husband), Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone (from the pop group *NSYNC). Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson helped produce the film through the auspices of their production company, Playtone. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A priest tries to help a young prostitute escape the life of sex and drugs in this exploitation drama. Father Jack (Chuck Shamata) tries to help 14-year-old Lindsay (Heather Kjollesdal) get off the streets to save her young life. Monsignor O'Brien (Art Carney) becomes concerned when Jack seems to be spending too much time trying to save the girl he believes belongs in a shelter. Lindsay left home after suffering from an incestuous relationship with her father, but now she turns tricks for her sleazy boyfriend Lenny (Daniel MacIvor). Jack hopes to intervene before the young teen ends up dead. Contains nudity and profanity. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this socially conscious drama, a TV journalist begins investigating a large factory that has been threatening the health of the children who live in the town's poorest, most polluted section. Because of his investigation, he and his family are threatened by company thugs. He gets no help from his TV station as they are loathe to tangle with big business. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide