Arija Bareikis Movies

Emmy Award-winners John Wells, Ann Biderman, and Chris Chulack team to produce this gritty, fast-paced police drama that takes viewers into the lives of cops, criminals, their victims, and their families. Veteran Los Angeles cop John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) has been assigned the task of training ambitious rookie Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie), who isn't sure he has what it takes to become a police officer after witnessing his superior's no-nonsense approach to the job. Meanwhile, Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King) takes care of her elderly mother while she's not patrolling the streets with her unhappily married partner Detective Russell Clarke (Tom Everett Scott), and Detective Daniel "Sal" Salinger (Michael McGrady) presides over gang detectives Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) and Nate Moretta (Kevin Alejandro) while patrol officer Chickie Brown (Arija Bareikis) dreams of becoming the first woman to join the SWAT team. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, and Marisa Tomei star in director Sidney Lumet's thriller concerning two brothers who hatch a plan to rob their parent's jewelry store. When the job goes awry, the entire family is set on a collision course with tragedy. Andy (Hoffman) is an overextended broker in desperate need of some cash. His brother, Hank (Hawke), isn't much better off, so when Andy hatches a plan to rob their parent's modest jewelry store, it seems like a foolproof way to make a quick buck. But Andy's trophy wife, Gina (Tomei), is secretly sleeping with libidinous younger brother Hank, and when the robbery proves a complete disaster it isn't long before loyalties start to shift. Now Andy and Hank's father, Charles (Finney), is determined to make the unidentified robbers pay for their crime. What's a father to do when he discovers that the ones he loves have become his worst enemies? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Adapted from the novel by Robert Cormier, this psychological crime drama tells the tense story of an obsessed police lieutenant who's on the hunt for a dangerous young killer. The first thing most people notice about handsome high school student Eric Komenko (Jon Foster) is his easy charm. But that charm doesn't run deep, because a closer look reveals a cold-blooded killer. When Eric's devoutly religious mother discovers that her son has been sleeping around, the teen responds to her maternal scolding by viciously slaughtering both she and his father. The man assigned to Eric's case, Lt. Cristofuoro (Russell Crowe), believes that the young psychopath will kill again if given the opportunity. Lt. Cristofuoro knows that Eric has had a rough life, but he's determined to catch him before his murderous impulses once again take over. As Eric hits the road to Syracuse in search of a girl he met in juvenile detention, he is surprised to find Lori Cranston hiding in his truck. A tragic victim of sexual abuse, Lori knows what Eric is capable of, yet remains steadfast in her devotion to him. The crueler Eric is to Lori, the more she desires him. Later, as Lt. Cristofuoro closes in on the pair, Lori embraces her fate as Eric's next victim, and gives herself to him without struggle. But Eric is more interested in the girl from juvenile detention than he is with Lori. Little does the young killer realize that he's walking straight into a carefully set trap. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Addison (Kate Walsh) is caught in the middle when her old friend Esme Sorrento (Janet Rotblatt) wants to have her uterus removed to prevent cancer, while Esme's husband Joe (Shelley Berman) is dead set against the operation. Elsewhere, George (T.R. Knight) is saddled with another eccentric patient, this one a suicidal window washer (Geoffrey Rivas); try though she might, Meredith can't avoid running into Derek (Patrick Dempsey); and Cristina (Sandra Oh) prepares for an important date with Burke (Isaiah Washington). The episode's pivotal moment occurs when Dr. Bailey discovers why she has been so unusually lethargic (a plot twist dictated by actual events in the life of actress Chandra Wilson, who plays Bailey). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While Woody Allen has long fused comedy and drama in his films, he embraces the two styles in a new and unusual way in this feature. Sy (Wallace Shawn) is enjoying dinner with some friends when they begin debating the nature of the tragic and the humorous. Sy, observing that a very fine line separates the two, decides to demonstrate this notion by showing how the same essential story can be either funny or sad depending on the way certain elements are handled; for the rest of the film, we jump back and forth between two versions of the story of Melinda (Radha Mitchell), a young woman with some serious problems in her life. In the tragic version, Melinda crashes a dinner party thrown by old friends Laurel (Chloë Sevigny) and Lee (Jonny Lee Miller). When she arrives, Melinda is distraught and under the influence of pills and alcohol, much to the annoyance of Lee, an actor hoping to impress a producer who is one of his guests. After a bad breakup with her husband, Melinda lost custody of her children and came to New York City, where she became involved with Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a handsome and well-mannered composer whose promises to her proved to be worthless. Meanwhile, on the funny side of town, Melinda shows up dazed and confused at the home of Susan (Amanda Peet) and Hobie (Will Ferrell), who are in the midst of a dinner party. Learning about the sad state of Melinda's love life after divorcing her husband and losing custody of her children, Susan decides to play Cupid and fix her friend up with a well-to-do dentist. However, neither Susan nor Melinda are aware that there is another man deeply interested in the troubled divorcée -- Hobie. Melinda and Melinda also features Josh Brolin, Vinessa Shaw, and noted theatrical director Gene Saks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Originally titled Emma Brody, the weekly 60-minute drama series American Embassy was intended to be the "diplomatic" version of Fox's Ally McBeal, but the events of September 11, 2001 changed all that. Arija Bareikis starred as Emma Brody, a young Toledo woman who had entered diplomatic service to get over an unhappy romance. Assigned to be vice-counsel at the U.S. Embassy in London, the inexperienced Emma fell prey to the autocratic whims of her boss, Elque Polk (Jonathan Adams), who demonstrated his lack of confidence in the girl by assigning her cases that apparently no one else wanted. The heroine could take some solace in her friendships with mercurial CIA operative Doug Roach (David Cubitt) and her cross-dressing neighbor Gary Furbush (Michael Cerveris). The first episode, which aired over Fox on March 11, 2002, ended with a terrorist attack, indicating that the rest of American Embassy would be anything but a lighthearted lark. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nine years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a small town in the Pacific Northwest still struggles with the troubling legacy of U.S. policies against Asian-Americans. In December 1950, just off the shores of San Piedro Island in Washington, a Japanese-American man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) stands accused of murder after his close friend Carl Heine (Eric Thal) is found drowned in icy waters. As the trial gets under way, with Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) prosecuting Kazuo and Nels Gudmundsson (Max Von Sydow) defending him, reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) covers the proceedings for the local newspaper. It's difficult for Ishmael to view the trial objectively, as his first love was a Japanese-American girl named Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), who later married Kazuo. Now, Ishmael has discovered that, when the Japanese-American residents of San Piedro Island were sent to internment camps during World War II, Carl's mother used their incarceration to scuttle a land purchase by Kazuo's family. This could suggest a motive for murder, but Ishmael is reluctant to step forward with the story. Snow Falling on Cedars was based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, adapted for the screen by Ron Bass and writer/director Scott Hicks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Former documentary filmmaker Rocky Collins made his feature directorial debut with this dark comedy-drama about suburban adultery. After schoolteacher Barry Grogan (Neil Maffin) and first-grade teacher Julie Hammer (Christy Baron) pull off a covert sexual liaison despite possible discovery by nearby students and staff, they go for another risky quickie in a station wagon parked by the school. Julie is married to deputy district attorney Max (Harry O'Reilly), who's hoping to be elected D.A. Barry, with two children, is married to Dierdre (Karen Young), and when he tells her about his affair, she kicks him out of the house. When Julie tells Max, he wants to stay together to work it out. Julie agrees to stay for three months, but nevertheless continues to visit Barry, who's staying at a motel. Max loses the election, and fraud charges put him in jail. During Thanksgiving dinner, Max tells Julie's parents about Julie's way of life, and other emotional twists follow in this film influenced, according to Collins, by Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life (1959), Max Ophuls' Caught (1948), and Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life (1956). Shown at the 1998 LA Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A family is torn between their need to air out their dirty laundry and their habit of sweeping things under the rug in this emotional drama. Hal (Roy Scheider) and Lena (Blythe Danner) are a successful but emotionally frosty New England couple whose four adult children are coming home for Thanksgiving. Strapping Jake (Michael Vartan) brings along his new girlfriend Margaret (Hope Davis), but while her affection for him is obvious, he's not sure how he feels about her. Mia (Julianne Moore), an alternately reserved and sexually ravenous art gallery worker, also brings her current lover, the nervous and unstable Elliot (Brian Kerwin). Leigh (Laurel Holloman) seems happier and better adjusted than her siblings, but she still hasn't resolved her long-standing rivalry with Mia. And Warren (Noah Wyle), who hasn't seen his parents for three years, has a bitter grudge against his father and hasn't been able to get his former girlfriend Daphne (Arija Bareikis) out of his mind. Co-star Noah Wyle also served as associate producer. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi