Mili Avital Movies
- 2007
A melancholy Israeli flight attendant finds new meaning in life on her quest to reunite a six year-old Chinese boy nicknamed Noodle with his missing mother. Miri (Mili Avital) is a two-time war widow who has long since lost her lust for life and spends most days simply going through the motions. Miri lives with her sister Gila (Anat Waxman), who is currently wrestling with the troublesome prospect of ending her marriage to her husband Izzy (Alon Aboutboul). One day, upon returning home from work, Miri is recruited by the family's Chinese housekeeper (Vicky Lyn) to watch her young son as she runs an important errand. When the housekeeper mysteriously fails to return, however, Miri and her trusty airline coworkers make it their mission on life to reunite mother and son though whatever means possible. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mili Avital, Boaqi Chen, (more)
An old-fashioned Jewish father vows to bring his stubborn family together after being slipped a dose of ecstasy during the annual Passover celebration in director Salvador Litvak's psychedelic Seder comedy. Family patriarch Ira Stuckman (Michael Lerner) has taken a few tips from his hard-nosed father, Arthur (Jack Klugman), when it comes to matters of the family. A strict disciplinarian with little tolerance for tomfoolery, stubborn Ira is insistent that the whole family come together for the Seder feast despite their lingering disagreements. When Ira's son, Zeke (Ben Feldman), drops a hit of ecstasy into his father's meal in hopes of opening the old man's eyes up to a "new perspective," the once curmudgeonly father turns suddenly touchy-feely before insisting upon on ushering in a new era of forgiveness among the notoriously disagreeable clan. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Lerner, Lesley Ann Warren, (more)
For his first film since 1998's Twilight, acclaimed director Robert Benton helmed this tense drama written by Fatal Attraction co-scribe Nicholas Meyer and based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. Set in the late '90s at the height of the Clinton sex-scandal, The Human Stain stars Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk, a respected professor at a New England college who suddenly finds his life unraveling after a comment he makes about some African-American students is misinterpreted as a racial slur. As the scandal heats up, Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), a writer researching a biography of Silk, begins to dig deeper and deeper into Silk's life. Eventually, matters are made worse when an affair with a young married janitor named Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman) is exposed. But amid the controversy, Silk must struggle to keep his greatest secret, a secret he's held for the majority of his life, from becoming public. Ed Harris, who previously worked with Benton in 1984's Places in the Heart, also stars. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, (more)
Uprising is based on the true story of the Jewish Fighting Organization, a courageous band of youthful Polish guerrillas and freedom fighters who refused to knuckle under to the Nazis during World War II. Led by schoolteacher Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria), the organization comes into being as the Warsaw Jewish ghetto is being systemically decimated and shipped off to the Treblinka death camp by the German occupational forces. From April 19 to May 16, 1943, Anielewicz' followers staged a valiant uprising, which -- though ultimately unsuccessful in stopping the Nazi "final solution" juggernaut -- inflicted an enormous amount of damage upon the enemy and enabled hundreds of Polish Jews to escape the gas ovens and crematoriums. Much of the story is based upon the eyewitness testimony of surviving freedom fighter Simha "Kazik" Rotem, portrayed in the film by Stephen Moyer. Director Jon Avnet brilliantly combines newly filmed scenes with digitally refashioned archival footage of the actual uprising. Filmed in Bratisla, Slovakia, and boasting an all-star cast, Uprising was shown in two-hour installments on November 4 and 5, 2001, over the NBC network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, (more)
- 2001
- R
In rainy Tacoma, WA, Preston Tylk (Luke Wilson) learns that his beautiful wife Emily (Mili Avital) has been unfaithful with a man named Jonathan (Norman Reedus). Preston goes for a walk to consider his future, and when he returns, he discovers Emily's body - she's been strangled to death. After the funeral, Preston figures out who Jonathan is and goes to his house to confront him, where he is attacked by a man who he then bludgeons to death in self-defense. But it's not Jonathan; it's his mentally challenged brother, and the murder was taped on a security camera - which Jonathan now possesses and is using to convict Preston in both slayings. With the help of a private eye named Dick (Dennis Farina), and on the run from the law, Preston tries to recover the tape and clear his name. Meanwhile the enraged Jonathan, innocent of Emily's death after all, chases Preston through the Pacific Northwest to kill him for both slayings. If Preston and Jonathan didn't kill Emily, who did?
~ Buzz McClain, Rovi
~ Buzz McClain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luke Wilson, Norman Reedus, (more)
Actor and author of the well-regarded book Screenwriting from the Heart, James Ryan makes his directorial debut with this character-driven romantic comedy. The film focuses on respected photojournalist and divorced father Hank (Terry Kinney), who has a proclivity toward covering remote and dangerous trouble spots, much to the irritation of his 13-year-old daughter Constance (Ellen Muth). At the same time, something seems to be gnawing at Hank. On the homefront, he is reluctant to commit to his beautiful 26-year-old girlfriend Erin (Mili Avital), while at work, he is equally hesitant to campaign for a prestigious Humanitas award for his photographs. Things come to a head when Constance comes to live with Hank while her mother goes on a three-month long honeymoon. This film was screened at the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Terry Kinney, Mili Avital, (more)
Adapted from an Ernest Hemingway story by Hemingway's longtime friend and associate A. E. Hotchner, After the Storm spent years in development before filming of the movie version began in 2000, several years after Hotchner's death. Set in the Bahamas in 1936, the story concerns a young fisherman on the lam from gangsters, who stumbles upon a fortune in jewels from a yacht sunk in a recent storm. This sudden windfall results in nothing but unhappiness and betrayal for the fisherman -- and for everyone else who embarks upon the treasure hunt that consumes most of the action. When After the Storm failed to secure a theatrical release, it was licensed to the USA network for its first American TV showing. The R-rated video version was released on May 29, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Benjamin Bratt, Armand Assante, (more)
In this made-for-TV retelling of the classic tale A Thousand and One Nights, a woman discovers the ability to spin a good yarn is literally a matter of life and death. Schahriar (Dougray Scott), a powerful sultan who rules Bagdad, has developed a bitterness and distrust of women ever since he discovered his first wife was unfaithful to him. He no longer trusts the fair sex and has vowed to never marry again, but circumstances force him to wed Scheherezade (Mili Avital), a beautiful girl he's known since he was a child. Schahriar decides that if he must marry Scheherezade, he will murder her after their wedding night. Scheherezade, however, is understandably unenthusiastic about this idea, and to postpone her execution, begins regaling Schahriar with a long series of fascinating stories; by keeping him intrigued with her fables of adventure and honor, she hopes his heart will soften and she will be allowed to live. Scheherezade's stories include the tales of Ali Baba (Rufus Sewell), BacBac the Hunchback (Alexei Sayle), Aladdin (Jason Scott-Lee), the Genie of the Lamp (John Leguizamo), and many more. Arabian Nights was originally shown as a two-part miniseries, with the first episode airing on ABC on April 30, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mili Avital, Dougray Scott, (more)
- 2000
Preston Tylk (Luke Wilson) is an ordinary guy living in Seattle. When he discovers that his wife, Emily (Mili Avital), whom he adores, is having an affair, he is devastated. Storming out of the house, he returns later to find her brutally murdered. With Emily's lover as the prime suspect, Preston traces the lout to his home, but once he makes it inside, a man attacks him. During the course of their ensuing fight, Preston kills him, only to realize that he killed the wrong guy. Meanwhile, Emily's lover Jonathan (Norman Reedus) begins chasing Preston, and soon both are running from each other and the law. A desperate Preston turns to Dick (Dennis Farina), an aptly named private eye, for help, and together the two try to bring the dastardly Jonathan to justice. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luke Wilson, Norman Reedus, (more)
Theresa Connelly makes her directorial debut with her own screenplay, a semi-autobiographical romantic comedy-drama, set in working-class Detroit, about a large Polish-American family run by matriarch Jadzia Pzoniak (Lena Olin). Her four boys obey her, but adolescent Hala (Claire Danes) is rebellious and independent. Although happily married to bakery worker Bolek (Gabriel Byrne), Jadzia engages in an almost-open affair with Roman (Rade Serbedzija). Hala sneaks off for late-night trysts with her handsome neighbor Russell Schuster (Adam Trese), resulting in her pregnancy. After her parents learn the news, Russell is forced to marry Hala, and a big Polish wedding is planned. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lena Olin, Gabriel Byrne, (more)
In this romantic comedy, wealthy Chicago publisher Linda (Bonnie Hunt), hosting a wedding at her suburban estate, narrates the tale of how the couple arrived at the altar: Womanizing sportscaster Max (David Schwimmer) and novelist Jay (Jason Lee), friends since childhood, have different attitudes toward women. Incurable romantic Jay still carries a torch for his departed girlfriend Natasha (Vanessa Angel) and is unable to picture himself with any woman in the future. When Jay matches Max with his book editor Samantha (Mili Avital), the two strike such sparks that they get engaged within 14 days. The thought of settling down puts Max in such a panic that he proposes a peculiar loyalty test -- one that involves Jay seducing Sam. If Sam remains faithful to him, then he will proceed with the marriage. Jay doesn't agree to this, but book revisions keep bringing him together with Sam, forcing them to deal with the way they really feel about each other. Director Doug Ellin (Phat Beach) filmed at locations in Chicago. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Schwimmer, Jason Lee, (more)
- 1997
Michael Di Jiacomo made his directorial debut with this allegory that opens with a 12-minute black-and-white prologue about three French filmmakers who encounter the tuba-playing Tollkeeper (Mickey Rooney) on a silent stretch between two ghost towns in the Utah desert. In NYC, an armed thief (John Turturro) holds up despairing cabdriver Henry (Tim Roth), who tells him to go ahead and pull the trigger. With the thief gone, Henry's next passengers are the three Frenchmen seen earlier, and he takes them into New England where he's so spellbound by the beautiful Fatima (Mili Avital) that he takes a job with her irritating mother in order to maintain his pursuit of Fatima. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tim Roth, Mili Avital, (more)
Wim Wenders directed this allegorical drama about the emotional impact of violence in our culture, set against the backdrop of California's entertainment business. Mike Max (Bill Pullman) is a Hollywood producer who has earned a great deal of money and power in the film industry through his success with a series of brutally violent action pictures. While Max can juggle any number of tasks while working, he can't find time for his wife Paige (Andie MacDowell), and when she announces that she's divorcing him, he admits to himself (but not to her) that he deliberately put her through emotional trauma; Paige leaves to do volunteer work in the Third World, hoping to bring new meaning to her life. Very little reaches Max on an emotional level until Cat (Traci Lind), a stunt performer, is seriously injured on the set of Max's latest project. Not long after, Max is first car-jacked, then kidnapped by a pair of desperate thugs. He escapes and is given shelter by a group of Mexican-American gardeners. Wanting to retreat from the physical and spiritual violence that has become a key part of his life, Max opts to work with the gardening crew and stay away from his old life, remaining "missing" in the eyes of the world as he searches for a new life. Meanwhile, Max and his secretary Claire (Rosiland Chao) become aware of a secret plan that Ray Bering (Gabriel Byrne) has prepared for the city of Los Angeles, which will essentially put the entire town under constant surveillance, with the goal of ending violent crime once and for all. Frederic Forrest, Udo Kier, and legendary director Samuel Fuller also star; Ry Cooder composed the film's striking original score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Andie MacDowell, (more)
- 1996
- R
Cult hero Larry Cohen wrote this suspense thriller about a woman whose relationship with a sociopathic killer unwittingly makes her a political hot potato in the abortion rights movement. Theresa Barnes (Mili Avital) is a young woman working at a flower show who meets a handsome and charming young man, Josh (Jonathan Schaech), who as a child had a successful career as a model. Theresa and Josh quickly become a couple, and she thinks that she's finally found the man of her dreams until she becomes pregnant. Josh reacts to this news with unpredictable, psychotic violence, and as Josh becomes more and more unstable, Theresa decides for her own safety that she needs to get away from him. Theresa runs away and stays in a cabin in the woods, and she makes plans to get an abortion. However, Josh finds her and holds her captive, intending to keep her his prisoner until her pregnancy is too far along to be terminated. After several attempts at escape, Josh finally lets Theresa go, and she immediately goes to the police. Josh, however, promptly hires a lawyer who helps him bring his story to the media. As Josh tells it, he's a concerned and caring father trying to save the life of his unborn son from his callous and uncaring girlfriend, who does not respect the sanctity of life. Overnight, Josh becomes the new spokesman for the pro-life movement. In time, Theresa decides to have the baby, but she refuses to buckle under to Josh's public demands to be given sole custody of the child. In time, Theresa is able to convince Police Sgt. Rutherford (David Keith) that Josh is not all that he claims to be, and Rutherford's digging confirms that Josh is not a cheerful friend of the unborn, but a dangerous psychopath who has killed before and will likely kill again. Invasion of Privacy also features Naomi Campbell, Charlotte Rampling, and R.G. Armstrong. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mili Avital, Johnathon Schaech, (more)
A dark, bitter commentary on modern American life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, a newly-orphaned accountant who leaves his home in Cleveland to accept a job in the frontier town of Machine. Upon his arrival, Blake is told by the factory owner Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) that the job has already been filled. Dejectedly, he enters a nearby tavern, ultimately spending the night with a former prostitute. A violent altercation with the woman's lover (Gabriel Byrne), also Dickinson's son, leaves Blake a murderer as well as mortally wounded, a bullet lodged dangerously close to his heart. He flees into the wilderness, where a Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer) mistakes Blake for the English poet William Blake and determines that he will be Blake's guide in his protracted passage into the spirit world. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, (more)
This lucrative, elephantine-budgeted sci-fi opus paved the way for director Roland Emmerich's mega-hit Independence Day (1996). The story commences in Giza, Egypt, circa 1928, where an archaeological expedition unearths an ancient ring with cryptic hieroglyphs. The film then moves to the present day, where Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is busily trying to convince a group of skeptics that the pyramids were not built by man, but by an extraterrestrial force. After the lecture, a military man approaches him and offers him a job translating the said ring; its inscriptions actually constitute a map to a massive stargate (or interstellar portal). The army sends over resident crackpot colonel Jack O'Neill (Kurt Russell) to travel through the stargate and see what's on the other side; Jackson accompanies him, and the two men turn up in a desert planet on the other side of the universe, with three moons in its sky. The world in question is ruled by Ra (Jaye Davidson), a hermaphroditic Egyptian sun god, who oppresses hordes of slave workers. Jackson and O'Neill then join forces to help the said workers revolt against their oppressor. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, James Spader, (more)
When Morris, a fellow survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, comes to visit him in Israel in 1962, Menachem is of course glad to see him. Morris' tales about nearly limitless prosperity and opportunity in Canada intrigue him also, since he is deeply worried about the future of his family in war-ridden Israel. Perhaps he should relocate his family to Toronto. Menachem's ten-year-old son Haim is far too busy playing games and planning dangerous forays into neighboring countries to notice his father's preoccupations, and his brother-in-law is ferociously dedicated to implementing socialist ideals in a strong Israel and is not about to leave. However, his daughter Miri has been seeing a bad sort of fellow and is in real danger of getting into trouble with him. He sends his daughter to Toronto to get her out of trouble but has second thoughts about leaving Israel for good. Over the Ocean won nine Israeli Academy Awards in 1991. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Arie Muskuna, Dafna Rechter, (more)
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