Sean Biggerstaff Movies

A young insomniac attempts to cope with his sleepless nights by taking a job at a local supermarket, only to discover that he possesses a curious coping mechanism in the debut feature from Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Sean Ellis. Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, and in his grief he has lost his ability to sleep through the night. When Ben takes a job at the supermarket and makes the acquaintance of an odd collection of individuals, including silly slackers Barry (Michael Dixon) and Matt (Michael Lambourne) and aspiring kung fu master Brian (Marc Pickering), he begins to find his imagination taking flight in a most unusual manner. It seems that Ben has the ability to literally stop time, a talent that allows him to take pause, traverse the supermarket aisles, and ponder both his own life and the existence of the customers who stand frozen and completely unaware of his presence. As much a dreamer as Ben may be, however, his willingness to maintain his connection to the tangible, if slightly antiseptic, world he currently inhabits soon finds the wistful dreamer forming a close connection with disarmingly straightforward checkout girl Emily (Emilia Fox), whose solid ties to reality serve to offer a healthy contrast to the fantasy-prone insomniac's surreal form of escapism. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Youthful wizard Harry Potter returns to the screen in this, the second film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of novels for young people. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) return for a second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris), Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), and Hagrid the Giant (Robbie Coltrane) are joined by new faculty members Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a self-centered expert in Defense against the Dark Arts, and Sprout (Miriam Margolyes), who teaches Herbology. However, it isn't long before Harry and company discover something is amiss at Hogwarts: Students are petrified like statues, threats are written in blood on the walls, and a deadly monster is on the loose. It seems that someone has opened the mysterious Chamber of Secrets, letting loose the monster and all its calamitous powers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to find the secret chamber and slay the beast, speculation is rife that one of the heirs of Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of the school, opened the chamber as a warning against the presence of "mudbloods" (magic-users of impure lineage) at the school -- and that the culprit may be fellow student Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets featured Richard Harris' second and final appearance as Headmaster Dumbledore; he died less than a month before the film was released in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a stage play by Sharman McDonald, this film marks the directorial debut of British character actor Alan Rickman. Set against a bleak winter landscape of rural Scotland, the story centers around the recently widowed Frances (Emma Thompson) and a visit from her mother, Elspeth (Phyllida Law, Thompson's real-life mother). Elspeth seeks to console Frances, but Frances resists. The mother and daughter have a prickly relationship. While they thrust and parry emotionally, Frances' son Alex (Gary Hollywood) longs for the tomboy Nita (Arlene Cockburn). Two young boys, Tom (Sean Biggerstaff) and Sam (Douglas Murphy), are in the neighborhood looking for adventure. Two older women, Chloe (Sandra Voe) and Lily (Sheila Reed), go to funerals of strangers. The epidosic film eventually ties together all these characters in a surprising way, but the core of the drama is the evolution of the difficult mother-daughter relationship. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide