Doon Mackichan Movies

As hosted by opera star Sir Thomas Allen, this unusual, offbeat documentary rests on the adage that the key to understanding Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's incessant philandering lies in his seminal 1787 opera Don Giovanni, and in the main character from that opus, based on the legendary cavaleur Giacomo Casanova. This film finds Allen journeying throughout regions including Northern Bohemia, Vienna and Prague to uncover the historical truth about the real Casanova and his influence on Mozart's work, during his off time from performing the lead in a Czechoslovakian production of Don Giovanni. The film covers Allen's search and also his stage work, and thus utilizes a combination of documentary footage, performance and dramatization. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Peter Hewitt (Tom and Huck) directed this $30-million family film, an adaptation of Mary Norton's classic children's novels about a miniature family of wee folk, four inches high, living beneath the floorboards of an English cottage. The Borrowers family, so labeled because they "borrow" from the house's kitchen, consist of Pod Clock (Jim Broadbent), mother Homily (Celia Imre), and children Arrietty (13-year-old Flora Newbigin) and Peagreen (Tom Felton). Their adventure begins when they're almost caught in the kitchen by the Lenders, the tenants of the house, so they run for cover. When lawyer-Realtor Ocious P. Potter (John Goodman) discovers the owner of the house has died, he makes plans to evict the Lenders and demolish the building -- a situation where one would want to "neither a Borrower nor a Lender be." Fortunately, young Pete Lender (Bradley Pierce) has become friends with Arrietty -- an alliance leading toward a method of thwarting Potter. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi