Olivia Williams Movies

Producer/director Roger Michell teams with screenwriter Richard Nelson to adapt Nelson's BBC radio play chronicling the extramarital affair between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his distant cousin, Daisy (Laura Linney), which comes to light during a royal visit from the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) at his home in Hyde Park. As war engulfs Europe and the king seeks the support of the American government, President Roosevelt struggles to balance his domestic affairs with his international obligations as Commander in Chief. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Andy Serkis stars as volatile British new wave icon Ian Dury in this biopic from BAFTA-nominated director Mat Whitecross (The Road to Guantanamo). As a young boy, Dury nearly died after being stricken with polio. Though the ravaging disease would leave him permanently disabled, however, it would also instill him with the drive and perseverance to become one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Along with his band Ian Dury & the Blockheads, the unpredictable rocker would become a key figure in the new wave movement of the late '70s. But through it all Dury's abrasive behavior never subsided, even during quiet moments with his delicate young son, Baxter (Bill Milner). Ray Winstone, Naomie Harris, and Olivia Williams co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An affluent Jewish man living in the suburbs with his loyal fiancée experiences a life altering crisis of conscience following the death of his father in director Sallie Aprahamian's introspective drama. Jake (Dan Fredenburgh) is a successful property developer engaged to me married to the beautiful Zoe (Olivia Williams). To this point in his life Jake hasn't really questioned the decisions that he's made or the relationships he's maintained, though when his father dies unexpectedly, he is gradually drawn back to the inner-city neighborhood of his youth. As a young boy, Jake's father had owned a tailoring business in the city. Now as Jake goes back to explore his old haunts, he strikes up a casual friendship with local waitress B (Doraly Rosa) that quickly threatens to develop into something much more serious. But B, too, is involved in an outside relationship, hers with ailing ex-boxer Chester (Paul Bettany), who suffered a stroke in a recent fight and now relies on her for care and support. As Jake and B both wrestle with the anxiety and guilt brought upon by their mutual attraction, they are forced to weigh their trepidation over causing pain to their respective significant others against the prospect that their burgeoning relationship may be their only chance for ever finding true happiness. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An outwardly confident but unmarried woman on the verge of her fortieth birthday reflects on her past suitors and the choices she once made while attempting to help her marriage minded niece choose between a number of potential suitors in this tale inspired by the life and letters of Jane Austen. Jane Austen (Olivia Williams) is about to turn forty, but she still hasn't found her ideal man. When Jane is approached by her niece Fanny (Imogen Poots) and asked to help select the perfect husband for the young girl, the ageing spinster begins to wonder why it is that she never found a man to share her own life with. Perhaps if Jane had accepted the proposal of a wealthy landowner she could have saved her family from financial ruin, and what of the handsome young physician who once warmed to Jane after tending to her ailing family members? In this speculative tale, director Jeremy Lovering and screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes ponder the potential reasons why the real Jane Austen never found her own Mr. Darcy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Andie MacDowell, Olivia Williams, and Stephen Rae star in this bittersweet tale of two grieving women connected by an accidental phone call. Connecticut mother Marilyn Vine (MacDowell) has always lived a charmed life, so when her adolescent son Dale suddenly dies while celebrating his fifteenth birthday the tragedy of her loss is almost too powerful to bear. 3000 miles away in Dublin, Ireland, Ria Lynch (Olivia Williams) finds her marriage to longtime husband Danny (Iain Glen) coming to an unexpected in when Danny reveals that he is divorcing her to set up home with his pregnant mistress Bernadette (Heike Makatsch). When fate delivers the telephone call that connects these two women, both at a crucial turning point in their lives, Marilyn and Ria both agree to a two-month house exchange that could provide them with the space and down time to move beyond the pain that threatens to consume them. As both women grow increasingly accustomed to their new environments, the kindness of strangers and opportunity for reflection provides them both with the courage to face their changed lives with a newfound sense of hope. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

British filmmaker Mike Barker directs the political costume-drama To Kill a King. Set in 1645 at the end of the English Civil War, General Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott) celebrates the victory with his right-hand man Oliver Cromwell (Tim Roth). While, King Charles I (Rupert Everett) is held prisoner, he appeals to the sensibilities of Fairfax's wife, Lady Anne (Olivia Williams). The old friends disagree over what to do about the king; Fairfax is willing to compromise and Cromwell is far more strict. The Speaker of the House, Denzil Holles (James Bolam), leads a group of conspirators to make an illegal deal with the king, but they are discovered and subsequently punished. The king is put on trial and executed, making Cromwell in charge. The conclusion involves a reunion between Fairfax and a dying Cromwell. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

In the style of a Merchant-Ivory production, Thaddeus O'Sullivan directs the British costume drama The Heart of Me, based on Rosamond Lehmann's 1953 novel The Echoing Grove and adapted by Lucinda Coxon. The film opens in late '30s London at the funeral of a middle-class family patriarch survived by his wife (Eleanor Bron) and two daughters: prim and proper Madeleine (Olivia Williams) and free-spirited artist Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter). Madeline's businessman husband, Rickie (Paul Bettany), soon develops an interest in Dinah, which turns into an involved romantic affair. The love triangle causes many problems involving pregnancy, repressed emotions, and various forms of melodrama. Ten years later, the two sisters meet and sort out their relationship. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

A group of wealthy bohemians clash with each other as they're targeted by a gang of murderers in this dark comedy-drama based on the novel by Martin Amis. Upper class bohemian Giles (Charlie Condou), whose biggest worry in life seems to be the state of his teeth, has inherited a large estate from his family, and one weekend he invites large group of friends to join him for a weekend of drug-fueled debauchery. Ennui-stricken Cecilia (Olivia Williams), her hulking boyfriend Andy (Christian Solimeno), high-strung Quentin (Paul Bettany), his spouse Cecilia (Alexandra Gilbreath), hygiene-challenged Keith (Andy Nyman), unstable Skip (Kris Marshall), man-hungry Roxanne (Hayley Carr), drug-dealing Marvel (William Marsh), and Lucy (Katy Carmichael), who has been involved with most of the men in attendance, all settle in for a few days of conversation, free love, and good not-so-clean fun. But the revelers are unaware that the Conceptualists, a murderous terrorist organization, have staked out the mansion, and soon they're receiving messages from someone called Johnny, who makes clear his intentions to kill them all. Dead Babies was the center of a minor controversy at the time of its release in the United Kingdom; director and screenwriter William Marsh openly feuded with producer Richard Holmes after Holmes re-edited the picture against Marsh's wishes. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The first feature by director Peter Cattaneo since his award-winning British smash hit The Full Monty, Lucky Break is another comedy in the same mold, this time taking place in prison. Small-time crooks Jimmy (James Nesbitt) and Rudy (Lennie James), after years of no success, decide to pull a bank job, where they are both captured and incarcerated. Jimmy is then transferred to Long Rudford, run by the steely security chief Perry (Ron Cook). Jimmy again runs into Rudy (whom he left to take the initial rap) and shares a cell with Cliff (Timothy Spall), a portly man prone to depression. The prison warden, Mortimer (Christopher Plummer), is heavily into Broadway musicals and offers Jimmy an opportunity to stage his long-unproduced work, "Nelson: The Musical," which Jimmy will use as a means to bust out of the prison. After working hard on the new tuner, the boys try to find a way both to do the show and to continue their arduously planned escape. The Sixth Sense's Olivia Williams co-stars as a guard Jimmy falls for, and British comic actors Bill Nighy and Frank Harper appear in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi

Founder of the Slamdance Film Festival Paul Rachman makes his feature-length debut with this tale of dishonor among thieves, solidly in the vein of 1994's Shallow Grave. When four friends (Olivia Williams, Balthazar Getty, Daniel London, and Stacy Edwards) travel to Buenos Aires to crash a wedding reception, they have more on their mind than just a lively evening of free drinks and the Chicken Dance. With the aid of ace thief Felix (Tim Curry), they steal a precious Degas statuette from the mansion owner hosting the shindig and abscond to L.A. Unfortunately, the objet d'art is nowhere to be found, and the covert dealer (Forest Whitaker) who's expecting it is none too pleased. He demands that they come up with the piece or $1,000,000 immediately. To solve their problem, the four compadres take out life insurance policies on each another and plot out which friend is going to die in order to proffer the heist money. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

This 2000 production recounts a famous tale from Greek mythology: the quest for the Golden Fleece. The film begins when the evil Pelias (Dennis Hopper) usurps the throne of his half-brother, Aeson, king of the Greek city of Iolcus, after murdering Aeson and marrying his wife, Polymele (Diana Kent). Aeson's child, Jason (Mickey Churchill), escapes but returns years later as a young man (Jason London) to see his mother, Polymele, and claim his royal patrimony. Pelias then threatens to kill Polymele unless Jason brings him the Golden Fleece. Made of the skull, horns, and gilded wool of a winged ram, the fleece affords protection and prosperity to the kingdom that possesses it. It hangs from a tree on sacred ground in the Black Sea port of Colchis, where an unsleeping dragon protects it. After Jason agrees to undertake a perilous ocean voyage to retrieve it, he assembles a crew that includes the mighty Hercules (Brian Thompson) and the musician Orpheus (Adrian Lester). On the long ocean voyage aboard his ship, the Argo, Jason overcomes many perils -- passing through clashing rocks and fighting deadly Harpies -- while the gods Zeus and Hera observe from the heavens and occasionally meddle in Jason's exploits. At Colchis, the King Aertes (Frank Langella) forbids Jason to carry off the fleece, for it has long protected and sustained his realm. But he relents upon learning that the gods favor the youth. However, Jason must first prove himself by yoking a fire-breathing bull. With the help of the king's daughter, Medea (Jolene Blalock), a sorceress smitten with love for him, Jason succeeds, survives further tests, kills the dragon, and returns with the fleece -- and Medea. But in Iolcus, Pelias gains control of the fleece, then sends 200 soldiers to kill Jason and his crew. Thus, Jason faces still another trial. His fate and the fates of Media, Pelias, and all of Iolcus depend on how he responds. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi