Olivia Williams

A suburban teen in the midst of London's swinging '60s life is shaken up when a handsome socialite hits town in this coming-of-age drama from director Lone Scherfig (Just Like Home). Dominic Cooper, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, and Emma Thompson star in the BBC Films production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Reflecting studio executives' taste for material that crosses genres, this film from director David Twohy and co-screenwriter Darren Aronofsky mixes the war movie and supernatural thriller genres. After they rescue a trio of survivors that includes a nurse, Claire Page (Olivia Williams), from a British hospital ship sunk by the Nazis, the crew of the American submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark comes to believe that their vessel is haunted. The unexpected death of their commander forces first officer Lt. Brice (Bruce Greenwood) to take command, trying to avoid a German destroyer on the hunt for his ship, while investigating the series of mysterious incidents that are terrifying his crew. Is the Tiger Shark haunted, or is there something otherworldly inhabiting the waters where the sailors are currently trapped? Originally entitled "Proteus," this project was slated to be Aronofsky's follow-up to Pi (1998), but the writer/director opted to helm Requiem for a Dream (2000) instead. Below co-stars Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Dexter Fletcher, and Holt McCallany. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this religious drama concerning the struggle between science and faith, Olivia Williams plays Sharon Golban, an Israeli archeologist who discovers a skeleton within a tomb in Jerusalem. After an intensive study and the accumulation of more information, the bones begin to resemble the remains of Jesus Christ. At this news, the Vatican decides to send a young priest, Rev. Matt Gutierrez (Antonio Banderas), to investigate the problem and make sure the scientist's findings do not cause a stir. Meanwhile, a Palestinian shopkeeper (Makram J. Khoury) is caught between the church and Israeli society due to his finding of the bones: His basement led to the discovery. All of this poses a dilemma for the young reverend, who is forced to re-evaluate his own religion due to this new development's rewriting of the story of Jesus, which states that when his followers arrived at the tomb after crucifixion, it was empty. Written and directed by Jonas McCord, The Body is based on a novel by Richard Ben Sapir. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide

This crowd-pleasing medieval adventure tale is very loosely inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and mixes the anachronistic elements of modern-day rock music and colloquialisms with a period setting and characters. Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a low-born 14th century squire who, in a fit of inspired spontaneity, replaces his deceased employer as the competitor at a jousting competition. Jousting is a pastime only permitted to knights, who are of noble birth, but Thatcher wins and decides to continue his new pursuits. With the help of his two fellow squire friends Wat and Roland (Alan Tudyk and Mark Addy) and none other than the gambling-addicted Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), Thatcher has soon adopted a false identity and is winning one joust after another on his way to a championship in London. His victories inspire the affection of a female fan, Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), and the ire of a competitor, Count Adehmar (Rufus Sewell), but Thatcher's ruse is threatened with exposure. A Knight's Tale is the sophomore directorial effort of acclaimed screenwriter Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for his work on L.A. Confidential (1997) and debuted behind the camera with the troubled production of Payback (1999). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

George Hickenlooper directs this psychological drama about an impoverished writer lost in a world of money, power, and male escorts. Though happily married with a young child, Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) is struggling to make ends meet as a novelist. His last work, called "Hitler's Child," had an ignoble run in the bookstore bargain bins and his editor is not interested in his latest work about migrant workers. One day, he is approached by a dapper Brit named Luther Fox (Mick Jagger) who actually read Tiller's last opus. Luther explains that he runs an escort agency named Elysian Fields, which caters to rich women looking for intelligent companionship. Desperate for any kind of income source, Tiller takes the job while keeping the whole thing a secret from his loving wife (Julianna Margulies). He soon is rubbing elbows with the beautiful wife (Olivia Williams) of an aging Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. Gradually, Tiller finds himself immersed in this strange new world that he cannot quite understand, much less explain to his spouse. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

In this tense tale of psychological terror, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist whose new patient has a problem far outside his usual area of expertise. Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is six-years-old and claims to see the spirits of dead people all around him. It seems that Cole has psychic powers and can channel the ghosts of those who were troubled. Cole doesn't understand his powers, and he has little control over them; he's constantly terrified by what he sees, and Dr. Crowe is the only one with whom he feels he can share this secret. However, as the doctor digs deeper into Cole's strange powers, it leads to strange and unexpected consequences for both of them. M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed the film, has a small role as Dr. Hill. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Kevin Costner directed and stars in this adaptation of David Brin's science fiction novel The Postman (1985), first published in 1982 issues of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Costner's return to directing after his Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves(1990) is a futuristic epic depicting the aftermath of a destructive war. Some 16 years from the present day, America has been turned into a wasteland of separated communities minus a national government. A vagabond (Costner) who travels through these little villages performing Shakespeare is captured by marauders known as the Holnists, and thrown into a totalitarian labor camp run by a Hitler-like dictator, General Bethlehem (Will Patton).

Making an escape, the drifter, known to some as "Shakespeare," stumbles across an abandoned U.S. Postal Service jeep and dons the dead postal-worker's uniform. With a scheme simply to get food, he sets out to deliver 15-year-old mail, proclaiming himself The Postman, and discovers that residents accept his lies about a restored United States government because they desperately need something to believe in. This hope leads to the thought that perhaps the United States of America could indeed be restored, so an unusually inspired young man, Ford (Laren Tate) is deputized with the "Neither snow, nor rain..." oath to become the country's second Postman. At the town of Pineview, the attractive Abby (Olivia Williams), who has an impotent husband, asks The Postman to impregnate her. After Abby's husband is killed during a raid by Bethlehem, she is taken prisoner but injures Bethlehem and makes an escape. Pregnant, she spends the winter nursing the wounded Postman in a snowbound cabin. When spring comes, they emerge to discover that Ford has organized an entire squad of mail deliverers who regard The Postman as a mythical hero. The Postman reluctantly accepts his messianic role in the rebirth of the country, even as it becomes clear that the rebel force must ultimately battle and defeat the Holnist army in order to regain the American Dream. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide