Anna Friel Movies
A staple of British soap operas before she was even out of her teens, Anna Friel experienced the type of fame encouraged by tabloids and Internet shrines before getting a chance to prove her talents on the stage and screen. Born in Rochdale, Lancashire on July 12, 1976, Friel began acting as a teenager, performing with theatres across Britain. In 1990, she made her television debut with a role on the BBC series In Their Shoes, and was soon appearing in a number of popular TV series, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale. She received her greatest amount of notice to date when she was cast on the soap opera Brookside in 1993; the resulting popularity of her role on the show made the waifish, saucer-eyed actress something of a celebrity in her native country.In 1997--two years after leaving Brookside--Friel made her film debut in The Land Girls. A World War II drama, it featured Friel, Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack as its titular heroines. Although the film was virtually unheard of outside the UK, it received generally favorable reviews. The following year, Friel appeared in two more films, The Stringer and Rogue Trader, the latter of which had her starring opposite Ewan McGregor. That same year, she won great acclaim on the London stage for her performance in Patrick Marber's Closer. A trenchant commentary on love and sex, it featured the young actress as an enigmatic stripper, and allowed her to work alongside such performers as Natasha Richardson, Ciaran Hinds and Rupert Graves. The play proved to be so successful that it moved to Broadway the next year, where it continued to win accolade after accolade. Friel herself won a Drama Desk award for Best Supporting Actress for her work. That same year, she continued to broaden her resume and fan base with starring roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sunset Strip, the former of which featured her as Hermia, and the latter of which saw her experiencing the ups and downs of life in 1972 Los Angeles. Following roles in The War Bride and Me Without You (both 2001) Friel continued to develop her onscreen persona, and with Richard Donner's time travel adventure Timeline (2003) the actress remained poised for the role that would provide her with her widest exposure to date.
In 2005, Friel appeared in the sports drama Goal!, about a Los Angeles teenager with dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. She also appeared alongside Kevin Pollak in the drama Niagra Motel, which found a group of seemingly disparate strangers connecting when they pass through the same motel. Then in 2007, Friel joined the cast of the new series Pushing Daisies, about a man who falls in love with a deceased woman after he discovers he can communicate with the dead. Over the next several years, the actress would remain active ons creen, appearing memorably in films like Limitless and London Boulevard. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
With William Shakespeare now a hot commodity at the box office (and his body of work conveniently out of copyright), the usual trickle of film adaptations of the Bard's work is becoming a small flood, and director Michael Hoffman has assembled a cast of leading stage and screen actors for this whimsical film version of one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. This interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream moves the action to Tuscany near the turn of the 20th century, as both mortals and enchanted creatures deal with romantic problems. Among the flesh-and-blood crowd, Duke Theseus (played by David Strathairn) is preparing for his wedding to Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau), while having to counsel Egeus (Bernard Hill), who has promised the hand of his daughter Hermia (Anna Friel) to Demetrius (Christian Bale). Hermia, however, wants to elope with her true love, Lysander (Dominic West), while her best friend Helena (Calista Flockhart) is mad about Demetrius. Meanwhile, fairies living in the forest are watching these romantic misadventures. Puck (Stanley Tucci) serves up love potions that mix and match the already confused lovers, while the Queen of Fairies, Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer), and her King, Oberon (Rupert Everett), have to deal with a group of hapless actors rehearsing a play in the forest -- one of whom, Bottom (Kevin Kline), has fallen under Puck's spell and becomes Titania's new lover. Will anyone end up with the person they really love? Who will get hurt riding their bicycles in the woods? Will Helena sit down and eat a square meal? Director Hoffman, a longtime Shakespeare buff, appeared as Lysander in a production of the play while a college student, and has since spearheaded a campaign to build a new $3 million theatre for his alma mater in Boise, ID. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
Director Barry Levinson attempts to repeat the success of several recent, low-budget British imports such as The Full Monty (1997), Waking Ned Devine (1998), and Saving Grace (2000) with this comedy about a pair of prison barbers trying to make a success of a hairpiece business in Northern Ireland. Colm (Barry McEvoy), a Catholic, and George (Brian F. O'Byrne), a Protestant, are friends who toil away in a lackluster job cutting the hair of convicts in a prison for the insane where Colm's girlfriend Bronagh (Anna Friel) also works. When the two lads hear of a prisoner nicknamed The Scalper (Billy Connolly), they learn that he was the only seller of hairpieces in the country, and decide to begin crafting their own toupees for sale as a way to start their own business. As they ply their wares through the war-torn country, the friends are not above using their respective religions to make sales, but competition soon arrives in the form of Toupee or Not Toupee, a rival company, and a race to be the first outfit to sell 30 units quickly ensues. Politics, business, and religious beliefs soon intersect to cause big trouble for both men. Actor McEvoy also wrote the script for An Everlasting Piece, loosely basing his character on his real-life father. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Barry McEvoy, Brian F. O'Byrne, (more)
The infamous Countess Erzsebet Bathory, who is said to have maintained youth and beauty into her old age by bathing in the blood of virgins, has her life story told in a more balanced but still provocative manner in this grand-scale historical drama. Bathory, played by Anna Freil, is portrayed in three important episodes from her life. Bathory falls in love with the legendary artist Caravaggio (Hans Matheson) and attempts to win his heart, which doesn't much amuse her husband Ferenc Nadasy (Vincent Regan). Later, Bathory becomes close friends with Darvulia (Deana Jakubiskova), a woman said to have remarkable healing powers, as observers remark upon Bathory's beauty which seems impervious to the passage of time or the stress of her life. And after the death of her husband, Bathory rises to a position of political power in Hungary, as Palatine Thurzo (Karel Roden) leads a plot to scuttle her ambitions. Bathory also features Bolek Polivka as a monk who narrates the countess's remarkable story. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Friel, Vincent Regan, (more)
- 1996
- Add Cadfael: A Morbid Taste for Bones to Queue Add Cadfael: A Morbid Taste for Bones to top of Queue
In acquiescence to the wish of the Prior of Shrewsbury Abbey to have the bones of St. Winifred on display, a group of monks trek to Wales to dig up her remains. The monks are met with great hostility that escalates when a man opposed to their excavation is found dead. The monks are held under suspicion, and things are further complicated by a young monk's insistence that he is seeing visions of St. Winifred. Although Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) exposes the monk's vision as fraudulent, he withholds the truth behind the monk's lies. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
One young man's dream takes him on a remarkable journey in this sports-themed drama. Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) was born in Mexico, and came to California with his family when he was just a boy. One of the few things Santiago brought with him was a love for soccer, and while he holds down two jobs -- working landscaping during the days with his father, Hernan (Tony Plana), and as a busboy at night -- he still dreams of playing the game professionally, and spends his precious spare time with an amateur team in Los Angeles. One day, Santiago is approached by Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane), a part-time scout for powerhouse British team Newcastle United; Glen has seen Santiago play and thinks he has talent, and can get him a tryout with Newcastle if he can make his way to England. While Hernan refuses to help Santiago pay for the trip, his grandmother (Miriam Colon) empties her savings to help him follow his dream. Santiago's first reserve game with the team happens during a typically British rainstorm, with Santiago suffering a mild asthma attack to boot; he doesn't play at his best and is turned away from the team, but he refuses to go home, determined to make good. After striking up a friendship with star kicker Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola) and demonstrating his mettle to coach Mal Braithwaite (Gary Lewis), Santiago earns a second chance to show Newcastle United what he can do and make his father proud of him. Goal! was a major international hit, and a sequel was already in production before the film opened in the United States in the spring of 2006. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonardo Guerra, Tony Plana, (more)
The Jaume Collet-Serra-directed comedy drama Goal! 2: Living the Dream finds star European soccer player Santiago Muñez (Kuno Becker) bumped by his agent (Stephen Dillane) from England's Newcastle United team to Real Madrid's Galácticos, where he is thrilled to play alongside field legends David Beckham, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and others. In off-time, temptation lingers in the form of amorous dalliances with spicy local women, especially the TV hostess Jordana (Leonor Varela) -- a relationship that threatens the security of his marital engagement to Geordie nurse Roz (Anna Friel), who has accompanied him to Spain. During his time in Madrid, Santiago also discovers, most unexpectedly and poignantly, what happened to the mother who abandoned him during his early childhood. Alessandro Nivola co-stars as Santiago's pal Gavin. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Friel, Rutger Hauer, (more)
A South Central, LA con-artist finds that his rhyming skills can pay off in the least likely of venues after winning a poetry contest staged by a financially strapped Irish town in this fish out of water comedy starring Eddie Griffin and Mo'Nique. Ballywood, Ireland is a town with a cash flow problem; but the citizens aren't about to go down without a fight. With the banks set to foreclose and the future looking grim, the citizens of Ballywood decide to save their town by staging a poetry contest and using the entry fees to keep the moneymen at bay. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, hustler Jimmie (Griffin) is having a hard time shaking off hungry bill collectors and a jilted lover with a mind for marriage. His options dwindling and his future looking increasingly grim, Jimmy determines to use his gift for gab to take home the top prize at the Ballywood poetry contest and leave both the collectors and his clingy girlfriend at a loss for words. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eddie Griffin, Anna Friel, (more)
This big-screen adaptation of Land of the Lost stars Will Ferrell as Dr. Rick Marshall, a quantum paleontologist who has been discredited in the scientific world due to his strident belief in time travel as the cure for all of humanity's problems. After hitting an all-time low, giving a lecture to elementary school kids, Dr. Marshall meets an ambitious young scientist named Holly (Anna Friel), who tells him she has followed all his work and believes he's a genius. Spurred on by her enthusiasm, he finishes building the device that will allow him to time travel -- something he promptly does along with Holly, and white-trash fireworks salesman Will (Danny McBride), after Will leads them into a cave that seems like a promising place to test the new machine. They end up in a world full of dinosaurs, sand, and scary lizard-like creatures known as Sleestacks. They quickly lose the machine that brought them to this alternate universe, and if they ever want to return home, the trio must recover it with the help of Chaka (Jorma Taccone), the monkey-like friend they make in this strange place. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, (more)
A struggling writer unlocks the full potential of his brain by taking a cutting-edge pharmaceutical, only to find that his newfound abilities have made him a target for some of the most greedy and dangerous men on the planet. Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is an author without a novel. No matter how hard he tries, he just can't summon the inspiration to write a single word. That all changes when an old friend wanders back into Eddie's life, and opens his eyes to a powerful new drug called NZT. The moment Eddie takes NZT, his brain begins functioning at 100 percent, giving him the ability to quickly recall every event in his life down to the smallest detail, learn new languages in a flash, and harness the untapped power of complex mathematical equations. But when Eddie's supply of NZT runs out, the party is over. Of course, it doesn't take Eddie long to make a mint on Wall Street, and when he does, it draws the attention of Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro), one of the world's most powerful and prominent businessmen. With Eddie's help, Carl plots to arbitrate a complex corporate merger that will shake the establishment to its very core. Just as the deal is about to be brokered, however, some dangerous characters discover Eddie's secret and come gunning for his dwindling supply of medicine. Now, if Eddie can just endure the debilitating side effects of NZT long enough to run for his life, he may just survive to see another day. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, (more)
A South London gangster emerges from three years in prison and becomes a bodyguard for a famous actress, only to be sucked back into the shady underworld by a ruthless crime lord in this gritty crime drama starring Colin Farrell. Mitchel (Farrell) served his time in Pentonville Prison. Now that he's a free man, he's determined to keep it that way. His resolve not to fall back on his criminal past is weakened, however, when his longtime friend Billy (Ben Chaplin) offers him a place to stay in exchange for help with a quick and dirty job. But just as it seems like the past won't let Mitchel go, a promising new opportunity arises; high-profile actress Charlotte (Keira Knightley) is hiding out from the paparazzi in a Holland Park mansion, and she needs a man who can help keep them at bay. Little does Charlotte realize that Billy has set his sights on her classic cars and valuable art collection, and that Mitchel is the only thing preventing him from robbing her blind. But just as Mitchel and Charlotte fall in love and make plans to move to Los Angeles, notorious mob heavy Gant (Ray Winstone) presents the cunning ex-con with an offer he can't refuse: Gant wants Mitchel in his gang, and he won't take no for an answer. Before Mitchel can flee, Gant has got him under his thumb, revealing that Mitchel will die before he ever has a chance to take flight. Upon realizing that any refusal to follow Gant's orders will endanger not only himself, but his sister Briony (Anna Friel) and Charlotte as well, Mitchel prepares to strike back with a vengeance. Consequences be damned, Mitchel will do whatever it takes to protect the ones he loves, and prove that no man owns him. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keira Knightley, Colin Farrell, (more)
- 1998
Mad Cows is a slapstick comedy about sex and the singles scene. Single and confused Maddy has just had a baby. The first day that she goes out with her baby, she gets arrested at Harrods for shoplifting. While in detention at the Holloway Prison's Mother and Baby Unit, she smuggles Jack out in her friend's handbag. She seeks help from her ex-lover Alex, who is sure he is god's gift to women. In the meanwhile, the prison psychotherapist Edwina Phelps is on Maddy's back. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Friel, Joanna Lumley, (more)
The joys and horrors of female friendship are explored in writer/director Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You. Bold, brash, and fashionable Marina (played by Anna Popplewell as a child, and Anna Friel as a teen and adult) comes from a broken home. Her mother, Linda (Trudie Styler, who executive produced Guy Ritchie's first two films, and is also Sting's wife) is a hip young divorcée who apologizes every time she yells at her children. Holly (Ella Jones as a child, Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek and Dick as a teen and adult) is a timid bookworm, mildly ashamed of her Jewishness, and easily goaded into more outrageous behavior by Marina. Holly's mother (Deborah Findlay) tells her early on not to expect too much from men. She helps lower her daughter's expectations by telling her, "Some people are pretty people, and some are clever people, which is more important than looks." As girls in the early '70s, Marina and Holly form a pact to become "Harina," inseparable best friends. Next-door neighbors, they are never apart for long. But Holly harbors a secret crush on Marina's older brother, Nat (Oliver Milburn), and when the girls are teens, and Marina finds out about Holly's feelings, she does her best to keep the two apart. In college, when Holly bonds with a lit-crit professor, Daniel (Kyle Maclachlan), over Andrei Tarkovsky and Ingmar Bergman, Holly feels compelled to sabotage their budding relationship, by seducing Daniel first. Eventually, Nat, despite his lingering fondness for Holly, gets seriously involved with a French actress, Isabel (Marianne Denicourt). As the girls get older, their differences become more apparent to Holly, and she begins to question their friendship. The film covers three decades, with songs and costumes appropriate to each era. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Friel, Michelle Williams, (more)
- 2011
Nick Willing's adventure tale Neverland transplants a kid named Peter and a group of his friends from modern times to a turn-of-the-century time where the boys discover they are no longer aging. Soon the gang gets into battles with a severe man who will eventually become Captain Hook. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- 2005
- PG13
A handful of oddballs and misfits cross paths at a motel overlooking one of Canada's more recognizable landmarks in this independent comedy. Phillie (Craig Ferguson) is the alcoholic and deeply depressed manager of the Niagara Motel, a shabby inn a stone's throw from the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. Phillie's guests at the moment include Michael (Kevin Pollak), a sleazy director and producer of porn videos who is attempting to persuade Loretta (Caroline Dhavernas), a pretty young waitress at a nearby diner, to star in his latest series of adult movies; Denise (Anna Friel) and R.J. (Kristen Holden- Reid), a drug-addled couple struggling to regain custody of their child; Henry (Peter Keleghan) and Lily (Wendy Crewson), whose marriage is already starting to crumble before temptation presents itself to Lily; and Boris (Damir Andrei), the Niagara's short-tempered owner. Over the course of their stays, the folks staying at the Niagara will witness an unplanned kidnapping, meet the motel's in-house prostitute, encounter a down-on-his-luck staple salesman, and get uncalled-for advice from a born-again social worker. Niagara Motel received its world premiere at the 2005 New Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Craig Ferguson, Anna Friel, (more)
One of several British miniseries adaptations of Charles Dickens' novel Our Mutual Friend, this four-part version debuted over the BBC in 1998. The production's generous running time (total: six hours), enabled scenarist Sandy Welch to include virtually every important detail in this complex Victorian-era saga of how a mysterious waterfront death inextricably linked the lives of two young women, Lizzie Hexam (Keeley Hawes) and Bella Wilfer (Anna Friel). The richness of the Dickensian prose was complemented by the visuals, which incorporated everything from documentary-style handheld camerawork to Eisenstein-ish montages, and by the eerily polytonal musical score by Adrian Johnston. Our Mutual Friend was brought to America courtesy of PBS beginning January 3, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul McGann, Keeley Hawes, (more)
- 2004
Though Lloyd Rockwell (Rob Lowe) and Susie Wilding (Anna Friel) both work for the same international advertising agency, they have never met: Lloyd lives in New York, while Susie is headquartered in London. New developments in their professional lives compel Lloyd and Susie to trade places, with Lloyd moving into Susie's cluttered suburban-London cottage, and Susie relocating to Lloyd's streamlined Manhattan apartment. Whenever domestic or job-related problems arise, Lloyd and Susie contact each other by phone--a painful process, inasmuch as they don't like each other. But this situation reverses itself after Susie comes to Lloyd's rescue when he is sabotaged by a duplicitous coworker. Only oe problem remaining: Lloyd is already engaged to be married. Filmed in Toronto and London, the made-for-TV Perfect Strangers was based on the book by Robyn Sisman) and produced by the same team responsible for Bridget Jones' Diary: the film debuted October 17, 2004, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rob Lowe, Anna Friel, (more)
- 2000
- R
- Add Robert Louis Stevenson's St. Ives to Queue Add Robert Louis Stevenson's St. Ives to top of Queue
Jacques St. Ives (Jean Marc Barr) is a much-envied officer in Napoleon's army who requests a demotion in rank so as to avoid a number of duels from fellow officers, who may challenge only those of an equal rank. To his shock, Jacques is demoted to the rank of private by a furious commander and is sent to the front where, through a mishap, he is taken prisoner and sent to Scotland where the prison warden is a bored British officer, Major Farquar Chevening (Richard E. Grant). The major lusts for a local lovely, Flora (Anna Friel), but she lusts for Jacques; Flora's randy aunt Susan has eyes for the major, while Flora arranges an escape for Jacques with his long-lost grandfather, and the major takes lessons in womanizing from Jacques. In a nasty turn, St. Ives' bitter and violent brother (Jason Isaacs) plots to kill Jacques before he can assume their grandfather's inheritance. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi
Based on the tell-all autobiography by Nick Leeson, Rogue Trader tells the true story of how one man managed to bring down England's best respected merchant bank. Ewan McGregor plays Leeson, an ambitious young man from North London who is hired by the Barings Brothers Bank and sent to Indonesia to help untangle some problems with bearer bonds. Leeson does well enough to earn a transfer to Singapore, where he's put in charge of Barings' staff at the Singapore International Money Exchange. The Asian economy is booming and a variety of new financial strategies are changing the shape of the marketplace; while his superiors in London are a bit baffled by the range of possibilities, Leeson takes to the work like a duck to water, and he's soon trusted to do as he pleases. This eventually proves to be his downfall; without a separate team watching the accounts in the back office, Leeson is soon juggling figures to cover up for certain mistakes and gambling on the market with the bank's funds, not just their clients'. In 1995, Leeson's schemes finally collaped, leaving Barings bankrupt; Nick and his wife (another Barings employee) tried to flee the country to avoid arrest. Leeson was eventually sentenced to six-and-a-half years in a Singapore prison for his financial misdeeds; he was released after four years and four months, a week before Rogue Trader opened in British theaters. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel, (more)
The days when glam rock at its shaggiest ruled L.A.'s Sunset Strip come alive in this comedy set in 1972. On one day, a number of young artists, musicians, and seekers of fame and fortune find their lives intersecting in the sometimes sleazy heart of California's hipster community, including struggling fashion designer Tammy (Anna Friel), pretentious photographer Michael (Simon Baker), sensitive songwriter Felix (Rory Cochrane), and his dashiki-clad manager Green (Adam Goldberg). Sunset Strip was co-written by Randall Jahnson, who previously examined the rock scene in his scripts for The Doors and Dudes; Adam Collis made his directorial debut with this film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Friel, Simon Baker, (more)
- 1997
- R
David Leland (Wish You Were Here) directed this adaptation of Angela Huth's novel about the British Women's Land Army (aka "land girls"), a WW II regiment which recruited women to work on farms during the war. The volunteer "land girls," from all walks of life, were dispatched across the British countryside to replace the farm workers who had gone to the front. Answering the call and ready to pitch in, three young WLA women arrive at a remote farm in the Dorset countryside. Romantic Stella (Catherine McCormack) plans to wed naval officer Philip (Paul Bettany). Cambridge grad Ag (Rachel Weisz) is quirky and cerebral. Working-class Prue (Anna Friel) is a flirt whose impudent wit conceals her innocence. The farm is owned by the Lawrences (Tom Georgeson, Maureen O'Brien), whose handsome son Joe (Steven Mackintosh) gets involved with all three land girls. Joe dreams of leaving the family farm to become a fighter pilot, but he's thwarted by health problems. For the women, the work is hard, the days are long, and the war is never far from their thoughts. But the women's camaraderie strengthens them, individually and as a unit. They form close friendships with each other, and Stella finds true love with Joe. All experience exhilaration and passion, and with the war's end, altered destinies (revealed in an epilogue in which the land girls are reunited some years after the war). The soundtrack features memorable '40s songs. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, (more)
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