Joseph Fiennes Movies
With outrageously long-lashed brown eyes and darkly sensuous looks, Joseph Fiennes has joined his older brother Ralph as the English embodiment of sex for scores of women the world over. After years of working in his brother's shadow, Joseph emerged in 1998 as one of the movie industry's hottest properties, thanks to roles in two back-to-back hits, Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love.Born May 27, 1970, in Salisbury, England, Fiennes and his twin brother, Jacob, were the youngest of six children, Ralph being the eldest. The son of a photographer father and a novelist mother who went under the nom de plume of Jennifer Lash, Joseph and his siblings had a fairly nomadic upbringing, moving 14 times over the course of the actor's childhood. His parents had strong artistic leanings, something they encouraged among their children, and so Fiennes grew up in a very creative atmosphere. After leaving art school, he began working with the Young Vic Theatre Company and then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He made his first professional stage appearance in A Month in the Country, in which he performed opposite Helen Mirren.
After two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Fiennes was cast in a cameo role in the 1991 television drama A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, in which Ralph played the titular hero. Joseph's next role of any importance was in the British TV series The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, which cast him opposite Tara Fitzgerald. Following this, Fiennes made his feature debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1996 film Stealing Beauty, in which he had a fairly small part but was able to act in the company of individuals such as Jeremy Irons, Sinéad Cusack, and Liv Tyler.
It was 1998 that proved to be Fiennes's breakthrough year. With consecutive roles as Cate Blanchett's lover in Elizabeth and as William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, he commanded the audience's attention with performances that were marked by a mix of intensity, charm, and brooding charisma. The fact that he didn't look ridiculous in tights also helped, and by the end of the year, with both films having garnered a score of awards (including seven Oscars for Shakespeare alone), it looked as though Fiennes had finally emerged from behind his brother's shadow, proving that talent, as well as a favorable gene pool, were common currency among his family members.
Though Fiennes worked in several films throughout the early 2000s (Dust, Luther, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas), he wouldn't find success similar to that of Shakespeare in Love until he took on the role of Bassiano in director Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice (one of Shakespeare's most celebrated comedies) in 2004. Following a lead role in Running with Scissors (2006), an adaptation of Augusten Boroughs' biography of the same name, Fiennes played tough guy Lenny in The Escapist (2008), a cerebral thriller following a group of criminals seeking to free themselves from the confines of prison. The actor also enjoyed success on the television screen, including the ABC science-fiction series FlashFoward (2009-2010), and Camelot (2011), a 10-part miniseries from Starz. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 2013
A youthful pastor hired in as the music master at a school for the abandoned and illegitimate daughters of Venice nightwalkers forms a powerful bond with the children that eventually leads him to perform before the pope in director Boris Damast's screen biography of Four Seasons composer Antonio Vivaldi. Jacqueline Bisset, Malcolm McDowell, and Carice van Houten star in a film featuring Joseph Fiennes as the acclaimed violinist and Baroque composer. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Lena Headey, (more)
The Arthurian legend is detailed in this chronicle of the adventures of the once and future king (Jamie Campbell Bower, the wizard Merlin (Joseph Fiennes), sorceress Morgan (Eva Green), and the Lady Guinevere (Tasmin Egerton). ~ Ray Stackhouse, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Jamie Campbell Bower, (more)
A family struggling to survive is confronted by the specters of forbidden love and betrayal in this period drama from director Uri Barbash. Clara Planck (Clare Higgins) is a gifted cellist whose star is on the rise, while her husband Artur Planck (Joseph Fiennes) is a successful doctor and the father of her two children. But Clara and Artur are Jewish, and in Poland in 1941, that puts them in grave danger as Nazi forces take control of the country and exile Polish Jews to the ghetto. Clara and Artur flee Warsaw for the countryside, where Emilia (Kelly Harrison) offers to take them in allow the family to hide in the attic of her home. Emilia is looking after her farm on her own as her husband has been sent off to war, and she welcomes having Artur around the house to help with the many chores. But what begins as friendship between Artur and Emilia turns into love, and they begin having an affair that leads to her becoming pregnant. If Artur continues the affair, he could destroy his relationship with Clara and his children, but if he rejects Emilia, he runs the risk of having his lover inform on him to the authorities. Aviv 1941 (aka Spring 1941) received its U.S. premiere at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Clare Higgins, (more)
A career criminal seeks redemption for himself, his family, and his friends by busting out of a penitentiary in this intelligent thriller. Frank (Brian Cox) is a criminal who was forced to leave his wife and six-year-old daughter behind when he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Frank openly acknowledges he was guilty and has made his peace with life behind bars, but when he learns that a drug overdose has left his daughter seriously ill, he feels a powerful need to reconnect with his family, and his only option is to escape. Knowing he can't do it alone, Frank assembles a team from various factions of the prison population, including Viv (Seu Jorge), who makes and deals drugs from his cell; Lenny (Joseph Fiennes), a wiry tough guy who doesn't speak if he can avoid it; and Lacey (Dominic Cooper), Frank's new cellmate who is a white-collar criminal not cut out for prison life. Frank soon realizes if his plan is to work, he'll have to bring aboard some of the more dangerous and unpredictable members of the prison's community, including vicious and corrupt brothers Rizza (Damian Lewis) and Tony (Steven Mackintosh). The Escapist was the first feature film from writer and director Rupert Wyatt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, (more)
The true story of one of World War One's deadliest air aces comes to the screen in this historical drama. Manfred von Richthofen (Matthias Schweighöfer) becomes fascinated with flying when he's just a boy, and as a young man he joins the German army and becomes part of their budding air force. Flying in a squadron with his best friend, Werner Voss (Til Schweiger), von Richthofen is a pilot with a great talent for aerial battle, but he also has a sense of honor and fair play, and he and his cohorts often pay tribute to fallen opponents by dropping wreaths over the wreckage of their planes. When von Richthofen and Voss discover a Canadian pilot, Capt. Roy Brown (Joseph Fiennes), who has been stranded in German territory, they rescue the flier rather than leave an enemy soldier to die, and while bringing him to safety Manfred meets Käte Otersdorf (Lena Headey), a military nurse who has devoted her life to helping those wounded by war. Manfred becomes deeply infatuated with Käte, but while she is also taken with him, she cannot abide his open embrace of the blood sport of war, and even as he becomes one of Germany's most decorated pilots, downing countless enemy planes, he comes to understand the true horror of war and the consequences of his actions. Von Richthofen gains an even greater perspective on war when he encounters Capt. Brown one last time. Der Rote Baron (aka The Red Baron) was shot in both German- and English-language versions, with the same cast appearing in both. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matthias Schweighöfer, Lena Headey, (more)
In this independent drama from writer and director Peter Callahan, Joseph Fiennes stars as Paul, a writer and finance expert who approaches his best friend Jeff (Justin Kirk) with an unusual proposal. When they were kids, Paul and Jeff talked about one day swimming the Hudson River from Manhattan to Troy, New York, a stretch of 150 miles. Paul has decided he's going to do it, and wants like Jeff to join him, suggesting he follow along in a boat and provide support when it's needed. Paul is puzzled but agrees, and his friend Liz (Elizabeth Reaser) tags along for the ride. But in time Jeff realizes that the final day of Paul's carefully scheduled big swim coincides with the fifth anniversary of the death of Paul's pregnant wife, and Jeff fears that his friend has more in mind that a challenge to himself. Also starring Mary Tyler Moore and Michelle Trachtenberg, Against The Current received its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Justin Kirk, (more)
- 2007
- R
Bille August's inspirational docudrama Goodbye Bafana begins in 1968, with South Africa buried neck-deep in the horrors of apartheid and Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert) -- then an underground leader of the African National Congress -- imprisoned on Robben Island for sedition. As the story opens, the native African population of the country -- 25 million in number -- buckles beneath the crippling weight of the racist white minority, who control the Nationalist Party Government. The film follows the spiritual and psychological journey of James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes), a Caucasian Afrikaner who came of age on a farm in the Transkei and initially views all blacks as subhuman. Gregory also speaks Mandela's native language of Xhosa with perfect fluency, which makes him an ideal candidate to serve as warden of the Robben Island Prison and eavesdrop on Mandela and his inmates. What he fails to anticipate is the most unlikely and special of friendships (one of history's greatest) that burgeons between himself and Mandela -- and helps him evolve from a narrow-minded bigot with limited self-awareness to a sensitive, humane critic of social injustice with a heightened awareness of humankind's ill treatment of one another and a genuine love for his fellow man. As the friendship between Gregory and Mandela grows and matures, it symbolizes Africa's transition from the oppressiveness of apartheid to the freedom of multiracial democracy. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert, (more)
When a San Francisco homicide detective with a keen eye for criminal profiling is fired for botching the arrest of a notorious serial killer, his subsequent effort to reinvent himself as an insurance claims case-investigator leads him to study a series of perplexing wrongful deaths in this comedy starring Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, Tim Blake Nelson, and Wilmer Valderrama. Michael Burrows (Fiennes) isn't your typical detective. Though Detective Burrows is a paranoid obsessive-compulsive who faints at the sight of blood, his remarkable insight into the criminal mindset has nevertheless made him a valuable asset to the San Francisco Police Department. When Detective Burrows' idiosyncrasies allow the feared "North Beach Killer" to elude capture, however, he is fired by his superiors. Upon offering his unique skills to a doubting insurance company, Burrows is given 30 days in which to prove he can sort out the legitimate claims from the false ones. Now, as Burrows makes for the Midwest in the company of hard-nosed field agent Siri Tyler (Ryder), the film student (Valderrama) who has been following the former detective for his thesis follows the pair as they investigate a series of forehead-slapping deaths, including that of a powerful executive who attempts to prove that his high-rise window is unbreakable and a pair of English tourists who fatally misinterpret the "cruise control" function on their rented RV. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, (more)
Screen newcomer Joseph Cross portrays Augusten Burroughs in director Ryan Murphy's film adaptation of author Burroughs' best-selling personal memoir of the same name. A child of the 1970s whose alcoholic father, Norman (Alec Baldwin), and delusional, unpublished poet mother, Deirdre (Annette Bening), serve as the dictionary definition of the word "dysfunctional," Augusten is sent by his mother to live with her eccentric psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), when his disagreeable parents ultimately decide to terminate their turbulent marriage. Suddenly thrust into an environment that is as unfamiliar as it is unpredictable, young Augusten forms a curious relationship with the doctor's two whimsical daughters while learning to adapt and survive under even the most unusual of circumstances. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Annette Bening, Brian Cox, (more)
John Dahl directed this war drama based on the true story of one of the most daring military actions of World War II. In the waning days of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur chose to make good on a pledge that he made in 1942 -- that he would return to the Philippines after he and his troops were forced to retreat. However, MacArthur's determination was more than a matter of pride. Over 500 American soldiers were being held in Cabanatuan, a notoriously brutal prisoner of war camp in the Philippines operated by the Japanese army, and MacArthur wanted to see to it that they made it home. MacArthur chose Lt. Col. Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) to lead the Sixth Ranger Battalion on a mission 30 miles behind enemy lines to infiltrate Cabanatuan and liberate the American prisoners. With the help of Capt. Prince (James Franco), Mucci leads his men on a life-or-death raid against forces known for their savagery. The Great Raid was based on William B. Breuer's book The Great Raid on Cabanatuan: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor, and also stars Joseph Fiennes, Connie Nielsen, and Marton Csokas. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, (more)
One of William Shakespeare's most powerful comedies has been given a bold cinematic adaptation in this film version of The Merchant of Venice. Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) is a young and vital member of the aristocratic classes in 16th century Italy; however, Bassanio's impulsive nature and lavish lifestyle have put him deeply in debt, and he will need at least the pretense of a fortune if he is to win the hand of the beautiful Portia (Lynn Collins). Bassanio turns to his close friend Antonio (Jeremy Irons), a successful businessman, for financial help, but with much of his fortune tied up in a sailing expedition, Antonio can do little to help him. To help Bassanio, Antonio turns to Shylock (Al Pacino), a Jewish money lender who lives in Venice's Semetic ghetto. Antonio has often expressed his contempt for Shylock, who charges high rates for his loans, and Shylock clearly seems pleased at the ironic prospect of having Antonio as a customer; however, instead of interest, Shylock demands an unusual security on his loan -- though Shylock demands no interest, if Antonio does not repay the three thousand ducats in three months, Shylock will be entitled to a pound of his flesh. This version of The Merchant of Venice was directed by Michael Radford, best known for the international hit Il Postino, and was shot on locations in Venice and Luxembourg. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, (more)
- 2003
- PG
- Add Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas to Queue Add Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas to top of Queue
The legendary rogue of the seven seas confronts a new assortment of dangers and thrills in this animated action-adventure tale. Sinbad (voice of Brad Pitt) and his crews of pirate adventurers are hoping to retire to Fiji, and they discover a treasure that could make that possible -- the Book of Peace, which has kept the Twelve Cities in harmony for centuries. But Sinbad's plan to snatch the magic book is complicated when he learns it's on board a ship captained by his longtime friend Proteus (voice of Joseph Fiennes). While Sinbad still has his eye on the book, so does the mischievous goddess Eris (voice of Michelle Pfeifer), who sends a deadly sea monster into Sinbad's path to scuttle his plans. With the help of Proteus, Sinbad prevails over the beast, and determined Eris responds by snatching the book and framing Sinbad for the crime. Noble Proteus offers to step in for Sinbad and take his punishment, so now the adventurer has ten days to rescue the book from Eris or Proteus will pay with his life. While Sinbad is at first uncertain if he should take on such a dangerous assignment or simply high-tail it to Fiji, someone is on hand to persuade him -- Marina (voice of Catherine Zeta-Jones), Proteus' lovely but hard-headed fiancée, who has stowed away on Sinbad's ship. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was the first animated feature written by John Logan, who received an Oscar nomination for his script for Gladiator. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, (more)
The life of one of the controversial figures in the history of modern religion is brought to the screen in this historical biography. Born in 1483, Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes) was an intelligent and principled young man who was studying law in early 16th century Germany when a close brush with death led him to follow a spiritual path and join a Catholic monastery. Under the guidance of Johann von Staupitz (Bruno Ganz), Luther became a valued member of the monastery's hierarchy, and as a sign of his trust, von Staupitz asked Luther to join him for a voyage to Rome as part of church business. Luther was appalled by the corrupt practices of the leading church officials, in particular the sale of "indulgences," in which the wealthy could purchase forgiveness for a wide variety of sins. Luther left the monastery to study theology in Wittenberg; a keen student, he later became a professor and won the support of Frederick the Wise (Peter Ustinov), who also recognized the potential controversy of Luther's iron principles. When a new pope, Leo X, assumes the throne at the Vatican, he orders the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. To pay the costs, an ambitious monk, Johann Tetzel (Alfred Molina), was sent out to sell indulgences to both the wealthy and the poor, leaving his audiences with little doubt of the eternal consequences that awaited those who did not empty their purses. An infuriated Luther wrote an angry essay on the corruption of the church entitled "95 Theses," and thanks to the recent invention of the printing press, Luther's words were soon circulated throughout Europe, leading to an angry conflict with Catholic officials which threatened to tear the church in two. Luther also features supporting performances from Claire Cox as Katharina von Bora and Jonathan Firth as Girolamo Aleandro. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Alfred Molina, (more)
A literary drama offering the parallel tales of two wounded souls, director Mehdi Norowzian's tale of redemption and the struggle to find one's place in life finds an ex-convict's correspondence with a young boy offering hope for the future despite the fact that the boy has yet to find his own place in the world. Believing that her husband has been unfaithful, Mary Bloom (Elisabeth Shue) embarks on an affair with a young handyman (Justin Chambers) that results in her pregnancy. Racked with guilt when her husband dies in a car accident shortly thereafter, Mary begins to hate her son, Leo (Davis Sweat), leaving the youngster hungering for affection. Assigned correspondence with a convict for a class project, the withdrawn Leo begins to form a close bond with Stephen (Joseph Fiennes), who increasingly relies on his communication with Leo as a form of cathartic repentance. When Stephen is released from jail, he gets a job at a diner where concerned co-workers Vic (Sam Shepard) and Caroline (Deborah Unger) attempt to help him establish himself on the outside. Simultaneously brutalized by local drunk Horace (Dennis Hopper), Stephen decides to leave the diner and search for the boy whose letters carried him through his darkest days. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
The director of such highly regarded films as Yellow Earth (1984) and Farewell, My Concubine (1993), Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige makes his English-language debut with this erotic thriller adapted from the novel by Nicci French. Alice (Heather Graham) is an American Web designer living in Illinois who falls for a ruggedly handsome mountain climber named Adam (Joseph Fiennes). Bored with her dull love live, sparks begin to fly when Alice and Adam have a chance meeting at a stoplight, and it isn't long before the couple are living together and Adam proposes. With their heated romance taking on hints of mild S & M following their wedding, Alice's realization that she knows very little about her new spouse begins to take on ominous undertones when she discovers that his former fiancée died under mysterious circumstances. Allegations of rape and more missing lovers soon prompt Alice to continue her increasingly disturbing investigation toward answers she may not be ready to accept. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Heather Graham, Joseph Fiennes, (more)
Love and war divide two brothers in a drama from award-winning director Milcho Manchevski, his first since his acclaimed 1994 debut Pred Dozhdot. After an elderly woman (Rosemary Murphy) gets the better of a burglar (Adrian Lester) who has broken into her apartment, she decides to tell him a story about her family to give him a perspective on an individual's legacy to their family. Luke (David Wenham) and Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) are brothers and cowboys in the American West near the turn of the century. Luke and Elijah are both in love with Lilith (Anne Brochet), a woman who works in an upscale brothel, and when Elijah marries her, it puts a permanent rift in his relationship with his brother. Luke leaves the country and travels to Macedonia, where he becomes involved with a group of resistance fighters who are trying to topple Turkish occupation of their land; a skilled gunman, Luke soon becomes a valuable member of the Macedonian nationalist forces, and falls in love with Neda (Nikolina Kujac), a woman fighting alongside the loyalists. However, Luke discovers he can't entirely leave his past behind when he discovers Elijah has become a hired gun who has joined the Turkish forces. Dust was the opening night attraction at the 2001 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, David Wenham, (more)
A turning point in 20th century war history is the focus of this fact-based account of the 1942-1943 battle of Stalingrad, in which the Germans were finally defeated by Russian influence -- one of the bloodiest battles in World War II history. The film stars Jude Law as Vassili, a marksman from the Urals who is transported to Stalingrad in 1942, and a master German sniper, Major Koenig (Ed Harris). Koenig, an expert German sniper, is determined to eliminate his formidable opponent by any means necessary; meanwhile, Vassili has joined forces with Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), a young Russian political adversary, who is impressed by Vassili's skills and raises his profile in the Soviet Union. Both Vassili and Danilov become involved with Tanya (Rachel Weisz), whose Jewish parents have been captured by the Germans and have forced her to take up with the men on a sniper expedition. Koenig and Vassili begin to develop traps for each other, until fate inevitably must bring the two sharpshooters together. This large-scale production, financed mostly by Teuton companies, also features Bob Hoskins as Nikita Krushchev and Ron Perlman as an aging Russian sniper. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, (more)
Joseph Fiennes and Rhys Ifans star in this wacky British comedy-thriller. Hard luck case Pete (Ifans), who is unable to impregnate his hot-to-trot wife Sarah (Sadie Frost), learns that his father's business, which he recently inherited, is saddled with a huge tax debt. At his wits' end, he consults his coke-snorting buddy Sean (Fiennes), who recommends a monetary infusion from local Russian loan shark Mr. Kant (Steven Berkoff) and his over-sexed daughter Masha (Tara Fitzgerald). When Pete and the mobster meet, Masha starts aggressively seducing him. Meanwhile, Sean double-crosses everyone while Sarah just whines. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, (more)
Writer/director Paul Schrader explored his well-documented interest in film noir with this modern-day crime story. A horribly disfigured man named Manuel Esquema (Joseph Fiennes) is called upon to help out Mark Brice (Ray Liotta), a former city councilman in a wealthy New York community. Brice has been accused of some serious financial irregularities, and Esquema is the sort of "fixer" who might be able to make his problems go away. Mark, however, doesn't recognize Esquema as the former Alan Ripley, who was working as a towel boy at the Florida resort where Mark and his wife Ella (Gretchen Mol) were honeymooning shortly after their marriage. Alan became obsessed with Ella the moment he saw her, and before long the two were engaged in a torrid affair. Ripley urged Ella to leave Mark for him, but she refused; Ripley followed them to New York, and when Ella eventually confessed her infidelity to Mark, he responded by shooting off half of Alan's face. Alan survives and builds a new (and sinister) life for himself, but when Mark hires Esquema to help him, the former Alan's obsession with Ella blooms anew. Forever Mine was screened in competition at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Ray Liotta, (more)
This British-made historical drama depicts the rise of young Elizabeth Tudor to Queen of England, a reign of intrigue and betrayals. In 1554, Queen Mary I (Kathy Burke) tries to restore Catholicism as England's single faith. With no heir to the crown, she maneuvers to keep her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) from succeeding her, but her efforts fail. With Mary dead, Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen of England in November 1558. Elizabeth relishes the return from exile of her childhood sweetheart, Lord Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes). Chief adviser Sir William Cecil (Richard Attenborough) urges the young Queen to forget personal matters and instead address the country's pressing problems. England is bankrupt, has no army, and is under serious threat from abroad. Elizabeth even has enemies within her own court, the most dangerous being the Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston). Hoping for an heir, Cecil suggests marriage candidates -- King Philip II of Spain or the French Duc d'Anjou (Vincent Cassel) -- to secure the realm. Elizabeth agrees to meet their ambassadors, but her true feelings are revealed when she meets Dudley for a secret tryst. French "warrior queen" Mary of Guise (Fanny Ardent) amasses troops at the Scottish border. Elizabeth bows to the pro-War lobby led by Norfolk, despite protests from her Master of Spies, the enigmatic Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), but the decision to fight leads to a humiliating defeat. As dark clouds of court conspiracies gather, and the possibility of assassination looms, Elizabeth strikes out at her enemies and puts her trust in Walsingham. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto), this is the first English-language film of Indian director Shekhar Kapur, who shot on locations at Northumberland, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire, and at Shepperton Studios. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, (more)
William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is on a cold streak. Not only is he writing for Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), owner of "The Rose," a theatre whose doors are about to be closed by sadistic creditors, but he's got a nasty case of writer's block. Shakespeare hasn't written a hit in years. In fact, he hasn't written much of anything recently. Thus, the Bard finds himself in quite a bind when Henslowe, desperate to stave off another round of hot-coals-to-feet application, stakes The Rose's solvency on Shakespeare's new comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." The problem is, "Romeo" is safely "locked away" in Shakespeare's head, which is to say that not a word of it is written. Meanwhile, the lovely Lady Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) is an ardent theatre-goer -- scandalous for a woman of her breeding -- who especially admires Shakespeare's plays and, not incidentally, Bill himself. Alas, she's about to be sold as property into a loveless marriage by her mercenary father and shipped off to a Virginia tobacco plantation. But not before dressing up as a young man and winning the part of Romeo in the embryonic play. Shakespeare soon discovers the deception and goes along with it, using the blossoming love affair to ignite his muse. As William and Viola's romance grows in intensity and spirals towards its inevitable culmination, so, too, does the farcical comedy about Romeo and pirates transform into the timeless tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet. ~ Merle Bertrand, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, (more)
Nick Hamm (Talk of Angels) directed this U.K. romantic comedy following a group of British blokes and their encounters with an American woman in London. As Laurence (Joseph Fiennes, brother of Ralph Fiennes) narrates the tale to his neighbor, Dr. Pedersen (Ray Winstone), the scene flashes back to three days earlier: Laurence's friend Daniel (Tom Hollander) is in the Minneapolis airport on a business trip when he spots blonde Martha (Monica Potter of Con Air) buying a "first flight to anywhere." Daniel sits next to her on the plane and makes a London lunch date with her for the following day, but she's a no-show. He expresses his disappointment to Laurence and unemployed actor Frank (Rufus Sewell of Cold Comfort Farm). Frank meets Martha accidentally in a park, realizes who she is, learns she's in love and she intends to fly back to the U.S., and then makes a move on her (without telling her he knows Daniel). He loses track of her at an art gallery. Later, Laurence reveals that when he missed meeting Daniel at the airport, he wound up meeting Martha instead -- a moment of mutual love. At this point, much like the structure of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956), the time is reset and previous events are repeated -- from the POV of another character. The movie is only two-thirds complete when Laurence finishes his recap of the previous three days -- so the story continues from that point. Shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Monica Potter, Rufus Sewell, (more)
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