Frances Fisher Movies

This spectacular epic re-creates the ill-fated maiden voyage of the White Star Line's $7.5 million R.M.S Titanic and the tragic sea disaster of April 15, 1912. Running over three hours and made with the combined contributions of two major studios (20th Century-Fox, Paramount) at a cost of more than $200 million, Titanic ranked as the most expensive film in Hollywood history at the time of its release, and became the most successful. Writer-director James Cameron employed state-of-the-art digital special effects for this production, realized on a monumental scale and spanning eight decades. Inspired by the 1985 discovery of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, the contemporary storyline involves American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent.

Cameron launched the project after seeing Robert Ballard's 1987 National Geographic documentary on the wreckage. Blueprints of the real Titanic were followed during construction at Fox's custom-built Rosarito, Mexico studio, where a hydraulics system moved an immense model in a 17-million-gallon water tank. During three weeks aboard the Russian ship Academik Keldysh, underwater sequences were filmed with a 35mm camera in a titanium case mounted on the Russian submersible Mir 1. When the submersible neared the wreck, a video camera inside a remote-operated vehicle was sent into the Titanic's 400-foot bow, bringing back footage of staterooms, furniture and chandeliers. On November 1, 1997, the film had its world premiere at the 10th Tokyo International Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

An outwardly successful woman teeters on the brink of emotional collapse in this psychological drama. Evelyn Stevens (Tilda Swinton) is a skilled and well-regarded attorney who is being considered for a prestigious judicial appointment. However, she's plagued by self-doubt and neurotic obsessions (the "perversions" referenced in the title), including an obsession with expensive clothes and cosmetics, lingering fears about her relationship with her lover John (Clancy Brown), an exaggerated sense of competition with the new lawyer in her office, and an intense sexual curiosity about Renee (Karen Sillas), the psychiatrist who has just moved into her building. Evelyn is forced to put her own problems on hold for the moment when she learns that her sister Madelyn (Amy Madigan), a Ph.D candidate struggling to complete her doctoral thesis, has been arrested again for shoplifting. In time, the two sisters realize that they have to come to terms with the psychic damage inflicted upon them in their childhood. Female Perversions was based on the best-selling novel by Louise J. Kaplan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This character drama follows the exploits of an aged oil seeker, known only as Mr. Cox, as he roams across Texas in search of black gold. He has a special gift for it and has helped many wildcatters strike it rich. Unfortunately, he has yet to find his own gusher. In 1935, Cox has only a suitcase and a cat to his name. During a tremendous windstorm, he is forced to seek shelter in a farmhouse, owned by Don and Cora Day. The Days have three daughters and must scramble to eke out a meager existence on their dusty farm, located near the town of Henrietta. While there, Mr. Cox begins getting that old feeling that tells him that there is a lot of oil on the Day's farm. They think he is plumb loco and ask him to leave, but Cox wants to find out if it is true. He goes to an old friend, Big Dave, who thanks to Cox, has become an oil tycoon, to help him do some test drilling, but Big Dave has a short memory and brushes Cox off as a "hopeless loser." The determined Cox then devises a scheme to force Big Dave to provide him with financial backing. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this semi-improvised comic drama from maverick filmmaker Henry Jaglom, Gena (Victoria Foyt) is a businesswoman starting to creep into middle age. She thinks she might be pregnant, and she isn't sure how she feels about it: she wants to have children, and her body's clock is starting to tick rather loudly, but she's uncertain if this is the right time to start a family. Just as important, she's not sure who the father is, and she is torn between the two suspects. James (Matt Salinger) is sweet, stable, and a little boring, while Anthony (Eric Roberts) is exciting but arrogant and not terribly dependable. While Gena waits to hear from her doctor about the results of her pregnancy test, she attends a baby shower for one of her co-workers, where the women discuss their feelings about having children -- some want them, some don't, some aren't sure. Meanwhile, the hostess throwing the shower has her own problems; her husband is deep in debt and may have to sell their house to pay his bills. Jaglom co-wrote Babyfever with his wife (and star) Foyt -- appropriately enough, not long after the couple had their second child. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jane Seymour stars as a female serial killer in this made-for-cable thriller. Seymour stars as the unbalanced Linda Crandall, a woman who marries men only to kill them. She weds and kills five men before targeting widower Don Mc Andrews (Barry Bostwick). Her plans for a sixth murder are put into jeopardy when her soon-to-be sister-in-law becomes suspicious. Actor James Keach directed the film. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

A genetics researcher is found murdered in his trashed laboratory. At first, it appears that a militant animal-rights group was responsible for the killing. But the detectives and the lawyers unearth another possible avenue of prosecution when it is revealed that the dead woman's husband, Donald Walsh (John Cunningham), is a chronic philanderer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dedicated to his mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood's 1992 Oscar-winner examines the mythic violence of the Western, taking on the ghosts of his own star past. Disgusted by Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett's decree that several ponies make up for a cowhand's slashing a whore's face, Big Whiskey prostitutes, led by fierce Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), take justice into their own hands and put a $1000 bounty on the lives of the perpetrators. Notorious outlaw-turned-hog farmer William Munny (Eastwood) is sought out by neophyte gunslinger the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) to go with him to Big Whiskey and collect the bounty. While Munny insists, "I ain't like that no more," he needs the bounty money for his children, and the two men convince Munny's clean-living comrade Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to join them in righting a wrong done to a woman. Little Bill (Oscar-winner Gene Hackman), however, has no intention of letting any bounty hunters impinge on his iron-clad authority. When pompous gunman English Bob (Richard Harris) arrives in Big Whiskey with pulp biographer W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) in tow, Little Bill beats Bob senseless and promises to tell Beauchamp the real story about violent frontier life and justice. But when Munny, the true unwritten legend, comes to town, everyone soon learns a harsh lesson about the price of vindictive bloodshed and the malleability of ideas like "justice." "I don't deserve this," pleads Little Bill. "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it," growls Munny, simultaneously summing up the insanity of western violence and the legacy of Eastwood's Man With No Name. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Honest small-town cop Wings Hauser is weighed down by personal problems. This fact must be put on the back burner when crooked businessman John Saxon commits murder. Though the identity of the killer is never in question, Saxon manages to buy everybody off except Hauser. In order to collar the criminal, the sheriff must overcome his emotional difficulties-and keep one step ahead of a frame-up concocted by Saxon This modest melodrama offers good work from distaff cast members Frances Fisher, Patty D'Arbanville and Margaux Hemingway. Deadly Conspiracy was also released as Frame Up. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Steve Martin wrote and stars in this look at the promise and dreamtime of Los Angeles culture. Martin stars as Harris K. Telemacher, a light-hearted television weatherman who does wacky comedy in lieu of reports since, being in L.A., he has very little weather to report. He spends his time roller-skating through museums and spending time with California's beautiful people. But Telemacher is fired and discovers that his girlfriend Trudi (Marilu Henner) is having an affair. He walks away from the relationship and re-evaluates his life, getting advice from a friendly electronic highway road sign. The sign suggests that he call SanDeE (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sprightly and attractive Valley Girl he met in a clothing store. With SanDeE he experiences a liberating and carefree spirit. But Telemacher comes to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Sara (Victoria Tennant), a tuba-playing British journalist who is in California to do a feature on Los Angeles lifestyles. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this film, the small town of Clyde, Ohio is buzzing with excitement when it is said that the famous Roxy Carmichael is leaving her luxurious Hollywood life to return to her old hometown. Her return causes upheaval in the lives of family-man Denton Webb (Jeff Daniels), her old boyfriend, and an angst-ridden teen, Dinky Bossetti (Winona Ryder), who is convinced that Roxy Carmichael is her natural mother. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Adam Horovitz, of Beastie Boys fame, plays a troublesome teen who is shipped off by his wealthy parents to an institute for "problem" youths. This is the sort of place where any sign of rebellion is dealt with in draconian fashion. The strapped-down Horovitz tells his life story to psychiatrist Donald Sutherland. In flashback, we see a fairly docile young Horovitz, whose chance involvement in a rumble instigated by gang leader Don Bloomfield leads to an arrest. Appearing in court, Horovitz is railroaded into the institute by his father, more as a means of getting even with his divorced wife than out of any concern for his son. Sutherland tries to help, but Horovitz betrays the doctor's trust once too often. Only by extricating himself from the influence of Bloomfield does Horovitz have any chance for redemption--and only by undergoing a domestic reversal of his own is Sutherland truly able to aid the boy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

For his third film as a director and his third film directing Clint Eastwood, stunt-man Buddy Van Horn helmed this action comedy involving a skip tracer, some neo-nazis, and the titular vehicle. Eastwood stars as Tommy Nowak, a bounty hunter with a knack for catching bail-skippers with an array of costumes and characters. After he captures a young woman (Bernadette Peters), he suddenly finds himself between the woman's good-for-nothing husband and his white supremacist cohorts and the wads of cash hidden in the pink Cadillac she's driving. With the skin-heads hot on their tail, a romance sparks between the skip-tracer and his captive. Written by John Eskow, Pink Cadillac costars Timothy Carhart and Michael Des Barres. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

First-timer Daniel Irom wrote and directed Bum Rap, which represents something of a variation on Fielder Cook's superior Seize the Day (1986). The picture concentrates on taxi driver and striving actor Paul Colson (Craig Wasson of Four Friends and Go Tell the Spartans), whose life goes through the floor. He's informed by the girl he's been pining for (Frances Fisher) that she wants to remain platonic friends (only) and by a physician that he has an exceptionally rare illness which will give him about seventy-two more hours to live. He subsequently lives out that age-old epicurean adage by patching things up with his folks, reconnecting with poker buddies, and spending a great deal of time with a well-meaning hooker.
(Blanche Baker). The late Al Lewis (AKA Grandpa Munster) has a bit part as a lunatic neighbor. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi