Iain Glen Movies
A handsome supporting player whose occasional leap into the lead has resulted in some interestingly varied performances, actor Iain Glen has appeared in everything from low-budget indies to high-profile Hollywood blockbusters -- frequently holding his own opposite such screen heavies as Harvey Keitel (The Young Americans) and Billy Connolly (Gabriel & Me). A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who studied at Edinburgh Academy and the University of Aberdeen before honing his craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the talented Shakespearian actor would go on to impress audiences in such stage works as Macbeth and Henry V. In 1985, the ascending stage talent made a successful transition to the screen with a small role in an episode of the popular U.K. mystery series Taggart, and after making the leap to the big screen with a supporting role in the 1987 feature Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Glen returned to television the next year for a role in the series The Fear. In the years that followed, Glen's big-screen career gained notable momentum thanks to solid performances in Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), with his early years coming to a peak when he took home a Best Actor award from the Berlin International Film Festival for his turn as a convicted killer in the 1990 film Silent Scream. That same year, Glen also received accolades for his portrayal of real-life explorer Lt. John Hanning Speke in Mountains of the Moon, though the remainder of the decade would find him sticking mainly to U.K. television (occasionally taking the lead, as in 1992's Frankie's House).Following an endearing turn as a sports reporter whose one-night fling leads him to come to terms with his tragic past in Glasgow Kiss, Glen received notable international exposure with a high-profile role opposite Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Though Glen's shattering performance as a father suffering terminal lung cancer in the drama Gabriel & Me (screenwriter Lee Hall's follow-up to Billy Elliot) ultimately failed to gel with audiences, Glen's horrific turn as a seemingly possessed father in Darkness offered the talented actor at his manic best. By this point, Glen seemed to be growing increasingly comfortable alternating between more independent-minded features and more large-scale productions, taking the role of noted psychiatrist Carl Jung in the 2003 romantic drama The Soul Keeper before taking a more epic turn as an anthropologist who hunts and captures pygmies in order to study them and prove a link between man and ape in 2005's Man to Man. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2007
This is not a Love Song director Billie Eltringham returns the the helm to tell this comedic tale of a 1960's-era clan of British communists who choose to leave their beloved Britain to seek out Utopian bliss in East Germany. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Tate, Iain Glen, (more)
- 2007
An aspiring country singer and a weary mechanic living in a quiet Northern Ireland community receive an uneasy chill when an old friend is released from prison in director Niall Heery's affecting study of male vulnerability and human weakness. Doug (Iian Glen) is a wannabe country singer who sports a demo he won't let anyone listen to despite his desire to get some airtime and play for locals in the local tavern. Doug's best friend is hapless local mechanic Bill (Steven Mackintosh), a man who longs to pass the family's small engine repair shop on to his hesitant son Tony (Laurence Kinlan). When Doug and Bill's deeply disturbed friend Burley (Stuart Graham) returns to the town following a stint in prison, their reluctance to accept him back into the fold leads all involved on an introspective journey that will force them to reexamine both their lives and their expectations for the future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iain Glen, Steven Mackintosh, (more)
- 2007
Master director Roberto Faenza (Sostiene Pereira) returns to the screen with this adaptation of Michal Viewegh's novel Pripad Neverne Klary. The tale opens in early 21st century Prague, Czech Republic, where a gifted young musician grows plagued by feelings of jealousy and possessiveness, and the neurosis that his gorgeous girlfriend Klara is cheating on him. He hires a private detective to spy on Klara, but this accidentally triggers a string of misunderstandings, bizarre accidents and calamities that will permanently change the lives of both partners. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudio Santamaria, Iain Glen, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, Olivia Williams, (more)
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson's enduring 1886 adventure novel, receives its 11th film adaptation in this two-and-a-half-hour miniseries starring young British TV vet James Anthony Pearson as Davie Balfour, the naïve and hopeful 15-year-old, poised to receive a vast inheritance when he is lured onto a cargo ship, knocked unconscious, and kidnapped by his malevolent uncle Ebenezer (Adrian Dunbar, Richard III), who devises a scheme to sell him into slavery. But Davie's unforeseen rescue at the hands of a Scottish rogue, Alan Breck (Iain Glen, Mountains of the Moon) sends Breck and Balfour racing across the Scottish moors, with English bounty hunters in hot pursuit. The film includes supporting performances by Paul McGann as Colonel MacNab and Kirstin Coulter Smithas Davie's paramour, Catriona. Co-produced by WGBH Boston and the BBC, and originally aired episodically on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, the first 90-minute segment of Kidnapped debuted Sunday evening, October 30, 2005, and the miniseries concluded with an hour-long segment on Sunday evening, November 6, 2005. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iain Glen, James Anthony Pearson, (more)
- 2003
A teacher takes on the corrupt leadership of an Irish reform school in this drama based on a true story. William Franklin (Aidan Quinn) is a teacher who was born in Ireland and moved to the United States only to repatriate in 1939 after his leftist political views cause him to lose his job. Franklin becomes the first non-cleric instructor at St. Jude's, a school for wayward boys run by Brother John Iain Glen, who is a firm believer in strong discipline. But Franklin comes to believe the students are being treated with excessive force, with many of the children severely punished for trivial violations of the rules, and some treated as delinquents for the crime of not having parents. As Franklin campaigns for more humane treatment of his charges, he makes a powerful enemy in Brother John, who responds to Franklin's reform efforts with greater vehemence against the students, in particular Mercier (John Travers), an inquisitive child who has become a favorite of Franklin. Franklin's distrust of Brother John's regime reaches a high point when a new student informs him that he was sexually assaulted by one of the clerics. Song for a Raggy Boy was adapted from the memoir by Patrick Galvin, who also helped adapt his story for the screen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aidan Quinn, Iain Glen, (more)
- 2003
Roberto Faenza's historical drama The Soul Keeper is a biopic of Sabina Spielrein. The family of depressed 19-year-old Sabina (Emilia Fox) takes her for treatment from Carl Jung (Iain Glen), whose radical approach to mental health was much derided in 1904. The treatment is successful, but the two eventually engage in an affair that displeases Carl's wife (Jane Alexander). The cured Sabina moves to the Soviet Union. The film uses the framing device of a modern-day scholar investigating what happened to Sabina after her move. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iain Glen, Emilia Fox, (more)
While many people want to get into heaven, one young man looks to it as a good employment opportunity as well as a spiritual path in this offbeat comedy. Jimmy Spud (Sean Landless) is an 11-year-old boy growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Newcastle, England. Like many boys his age, Jimmy already has a clear idea of what he wants to do with his future, but his ambitions are a bit different than those of his peers -- Jimmy wants to be an angel. In fact, Jimmy is so set upon doing good deeds and being able to fly that he submits a resume to a nearby church, hoping to apply for work in Heaven. The archangel Gabriel (Billy Connolly) arrives (in street clothes) to take Jimmy's C.V., and informs him that he'll pass it along to the proper authorities. When Jimmy doesn't get an immediate answer, he decides that he needs to do more good works to prove he's worthy of the job, and in his homemade angel's costume (complete with feathers), Jimmy saves a Boy Scout from drowning, then befriends the lonely lad. Jimmy's father (Iain Glen) thinks his son has gone a bit mad, but Jimmy decides saving his dad is his next project -- his father has been out of work for some time, and the stress is taking a fearful toll. However, that soon turns out to be the least of his father's problems; it turns out he has cancer, which is likely to soon prove fatal, and Jimmy wants to find a way to save his dad and earn credit with Heaven. Gabriel & Me was written by Lee Hall, who also penned the script for another film about a British lad with unusual aspirations, Billy Elliot. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iain Glen, David Bradley, (more)
This two-part British miniseries was based on a classic gothic novel by Sheridan J. LeFanu. Having inadvertently caused the death of one of his tenants, wicked Squire Fairfield (Derek Jacobi) adopted the dead man's daughter Alice (Naomi Watts). No sooner had Alice grown to womanhood that the satyr-like squire attempted to "have his way" with her. Escaping the Squire's clutches, Alice eloped with Fairfield's virtuous son Charles (Iain Glen) -- but she was not quite out of the wood yet, thanks to a series of disturbing nightmares, a wraithlike mystery woman, and the machinations of Charles' diabolical brother Harry (Jack Davenport). The Wyvern Mystery originally aired on March 5 and 12, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naomi Watts, Derek Jacobi, (more)
A woman looking for a relaxing weekend instead finds her safety at stake in this psychological thriller. Chloe (Jessica Alba) is a famous model who is feeling stressed after a working trip to the U.S. -- where she'd been dogged by a persistent telephone stalker. While Chloe has a beau, she decides spontaneously to join Ned (Gary Love), a rock musician she's met, as he heads out to the British countryside for the weekend. Upon arrival, Chloe discovers that Ned already has guests -- washed-up rock star Stan (Iain Glen), his bickering wife Rachel (Jeanne Tripplehorn), their deaf-mute daughter Theresa (Mischa Barton), and nerdy hanger-on Gordon (Ewen Bremner). As the emotional chemistry of the visitors becomes volatile, Ned's wife arrives and most of the other guests take off, leaving Chloe alone with her host and his spouse. Chloe soon discovers that Ned and his friends have a disturbing hobby -- they like to bring women back to the house, drug them, and violate them while unconscious, leaving her to wonder if she's next for this treatment. Paranoid was written and directed by noted Australian filmmaker John Duigan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Alba, James Bannon, (more)
Set amidst the austere volcanic splendor of Spain's island of Lanzarote, this period piece successfully vacillates between drama and high tragedy as it follows the romantic obsession felt by two very different men for an innocent but seductive local girl. The tale is set in a ramshackle island village during the Spanish Civil War. No sooner does young, conservative, and high-moraled Dr. Fermin (Carmelo Gomez) arrive at the pueblo than he is under in Mararia's (Goya Toledo) bewitching spell. She is interested in him too, and they briefly flirt. Freewheeling, roguish English surveyor Bertrand (Ian Glen) has also come to town on a job for the Royal Geographic Society. He too is enchanted by Mararia, and they become lovers. When Mararia becomes pregnant with Beretrand's child, the stage is set for tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carmelo Gómez, Iain Glen, (more)
Helen Mirren played the title character in the two-part British miniseries Painted Lady. In the throes of poverty and drug abuse, Irish folk singer Maggie Sheridan (Mirren) pulled herself together when her wealthy and well-connected landlord was murdered and robbed of several valuable works of art. Posing as an art dealer, Maggie not only wreaked vengeance upon the thieves, but also had time left over for a torrid interracial romance. And, as a bonus, the heroine ended up a Countess, no less. Debuting over British television on December 7, 1997, Painted Lady made its American TV bow on April 26, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Mirren, Franco Nero, (more)
- 1992
The two-part Australian miniseries Frankie's House was based on photojournalist Tim Page's autobiography Page After Page. Set during the Vietnam war, the story recounted the adventures of Page (Iain Glen) and his erstwhile photographer partner. After numerous scrapes with death, Page managed to survive to tell his tale, but his partner was not so lucky, disappearing without a trace during a 1970 foray into Laos. The program's title referred to a brothel frequented by the principal characters. The two 120-minute episodes of Frankie's House were broadcast by Australia's ABC network in 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Written by George Eliot (of Silas Marner fame), the 1859 novel Adam Bede trenchantly addresses the issues of ingrained social prejudices. Played in this British TV adaptation by Iain Glen, the titular Adam Bede is a humble carpenter, enamored of the beautiful but shallow Hetty Sorel (Patsy Kensit). Surrendering to the "political correctness" of her times, Hetty spurns Adam in favor of a wealthy marriage to a nobleman, Lord Arthur (James Wilby). Though he is deeply hurt by this, Adam never relinquishes his love for Hetty and spends the balance of the story trying to win her back in his own single-minded, diligent fashion. Counterbalancing the romantic melodrama is the calm, good-hearted presence of Adam's erstwhile sweetheart, Dinah Morris (Susannah Harker), perhaps the only character in the novel without an agenda. Adapted for television by Maggie Wadey, Adam Bede made its BBC debut in 1991, then aired as part of the PBS anthology Masterpiece Theatre on March 1, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patsy Kensit, James Wilby, (more)
- 1990
Based on a true story, this drama follows the exploits (both real and imagined) of the murderer Larry Winters (Iain Glen), who achieved fame as a writer and poet while he was in prison for his crimes. He is best known for his elegaic stories about boyhood life in the Scottish Highlands. Flashback memories of actual events are mixed with fantasy scenes, as this outwardly tough prisoner attempts to cope with his confinement. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iain Glen
British playwright David Hare both wrote and directed the complicated political melodrama Paris By Night. Charlotte Rampling plays a Tory member of the European parliament, who lets absolutely nothing get in way of her ambitions. At present, Rampling is convinced that she is being blackmailed by her ex-business partner Andrew Ray. Upon accidentally meeting Ray, Rampling impulsively murders the man. In a deliciously ironic turn of events, she is approached by Ray's daughter Sinead Cusack, who hopes that Rampling will help her locate her missing dad. Rampling eventually finds out Ray had been innocent all along-but a greater shock awaits her at home, at the hands of her long-neglected husband Michael Gambon. Paris By Night contains far too many cute coincidences to be credible, but this fact doesn't immediately sink in as the audience revels in the film's superlative performances and David Hare's adroit manipulation of people, places and events. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, (more)
- 1987
Made for British television, Will You Love Me Tomorrow? was inspired by a true story. The protagonist is a 10-year-old girl who is jailed for murder. After spending eleven years behind bars, the girl escapes, seeking answers to her plight. Joanne Whalley (before she began billing herself as Whalley-Kilmer) plays the leading character as an adult; also in the cast are Tillie Vosburgh and Will Daniels. Will You Love Me Tomorrow debuted on American television over the A&E cable network on January 8, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Blood Hunt, a well-below average made-for-TV action/ thriller, concerns a man (Andrew Keir) who sets out to avenge his brother's murder. The final face-to-face showdown, though violent, is tedious as is the entire film. Little time is spent on plot or characterization, and the action, when it occurs, is lacking in any suspense or tension. Audiences looking for action/adventure films should look elsewhere. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
Director Russell Mulcahy takes over for the third chapter in the Resident Evil film franchise, which finds genetically altered Alice (Milla Jovovich) joining forces with Carlos (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps) to take down the Umbrella Corporation once and for all. Upon emerging from her hideout in the Nevada desert, Alice is quickly joined by old friends Carlos and L.J., as well as survivors Claire (Ali Larter), K-Mart (Spencer Locke), and Nurse Betty (Ashanti). Now instilled with super-human strength, senses, and dexterity as a result of the biogenetic experimentation conducted on her by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice and the rest of the survivors set out to eliminate a virus that threatens to turn every living human undead, and ensure that the mysterious organization pays the price for their horrific crimes against humanity. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, (more)
Ridley Scott directed this epic-scale historical drama inspired by the events of the Crusades of the 12th century. Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a humble French blacksmith who is searching for a reason to go on after the death of his wife and children. Balian is approached by Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), a fabled knight who has briefly returned home after serving in the East. Godfrey informs Balian that he is his true father, and urges the blacksmith to join him as he and his forces journey to Jerusalem to help defend the holy city. Balian accepts, and he and Godfrey arrive during the lull between the Second and Third Crusades, in which the city is enjoying a fragile peace. Both Christian and Muslim forces are temporarily in retreat, thanks to the wisdom of the Christian monarch King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), his second-in-command Tiberias (Jeremy Irons), and Muslim potentate Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Violent agitators on both sides are foolishly eager to end the peace in a bid for greater power, and Saladin bows to pressures from Muslim factions; Godfrey is one of a handful of brave knights who has thrown his allegiance behind Baldwin IV and his community of diversity, and Balian joins him as they use their skills as warriors in a bid to build a lasting peace. Kingdom of Heaven also stars Eva Green as the princess Sibylla, David Thewlis as Hospitaler the priest, and Brendan Gleeson as Reynald. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, (more)
