Erin Daniels Movies

George Falconer (Colin Firth) feels lost. Not only is he still grieving the death of his longtime companion, Jim (Matthew Goode), but he's also a Brit teaching English at a California college. He's so distraught with heartbreak that he's decided to kill himself, and proceeds to get all his affairs in order while carrying on with what otherwise would be a normal day. He gives an unusually forceful lecture to his class, revealing enough that a perceptive student, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), senses something is wrong with the professor; collects his important financial papers from his bank; buys bullets for a handgun he owns; and makes a visit to his best friend (Julianne Moore). But throughout these methodical preparations, George keeps running into people -- a colleague's daughter, a attractive gay hustler, and the sympathetic Kenny -- who offer him glimpses of why he should stay alive. A Single Man is the directorial debut of legendary fashion designer Tom Ford. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Season two of Showtime's lesbian-oriented seriocomedy series The L Word finds the formerly blissful relationship between control-freak Bette (Jennifer Beals) and supplicative Tina (Laurel Holloman) on hiatus due to Bette's infidelity, with Tina hiding the fact that she is once again pregnant. Having come out of the closet, Jenny (Mia Kirshner) splits with her husband, Tim (Eric Mabius). Wisecracking Alice (Leisha Hailey) and hyper-defensive Dana (Erin Daniels), who is engaged to her new manager, Tonya (Meredith McGeachie), try to hide their affair from their tongue-clucking friends. And the footloose Shane (Katherine Moennig) avoids getting serious with seductive deejay Carmen (Sarah Shahi), despite secretly harboring feelings for her. In other developments, Bette's straight half sister, Kit (Pam Grier), opens up her own nightclub, The Planet, and urges Bette to mend fences with their father, Melvin (Emmy nominee Ossie Davis), who is dying. Tina, who is disenchanted with Bette, nonetheless enters into a relationship with another domineering woman, Helena (Rachel Shelley), the daughter of influential philanthropist Peggy Peabody (Holland Taylor) and a professional rival of Bette. Jenny begins to date Carmen, thereby unintentionally cultivating Shane's jealousy. And a number of surprises are in store for certain of the characters as the 2005 Gay Pride Festival. The season ends with a funeral, Tina's painful labor throes, and various piquant moments of truth for Bette, Jenny, and Alice. ~ Rovi

Funnyman Robin Williams steps out of character in this tense, low-key thriller that marked the feature-film directorial debut of music video veteran Mark Romanek. Semour "Sy" Parrish (Williams) runs the photo processing department at a large discount store; Sy is dedicated to his job, and takes great pride in his work. Sy's favorite customers are Nina and Will Yorkin (Connie Nielsen and Michael Vartan), an attractive and cheerful young couple with a nine-year-old boy, Jake (Dylan Smith). Sy dotes on the Yorkins and their son whenever they drop off film to be processed -- something they've been doing quite often ever since Jake was born -- and Nina and Will are indulgent of Sy's attentions, regarding his as a harmless eccentric. What the Yorkins don't know is Sy is a desperately lonely man with no real life of his own, and he's been obsessively making copies of their photos, for years, imagining himself to be "Uncle Sy," a member of the family. Sy's tenuous hold on reality begins to collapse when he develops a roll of film brought in by a new customer that suggests Will has been unfaithful to Nina; the notion that his ideal family may be falling apart is troubling enough for Sy, and when he loses his job, Sy reaches the breaking point. One Hour Photo was screened in competition at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this action thriller, the only things standing in the way of world destruction are two guys in an ice cream truck. On a remote island in the South Pacific, a secret weapons project (code name "Elvis") goes wrong, and a new chemical weapon, safe when frozen but deadly when thawed, is allowed to escape. Eighteen soldiers are killed, leaving behind only the scientist who created the formula and the officer in charge of the project, who is saddled with most of the blame. Ten years later, Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich) is working at a diner in Montana when an old friend, Dr. Richard Long (David Paymer), is seriously wounded by Maj. Andrew Brynner (Peter Firth). It seems that Dr. Long helped create Elvis and Maj. Brynner was the officer who took the fall for the disaster ten years ago. Near death, Long gives Elvis to Mason and tells him that it has to be kept solidly frozen and delivered to Fort Magruder, 90 miles away. But how to keep it at zero degrees until then? A logical solution presents itself when Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who drives an ice cream truck, makes a delivery to the diner. Mason drafts Arlo into helping him transport Elvis to safety, and before long Brynner's men are hot on the trail of the icy chemical weapon. First-time director Hugh Johnson learned his craft in part through his work as a cameraman for Ridley Scott: he was the cinematographer for White Squall and G.I. Jane. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi