Christine Jeffs Movies
A thirtysomething single mother whose boundless potential was squandered through a series of failed relationships and a misguided effort to help her younger sister succeed in life finds the fruits of her labors finally coming together in director Christine Jeffs' dark family comedy. Back in high school, the future looked pretty bright for Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams); not only was she the cheerleading captain, but she was also dating the star quarterback. Flash forward a little over a decade, and Rose is working overtime in hopes of getting her son into a better school. Her sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), is still living at home with their father, Joe (Alan Arkin), a failed salesman whose penchant for jumping into get-rich-quick schemes has left the family without a financial net to fall back on. Rose may be down, but she certainly isn't out, and when she hatches a plan to launch a crime-scene cleanup business, the money starts rolling in. Sure, cleaning up murder scenes and suicide sites may not be the most glamorous job in the world, but death is a fairly profitable business, and as the phone keeps ringing, Rose and Norah finally begin to experience the closeness of sisterhood that has eluded them all these years while also providing their family with true security. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, (more)
The life of poet and novelist Sylvia Plath -- one of the most celebrated literary figures of her generation -- is brought to the screen in this controversial screen adaptation. Born in Boston, MA, in 1932, Plath (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) developed a precocious talent as a writer and published her first poem when she was only eight years old. That same year, tragedy introduced itself into her life as Plath was forced to confront the unexpected death of her father. In 1950, she began studying at Smith College on a literary scholarship, and while she was an outstanding student, she also began suffering from bouts of extreme depression; following her junior year, she attempted suicide for the first time. Plath survived, and, in 1955, she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study in England at Cambridge. While in Great Britain, Plath met Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig), a respected author who would later become the British Poet Laureate; the two fell in love, and married in 1958. However, marriage, family, and a growing reputation as an important poet failed to bring Plath happiness, and as she became increasingly fascinated with death in her later poetry and her sole novel, The Bell Jar, and after Hughes left her for another woman, her depression went into a tailspin from which she would never fully recover. Sylvia was adapted in part from Birthday Letters, a collection of poems Ted Hughes published in 1998, in which he dealt with his marriage to Plath in print for the first time. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, (more)
Television commercial director Christine Jeffs makes her feature debut with this intense family drama about the collapse of a marriage and the dissolution of a mother-daughter relationship. Thirteen-year-old Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) and her younger brother Jim (Aaron Murphy) are largely left alone in their seaside bungalow as their parents try to piece their marriage back together. While Janey's mom Kate (Sarah Peirse) gets blind drunk, flirts with other men, and nurses hangovers, her father Ed recoils in disgust at his wife's dissolute behavior. The family's simmering tensions explode with the appearance of Cady, a rakish freelance photographer. While Kate immediately starts to flirt with the younger man, Janey herself is attracted to him, believing that he is her only ticket out of her dysfunctional family. Soon Kate and Janey find themselves locked in a desperate and despairing battle for Cady. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki, Sarah Peirse, (more)
