Marcia Gay Harden Movies
Often noted for her striking feature debut as a gun-toting seductress in the Coen brothers' noirish gangster crime thriller Miller's Crossing (1990), Marcia Gay Harden has since bounced between disparaging disappointment and critical prosperity, and is commonly praised for her chameleon-like ability to immerse herself in characters that are often the polar opposite of the cheerfully optimistic actress.Born in La Jolla, CA, on August 14, 1959, as the third of five children in a military family, Harden's clan moved constantly. Her passion for drama sparked by a period that the family spent in Greece (when she attended Athenian plays), Harden studied drama in college, earning a B.A. in theater from the University of Texas, and an M.F.A. in theater from New York University. After graduation, Harden continued to hone her acting talents on stage in Washington, D.C. Immediately evincing an innate ability to portray a wide range of characterizations, Harden earned two Helen Hayes Award nominations - one for her role in Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart and one for her role in The Miss Firecracker Contest. Angels in America brought Harden to Broadway, where she found further success in earning both Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations, as well as winning the Theater World Award for Best Actress. Though she had made an impressive screen debut in Miller's Crossing, disappointment soon followed with a slew of critically shunned successes mixed with a series of creative misfires. Though discouraged in the critics' failure to recognize what Harden considered to be some of her best work, Harden began to focus less on Hollywood validation for happiness, and instead shifted her attention to refining her acting abilities. Moving from quirky dramatic roles, such as her manipulative character in Crush (1992), to quiet dramas like 1996's The Spitfire Grill, and such mainstream efforts as The First Wives Club (also 1996) and Meet Joe Black (1998), Harden felt comfortable in a wide variety of roles. She also occasionally compromised on her choice of material during this period (perhaps out of necessity) - such as the dumb-dumb comedy Spy Hard, with Leslie Nielsen, and the 1997 Absent Minded Professor rehash Flubber (starring Robin Williams).
But her fortunes began to turn with a supporting role in Ed Harris' long-anticipated Jackson Pollock biopic Pollock (2000) that finally brought the actress much-deserved, mainstream critical recognition for her work. Reunited with Harris from their pairing in an earlier stage production of Sam Shepard's Simpatico, Harden's role as Pollock's dysfunctional muse earned her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 2000 Academy Awards.
The dawning years of the new millennium were undeniably kind to the tireless actress, and after a trio of made-for-television movies in the year 2000 Harden essayed the role of a stylish but enigmatic catalyst to a mystery with decidedly comic undertones in Susan Seidelman's Gaudi Afternoon, and portrayed the NASA engineer love interest of Tommy Lee Jones's crop duster, Hawk, in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys; Harden and Eastwood forged a strong professional bond and would work together again, several years later.
A brief foray into sitcom territory followed soon thereafter, when Harden co-starred with Richard Dreyfuss in shortlived television series The Education of Max Bickford (2001), and the following year, she stuck to the small screen for the mini-series Guilty Hearts and the made-for-television feature King of Texas (the latter earning her a a Golden Sattelite nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Made for Television). An adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear set in the Old West, King of Texas found Harden essaying the role of cattle-baron John Lear's (Patrick Stewart) eldest daughter. Equally busy in 2003, Harden abandoned the small screen to work with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Hollywood. Following her second onscreen assignment for Clint Eastwood - in his deeply flawed but commendable ensemble piece Mystic River -
Harden essayed the role of a mother attempting to adopt a South American girl in longtime indie filmmaker John Sayles' Casa de Los Babys and provided a key supporting performance in Mike Newell's Mona Lisa Smile. She contributed to the disappointing (and eminently forgettable) Gene Hackman/Ray Romano onscreen pairing Welcome to Mooseport (as president Hackman's campaign manager) but fared better by joining the cast of Richard Linklater's remake The Bad News Bears, starring Billy Bob Thornton (Harden plays the mom who brings Thornton's slovenly Morris Buttermaker in to coach the team).
After relatively limited work throughout 2005 - including a small-scale voiceover assignment as Willa Cather in Joel Geyer's Willa Cather: the Road is All and Mrs. Merriman in the heartwarming family drama Felicity: An American Girl Adventure - Harden's activity crescendoed over the course of 2006, with appearances in no less than three A-list features. These entailed work in multiple genres, and suggested a broad array of fun and challenging characterizations. In Lasse Hallstrom's late 2006 docudrama The Hoax, Harden plays Edith Irving, the wife of scam artist Clifford Irving (portrayed by Richard Gere) during his notorious early-1970s scheme to forge an autobiography of the late Howard Hughes. In Paul Weitz's American Dreams, she plays yet another matron - this time the wife of American president Dennis Quaid, as the generally clueless fellow (!) is sent on a nationally-broadcast talent program. And Harden joins the celebrity-studded ensemble of the more conventional Dead Girl - a murder mystery directed by Karen Moncrieff, whose cast members include Harden, Giovanni Ribisi, Brittany Murphy, Piper Laurie, Josh Brolin, and Mary Steenburgen. The plot recalls Ray Lawrence's Lantana, in its investigation of several seemingly-unrelated lives that intersect in unforeseen ways as the mystery surrounding a woman's death is gradually disclosed to the characters and audience.
Offscreen, Harden married property master and occasional location scout Thaddaeus Scheel (Boys on the Side, Houseguest, The Spitfire Grill) in 1996. The couple has three children. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Season 2 follows cutthroat legal do-gooder Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) as she goes after the murderous CEO of a rapacious energy company, while Patty's no-longer-naive associate Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) goes after her because she thinks Patty tried to have her killed. Guiding Ellen in this effort are two FBI agents (Mario Van Peebles, Glenn Kessler) out to entrap Patty in a bribery scheme. Two of the ways they try to get to her are through her second-in-command, Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), and Uncle Pete (Tom Aldredge), her Mr. Fix-it (with no questions asked). Meanwhile, Ellen meets a sympathetic, if secretive man named Wes Krulik (Timothy Olyphant) at a grief-counseling session, and they're immediately attracted to each other. What Ellen doesn't know is Wes has ties to Rick Messer (David Costabile), the rogue cop Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) hired in Season 1 to murder her fiancé. As for Frobisher, Patty's first-season target, he's now her uneasy ally in her effort to take down Walter Kendrick (John Doman), the CEO of Ultima National Resources. Kendrick is accused by scientist Daniel Purcell (William Hurt) of knowingly polluting land around a UNR facility in West Virginia. Purcell's wife is soon murdered and he's charged with the crime. As it happens, Purcell once had an affair with Patty but now he's secretly seeing Kendrick's lawyer, Claire Maddox (Marcia Gay Harden). Patty's husband, Phil (Michael Nouri), who's having an affair as well, gets mixed up in the UNR affair when he's offered the post of U.S. energy secretary. Working for Kendrick are math whiz Finn Garrity (Kevin Corrigan), a cocaine-snorting, price-rigging energy trader, and the Deacon (Darrell Hammond), whose dirty work is less cerebral. ~ Paul Droesch, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, (more)
- 2007
- Add Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco to QueueAdd Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco to top of Queue
While Los Angeles has been the capital of major studio filmmaking in America since the early ears of the 20th Century, in the northern part of California, San Francisco has become home to a different breed of filmmaker -- artists who treasure their independence and carefully guard their creative vision, even while working in the highest echelons of the commercial movie business. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas are just two of the best-known directors to emerge from the San Francisco film community, and Fog City Mavericks is a documentary which pays homage to a number of important filmmakers from the City by the Bay. In addition to Coppola and Lucas, Fog City Mavericks profiles directors Clint Eastwood, Carroll Ballard, Philip Kaufman and Chris Columbus, pioneering independent auteur John Korty, experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner, producer Saul Zaentz, editor and sound designer Walter Murch, cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel, digital animation moguls Brad Bird, Pete Docter, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, and actor Robin Williams, and many more. While examining these individuals, the film also embraces the whole of the San Francisco film scene, and explains why these artists remain so loyal to their hometown. Fittingly, Fog City Mavericks received its world premiere at the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Mental illness stretches a loving family to the breaking point in this independent drama. Chris Marino (Devon Gearhart) is a ten-year-old boy growing up in a small oceanside community in Florida. Chris's father John (Joe Pantoliano) is a construction worker who is struggling to hold the family together under difficult circumstances -- his wife and Chris' mother, Mary (Marcia Gay Harden), has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and while they've been pursuing a variety of treatment options, Mary's condition continues to slowly deteriorate as she hears phantom sounds, has hallucinations, and becomes increasingly paranoid. While Joe tries to explain Mary's disease to Chris, her actions have turned her into an increasingly frightening and embarrassing stranger to her son, and Mary is clearly aware of the toll her condition has taken on the family but cannot help herself. After a violent incident results in a call from the police, Mary enters a mental hospital, and as Joe begins to buckle under the pressure of his circumstances, he quits his job and devotes all his spare time to building a sailboat, a project that reminds him of better days for Mary and himself. Canvas was the first feature film from writer and director Joseph Greco, who drew inspiration from the story of his mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was growing up. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Pantoliano, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
- 2005
Few events had as much impact on the life of young Willa Cather than her move from a lavish Virginia home to the endless prairies of Nebraska. A profound influence on the developing writer's style and storytelling, the creativity afforded to Cather by that fateful move fueled such acclaimed works as My Antonia and the Pulitzer Prize-winning One of Ours. Now literature fans can explore the background of the inspirational female author in a detailed documentary exploring both the influences and works of a writer whose frequent surges in popularity give knowing testament to the power of her words. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2005
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Everyone's favorite doll comes to life in this feature based on the best-selling books about a nine-year-old, pre-American Revolution Virginian girl whose love for the outdoors leads to the friendship of a lifetime. Felicity (Shailene Woodley) loves horses, and though her parents plead with her to remain indoors, she years to ride the open plains. When Felicity comes into contact with a beautiful mare which has suffered at the hands of its callous owner, she takes it upon herself to care for the creature, and in the process learns a series of important life lessons. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shailene Woodley, Katie Henney, (more)
- 2004
Based on short stories written by Sam Shepard and published in his semi-autobiographical collections Crusing Paradise and Motel Chronicles, See You In My Dreams is the compelling story of the star-crossed romance between Joe (Aidan Quinn), a New Mexico rancher, and Joe's war bride Angela (Marcia Gay Harden). Settling down on his ranch in the years following WW2, Joe is full of grandiose dreams about his future, but is quickly weighed down by the harsh realities of life, just as Angela grows more and more disenchanted with her role as the loyal dutiful farm wife. Having invested all his hopes in his son Ben (Will Estes), Joe allows his inner demons to get the best of him and ultimately compels Ben to leave home at the age of 15. Several years later, Ben returns with his own bride Ingrid (Jacinda Barrett), hoping to mend fences with his estranged father--while Angela has likewise drifted away and into the arms of another man. Offering sidelines advice and solace to both sides of the argument is Joe's best friend, Esteban (Cheech Martin). There are no pat answers or simple solutions in this poignant made-for-TV character study, which made its CBS debut on June 13, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aidan Quinn, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
A syphilis outbreak rocks an upscale suburban high school in this made-for-cable movie. Freshman Hannah Vogul (Alexis Dziena) does everything her loving parents (Marcia Gay Harden and Gary Hudson) want: excels at music, makes good grades, and always tells the truth. That all changes when Hannah falls for the attentions of campus stud Nick Hartman (Mike Erwin). Supremely confident, the boy successfully pressures her to fellate him on their second date, then unsuccessfully invites her to an orgy for their third. Soon Dawn (Miriam McDonald), one of Nick's countless other conquests, confesses that she's contracted syphilis, which sets off an investigation by horrified public-health officials. When Hannah turns out to be one of dozens of infected students, her mother joins the crusade to bring their parents together and confront the underaged partying and casual sex that have led their children to this predicament. But with Hannah's self-esteem rocked by Nick's rejection and the ostracism of her peers, it may be too late to save her. She's Too Young premiered in February 2004 on the Lifetime cable network. Megan Park co-stars as Becca, another promiscuous 14-year-old, while Joe Dinicol appears as Hannah's supportive friend Tommy. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcia Gay Harden, Alexis Dziena, (more)
Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is transplanted to 19th century Texas in this made-for-cable drama. Patrick Stewart stars as John Lear, the wealthiest and most powerful rancher in the territory. Failing in body and mind, Lear decides to divide his vast property among his three daughters -- Suzannah (Marcia Gay Harden), Rebecca (Lauren Holly), and Claudia (Julie Cox) -- giving the most land to the girl who most persuasively professes her love and loyalty. While her mercenary sisters fawn all over John, the headstrong Claudia refuses to feed false compliments to her father, and as a result, she is banished from his ranch. But when Lear's spread is threatened by usurpers and landgrabbers, the enfeebled patriarch realizes that Claudia is the only one of his offspring truly worthy of his affection. All of the Shakespearean highlights are intact, albeit retranslated within the genre expectations of the Western. For example, Lear's blinding is done with a branding iron. An uneasy mixture of British theatricality and John Ford-like cinematic spectacle, King of Texas (filmed in Mexico despite its title) originally aired June 2, 2002, on the TNT cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Stewart
- 2001
Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss made his long-awaited weekly TV series bow in CBS' weekly, 60-minute The Education of Max Bickford. In the tradition of Dreyfuss' theatrical feature Mr. Holland's Opus, the series focuses on an irascibly liberal-minded but rigidly tradition-bound professor of literature at a prestigious women's college. Passed over for a promotion in favor of his former student (and lover) Andrea Haskell (Marcia Gay Harden), Max Bickford (Richard Dreyfuss) begins to wonder if his 23 years of steadfast academic service were truly worth it. All but deserted by his best friend Steve -- who has been reinvented as "Erica" (Helen Shaver) after a sex change -- and his Gen-X daughter Lyla (Katee Sackhoff), who happens to attend the college where Max teaches, our hero finds himself drawing closer to his 13-year-old son Lester (Eric Ian Goldberg), a chip off the old block if ever there was one. The producers describe the series as "a drama about a man who realizes life has passed him by and has to re-examine a lot of his assumptions." Debuting September 23, 2001, The Education of Max Bickford was one of the few new series of the 2001-2002 season whose premiere was not delayed by coverage of the World Trade Center bombing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
- 2000
Robert Mantegna stars as tough Boston private eye Spencer in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Robert B. Parker novel Thin Air. It all begins when Lila St. Claire (Yancy Butler, the new bride of police detective Frank Belson (David Ferry), is kidnapped by Latino ganglord Luis DeLeon (Jon Seda). As a personal favor to Belson, Spencer agrees to burrow into the barrio in hopes of rescuing Lila. In so doing, Spencer is made privy to more unsavory aspects of Beantown's Latino subculture--and also learns more than he cares to know about Lila's clouded past. Thin Air was originally telecast by the A&E network on September 12, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
- 1999
Joe Mantegna stars as Spenser, Robert B. Parker's tough and intelligent private eye, in this made-for-cable mystery thriller. When Ellis Alves (Wood Harris) is accused of the murder of a well-to-do college student, no one seems terribly surprised; Alves has a long criminal record and has served time for two previous felony convictions. But Alves' lawyers notice that many of the facts of the case don't seem to add up, and they hire Spenser to find out if their client is being railroaded. The longer Spenser digs into the murder, the more firmly he's convinced that Alves is not the culprit. But a number of people, including the parents of the murdered co-ed and the police detectives on the case, want Spenser to keep his nose out of the matter, and when someone starts shooting at him, he decides that he may need to go underground to protect his own safety and uncover the truth. Shiek Mahmud-Bey plays Spenser's sidekick Hawk, while Marcia Gay Harden plays Susan Silverman, the detective's significant other. The characters from Parker's Spenser mysteries were also the basis for the popular TV series Spenser For Hire, in which Spenser was played by Robert Urich. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
- 1998
A gay man's good friend agrees to bear his child, but once impregnated has second thoughts, due in part to her love affair with a handsome journalist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcia Gay Harden, David Marshall Grant, (more)
- 1995
When a ten-year-old is rendered brain-dead by a random shooting in a mall, Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Bayliss (Kyle Secor) are assigned to investigate the child's "murder." Not unexpectedly, both detectives become emotionally involved in the plight of the youngster's anguished family. Meanwhile, the rest of the Baltimore police force prepares for a visit by the Pope. Watch for a brief and unheralded crossover with the TV series Chicago Hope. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, (more)
Developed by Tina Sinatra and approved by Frank himself, Sinatra is a made-for-television mini-series following the life and times of Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. Opening with his childhood in Hoboken, New Jersey, the film follows Sinatra's (Philip Casnoff) rise to the top in the '40s, through the dark days of the early '50s and his triumphant re-emergence in the mid-'50s, to his status as pop culture icon in the '60s, '70s and '80s. In between, the film hits all of the main events, including his three marriages, his connections with the Mafia and his notorious friendship with the Rat Pack. Even with the presence of Tina Sinatra as executive producer, Sinatra doesn't gloss over the more unsavory portions of Frank's life, which makes it all the more impressive. With the exception of a couple of early songs, all the music in the movie is taken from the original Sinatra recordings. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this drama, based on a true story, desperate townsfolk take up arms to defeat the sociopathic town bully who has been terrorizing them for years. They then swear themselves to silence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Dennehy, Cloris Leachman, (more)
- 1990
A rich businessman, his wife and son are involved in illegal transactions as Kojak investigates. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Telly Savalas
- 1989
This TV film was the 2-hour pilot for the Gideon Oliver series. Louis Gossett Jr. stars as Oliver, an anthropology professor who uses his knowledge of other cultures to solve mysteries. In the opener, Professor Oliver tackles the murder of an ex-lover, who'd been investigating a cult of satanists. The storyline takes side trips into the porn industry and "snuff" films, but Gossett emerges with his dignity and reputation unsullied. Gideon Oliver was one of three rotating series telecast in 1988-89 under the umbrella title The ABC Monday Mystery Movie; the other components were B.L. Stryker and old reliable Columbo. When Mystery Movie was picked up for a second season, Gideon Oliver was not retained. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Frequent Stephen King collaborator Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) teamed with the celebrated horror author once again for this tale of terror concerning a small town engulfed by a malevolent mist, based on a story originally published in King's 1985 horror anthology Skeleton Crew. When a thick fog descends upon a rural community and claims the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught outside, a small band of survivors seeks refuge in a local grocery store. Now trapped in a darkened cloud of pure horror, the frightened denizens of the town are forced to fend off an advancing horde of murderous monsters. Punisher star Thomas Jane heads up an ensemble cast that includes Andre Braugher, Laurie Holden, William Sadler, and Marcia Gay Harden. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
Into the Wild is writer/director Sean Penn's adaptation of the popular book by Jon Krakauer, a nonfiction account of the post-collegiate wanderings of a young Virginia man, who divorces himself from his friends, family, and possessions in search of a greater spiritual knowledge and communion with nature. Upon his 1990 graduation from Emory University in Atlanta, Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) walks away from a loving if dysfunctional family and sends his nearly 25,000-dollar life savings to Oxfam International. Instead of the normal life his parents planned for him, Chris rechristens himself "Alexander Supertramp" and heads west in his beaten-up automobile until it no longer runs, at which point he takes up hitchhiking. The goal on the horizon? Alaska. By hook or by crook -- but without his limited cash, which he symbolically sets aflame -- Chris/Alexander determines to make it to his personal promised land, with stops along the way to experience America and its people. These adventures include a kayak trip down dangerous rapids, a gig working in a grain mill, extended stays with a hippie couple and a kindly old widower -- and enough cold, hunger, and exhaustion to leave him emotionally defeated more than once. Meanwhile, his parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) and sister (Jena Malone) haven't received so much as a postcard from him, and begin to fear the worst. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder composed the contemplative soundtrack. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
Director Lasse Hallström offers a brisk account of the scam that shook the literary community with this semi-comic biographical drama starring Richard Gere as the man who sold a fraudulent biography of Howard Hughes to publishing giant McGraw Hill. The year was 1971; the Vietnam War was raging and protestors filled the streets. Clifford Irving (Gere) was a struggling author with bold ambitions, and the determination needed to see them through. When Irving's attempt to sell his latest novel to McGraw Hill via his in-house publisher, Andrea Tate (Hope Davis), falls through at the last minute, the frustrated author loudly proclaims that his next novel will be "the book of the century." Upon returning to his wife Edith's (Marcia Gay Harden) makeshift studio, the humiliated author catches a glimpse of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes on a magazine cover. Later, almost jokingly, Irving and his best friend Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina) begin to fantasize about a scenario in which the author convinces his publishers that he has been personally selected by Hughes to pen the billionaire's memoirs. The revenge fantasy becomes a complicated reality, however, when Irving and Suskind approach skeptical McGraw Hill heavy Shelton Fisher (Stanley Tucci) with a series of forged letters presumably written by Hughes himself and offering unwavering support for the project. His credibility continually questioned as the ante is upped at every turn, Irving is forced to maintain the increasingly difficult charade as he strong-arms McGraw Hill to pay "Hughes" an unheard-of one million dollars for the rights to his life story, acquires a the illegally procured documents that will provide the foundation for the book, and works around the clock to meet his publisher's deadline. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Alfred Molina, (more)
Karen Moncrieff, the Independent Spirit Award-nominated director of Blue Car, assembles a stellar cast comprised of Toni Collette, James Franco, Giovanni Ribisi, and Mary Beth Hurt to tell the tale of one girl's mysterious death, and how the tragic actions of the people who surround her eventually led to her savage murder. When the brutalized and lifeless body of a once-vital young girl (Brittany Murphy) is discovered, a community is scarred by the unspeakable horror of seeing one of their own so viciously desecrated. But the discovery of the body is just the beginning of the story, and now as a wife uncovers her husband's dark secret, a mother searches frantically for her missing daughter, and a series of other, seemingly unrelated occurrences slowly begin to converge, the heartbreaking truth behind a tragic act of violence will shake the very foundation of a once close-knit community. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, (more)
Three stories of how America's obsession with firearms impacts its citizens are explored in this independent drama. Carl Wilk (Donald Sutherland) runs a gun shop in Virginia that has been owned and operated by his family for generations. Carl sees the shop as his family's legacy without paying much mind to what happens with the weapons he sells. When his granddaughter Mary Ann (Linda Cardellini) needs money for college, Carl gives her a job in the store, and while she's hesitant at first, she becomes fascinated with the merchandise as time passes. On the West Side of Chicago, Carl Carter (Forest Whitaker) is the principal of a high school where violence has become a sad fact of life. As Carl and his wife, Sara (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon), fear for their young son as they worry he could either fall prey to the violence of their community or embrace it himself, Carl receives a severe emotional blow when Jay (Arlen Escarpeta), one of his most promising students, is discovered carrying a pistol. And in Oregon, Janet (Marcia Gay Harden) is a single mother still troubled by the death of her teenaged son three years before, who took his own life after killing a handful of his classmates in a violent incident at a high school. As Janet deals with sharp words from the community, many of whom believe she should be held responsible for her late son's actions, she is unsure how to handle her surviving son, David (Christopher Marquette), who is now of high-school age. American Gun was the first feature film for writer and director Aric Avelino. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, (more)
