Dede Gardner

A woman who once made it her goal in life to marry and rear a family finds her priorities suddenly shifting in director Ryan Murphy's adaptation of author Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir. In the eyes of many, Gilbert was a woman who had it all - a loving husband, a great apartment, and a weekend home - but sometimes one realizes too little too late that they haven't gotten what they truly wanted from life. On the heels of a painful divorce, the woman who had previously looked forward to a contented life of domesticated bliss sets out to explore the world and seek out her true destiny. Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner produce a film starring Pretty Woman and Erin Brockovich beauty Julia Roberts. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Angelina Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, in director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Mariane's memoir recounting the abduction and murder of her husband (played in the film by Dan Futterman) by Pakistani militants. It was on January 23, 2002, that Mariane Pearl's life took a grim and unanticipated turn that no one could have seen coming. The South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was in Pakistan with his pregnant wife, Mariane, when he set out to conduct one last interview for an upcoming article; the pair were due to fly back home to the U.S. shortly thereafter. By all accounts, it was the same type of interview he had conducted a hundred times before, and though the only concern that Daniel had voiced beforehand was that he might be a bit late for dinner, it would soon become obvious that something had gone horribly awry. Later, in an attempt to rise above the seething vengeance and cycle of violence that the post-9/11 world has fallen into and familiarize her newborn son with the father he will never know, Mariane penned A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. The remarkable true story behind the murder that shook the entire world, Mariane's deeply personal novel is adapted for the screen by the BAFTA award-winning director of The Road to Guantanamo. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An unremarkable administrative assistant finds her life going to the dogs both literally and figuratively in actor/screenwriter-turned-director Mike White's dark comedy drama. An inexplicably cheerful office worker whose somewhat sad excuse for a life seems to revolve around her pet beagle Pencil, Peggy (Molly Shannon) seems to relate better to her four-legged friend than she does to most humans. Most of her person-to-person interaction revolves around doting on other people's children and treating her co-workers to daily donuts, and Peggy just doesn't find much solace in the company of her know-it-all sister-in-law Bret (Laura Dern) or her anxiety-prone boss Robin (Josh Pais). When Peggy's dog Pencil is taken before his time, the devastated dog-lover is wracked with guilt. Now desperate to fill the gaping void that has suddenly opened in her life, Peggy agrees to a date with her gun-nut neighbor Al (John C. Reilly) that ends in disaster when she begins to suspect that the boorish brute may have in fact poisoned her ill-fated pooch. Later, after adopting every dog at the local pound and transforming herself into an overzealous animal-rights activist, the increasingly unhinged Peggy reaches out to asexual activist Newt (Peter Sarsgaard) in a last-grasp attempt at forming a human connection that is met with casual indifference. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A new '90s expressiveness regarding homosexuality in movies is gently mined for laughs in this 1993 comedy that predates the similar but much more raw Chasing Amy and slightly more humorous Threesome. With her straight greasy hair, semi-paranoid outlook, and leather jacket she wears like a shield, Connie (Kelly Lynch) already seems a bit unhinged. Then her girlfriend, Ellen (Sherilyn Fenn), breaks up their relationship and Connie loses it. In her grief, she hits upon a bizarre plan: Why not hire male prostitute Joe (William Baldwin) to seduce Ellen, then break her heart? Wouldn't that make Ellen rush back into Connie's arms? Of course not. For one thing, Joe's life is complicated by his protective yet sinister pimp (Joe Pantoliano) and a thug who mistakenly believes Joe set him up for a prison sentence. And Joe and Ellen fall in love. Yet an odd, sibling-like friendship develops between Joe and Connie that steers them through the repercussions of Ellen's discovery of their deceit, the thug's attack on Joe, and Joe's desire to give up prostitution. By the story's end, they've lost Ellen, but they have one another, and have learned to step beyond the protective relationships they have lost. Three of Hearts solidified William Baldwin's ascent to leading-man status (along with brothers Stephen and Alec) after 1991's Backdraft. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide