Genelle Williams Movies
An outwardly angelic little girl displays an unforeseen devilish streak upon moving into the home of her new adoptive parents in this shocker starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga. In the aftermath of a miscarriage, prospective parents Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) find their lives turned upside down; their marriage is falling apart, and the demons of Kate's past begin manifesting themselves in a series of horrifying nightmares. Deciding that the best means of achieving some semblance of normalcy is to simply adopt, the dejected couple visits a local orphanage. There, they are both drawn to a nine-year-old girl named Esther. But Esther isn't as sweet as first impressions suggest, and almost immediately after welcoming the young child into their home, Kate and John suspect that something is terribly wrong with their adoptive daughter. Kate can see right through Esther's seraphic charm, though her attempts to convince everyone else of the truth go unheeded by her skeptical family and friends. By the time anyone bothers to take Kate seriously, it may be too late to prevent a devastating tragedy from unfolding. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sarsgaard, Vera Farmiga, (more)
The producers of Left Behind: The Movie craft this tale of a preacher attempting to make amends for his violent past by reaching out to a young drug dealer with no future. Armstrong Cane was the son of a respected preacher, but he took a different path in life and winding up serving fifteen years for manslaughter. Now that Cane is back on the streets, he's determined take over his father's old church and lead the congregation to salvation. But that's going to be no simple task, with the amount of drugs and gangs out on the streets anyone who was able has long since abandoned the neighborhood to fall in with a slick new preacher (Ricardo Chivara). Now, as a dangerous gang leader (Dean McDermott) does his best to drive Cane away, the man who once turned his back on God attempts to prevent a young drug dealer from throwing his life away and falling into a perilous cycle of self-destruction. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ving Rhames, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, (more)
A struggling human interest columnist finds a simple scrap of paper with a profound message may be the key to saving her column from cancellation in this inspirational, made for television drama starring Genie Francis and Ted McGinley. Peyton MacGruder (Francis) is the "Heart Healer" columnist for the local Middleborough Times newspaper. It's Christmas time, and just as the crew of Flight 848 reports a minor electrical problem, Peyton is summoned to her editor's office for a serious discussion about the future of the "Heart Healer" column. According to the results of a recent reader's survey, the "Heart Healer" column was voted the least interesting item that the paper had to offer, and as a result Peyton is about to get the axe. Just as Peyton's editor warns the writer to improve her standing with readers of hit the pavement, word breaks in the newsroom that Flight 848 has crashed, killing everyone aboard. King Danville, Peyton's friend and colleague at the paper, has lost a dear friend in the crash. Pondering whether or not the passengers realized they were going to die while drowning his sorrows at the local sports bar, King wonders aloud whether they had time to say goodbye to their loved ones, half-jokingly suggesting that Peyton work the concept into her failing column. The following day, Peyton is jogging along the beach when she spies smarmy television reporter Truman Harris interrupting a memorial service for the victims, all the while struggling to find an angle that doesn't seem exploitative. That angle arrives in the form of a note that Peyton finds during another walk along the coast. Sealed inside a small plastic bag half filled with cookie crumbs is a note to "T" from "Dad." Peyton is deeply moved by the heartfelt note, and vows to use the "Heart Healer" column as a means for getting the note to its intended recipient. In order to do so, however, Peyton will be forced to contend with her television counterpart Harris, a tactless reporter whose penchant for sensationalizing a story is only matched by his willingness to resort to underhanded tactics in order to take sole credit for all of Peyton's hard work. And while tracking down "T" proves no easy task, Peyton quickly discovers that her latest story truly resonates with readers upon being informed by her publisher that her "Heart Healers" column has gained a loyal following across the country. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Genie Francis, Ted McGinley, (more)
Two kids with nothing in common are brought together in a very unexpected way in this comedy. Nell (Samaire Armstrong) is a pretty but hopelessly geeky teenage girl who loves Shakespeare and wants little more than to study literature at Yale when she graduates from high school in a few months Woody (Kevin Zegers), who lives next door, is the quarterback on the school's football team, and seems like a sure bet to land a lucrative football scholarship despite the fact he isn't especially bright. Nell and Woody are not at all friendly and normally have nothing to say to one another, but one day during a class field trip to a historical museum, the two fall under the spell of an Incan icon and when they awake the next morning, Woody's mind is in Nell's body, and vice versa. Neither is comfortable with their sudden gender switch or having to assume the other's personalities, but they quickly realize that until they can find a way to reverse the spell, they have to work together if Nell is to go to Yale and Woody is to get his scholarship and move away from this loutish parents (Sharon Osborne and Maury Chaykin. Elton John was an executive producer on It's A Boy Girl Thing, and songs from his back catalog appear on the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Zegers, Samaire Armstrong, (more)
A female car thief becomes the target of a notorious serial killer after stealing his mint-condition '66 Dodge Charger in this made for cable thriller from director Kari Skogland (Zebra Lounge, The L Word). Sage Rion (Taryn Manning) is a car thief who's so proficient at her profession that she's earned the nickname Banshee in certain criminal circles. Her skill for stealing cars is unmatched, and when she stumbles across the Dodge Charger of her dreams the temptation proves too powerful to deny. Unfortunately this particular muscle car belongs to a genuine "Badass" (as indicated on the license plate), a fact that Sage discovers all too late after arriving home and finding her boyfriend's severed ear along with a threatening note. Should Sage fail to return the car to its rightful owner by midnight, her recently-hearing impaired boyfriend will meet a grisly demise. But Sage isn't up against your typical murderous madman, because this particular psycho (Christian Campbell) is a popular local DJ who records the screams of his victims, mixes them with the sound of his accelerated hearbeat, and uses the resulting sounds to keep local clubbers on their feet all through the night. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Taryn Manning, Romano Orzari, (more)
- 2005
In this sequel to the 2003 made-for-cable Sex & the Single Mom, divorced lawyer Jess Gradwell (Gail O'Grady) is confronted with the consequences of her brief fling with heart surgeon Alex Lofton (Grant Show) three years earlier when she finds that she is the mother of a toddler named Jake (Charlie Sperandeo). It isn't long before Alex himself comes back into Jess' life, initially unaware that he's a father but willing to pick up where he left off when he finds out. Trouble is, Jess is currently engaged to another lawyer (the obligatory "Ralph Bellamy" character in these romantic comedies). Meanwhile, Jess' 18-year-old daughter Sara (Chelsea Hobbs), who'd managed to escaped unsullied from her romance with a neighbor kid in the earlier film, has developed a yen for a scruffy photographer. Best line: "Virginity is not all it's cracked up to be." More Sex & the Single Mom first aired February 7, 2005 on Lifetime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Created by author/entertainer Kay Thompson in 1955, precocious six-year-old Eloise, who lived in the Plaza Hotel with her long-suffering nanny, her dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee, was the heroine of several delightful children's books written by Thompson and whimsically illustrated by Hilary Knight. The charm of the "Eloise" books has proven elusive whenever the property is adapted for another media, as witness a disastrous musical version which aired live on Playhouse 90 in 1956. On this occasion, Eloise came off as a spoiled obstreperous brat, which was as much the fault of the child actress cast in the role (Evelyn Rudie) as the adapters. Disney decided to give little Eloise another chance 47 years later with the location-filmed Eloise at the Plaza, a two-hour movie presentation of ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney anthology. This time around, Sofia Vassilieva played the title role, with Julie Andrews as Eloise's nanny (something of a full-circle for Andrews, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a rather different nanny in the 1964 Disney theatrical feature Mary Poppins). The plot finds Eloise insisting upon attending a debutante ball at the Plaza and further conniving to have a runaway foreign prince (Denis Akiyama) -- who isn't much older than she is -- as her escort. Our heroine also mends fences between a reluctant teenage deb and the girl's pushy mother. Jeffrey Tambor is typecast as the Plaza's supercilious concierge Mr. Salomone, whose dithering efforts to keep Eloise from nosing into other people's business avail him not one bit. Hilary Knight appears in a cameo role as himself. Eloise at the Plaza first aired April 27, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, Christine Baranski, (more)
