Mia Kirshner Movies
Canadian actress Mia Kirshner is known in her native country and beyond for her portrayals of moderately to deeply troubled young women who often harbor dark secrets. Born in Toronto in 1975, where she was raised by a journalist father and a teacher mother, Kirshner broke into films in 1993. That year, she starred as a bad seed teenager intent on seducing her mother's boyfriend in Cadillac Girls and played a dominatrix in Denys Arcand's Love and Human Remains.Kirshner had another career breakthrough the following year playing a young stripper with a surprising past identity in Atom Egoyan's widely acclaimed Exotica. The actress' work in the celebrated film attracted the notice of American casting agents, who promptly cast her in supporting roles in Murder in the First (1995) and the Southern gothic coming-of-age tale The Grass Harp (also 1995). Although she subsequently won lead roles in The Crow: City of Angels (1996) -- in which she played up her dark Goth looks as the tattoo artist who befriends Vincent Perez -- and Mad City (1997), which cast her as journalist Dustin Hoffman's intern, Kirshner has had difficulty making a name for herself in Hollywood. She continues to appear in both lead and supporting roles in such independent and/or small features as Saturn (1999), a drama that cast her as the hedonistic girlfriend of a young man (Scott Caan) caring for his Alzheimer's-stricken father. Keeping busy well into the new millennium, Kirshner would later appear in the real-time television series 24, as well as Not Another Teen Movie (both 2001), a parody of the recent wave of high school themed films. A featured role in the popular Showtime series The L Word found Kirshner continuing to court success on the small screen, and in 2006 she would head back to the big screen as the ill-fated actress who sparks a legendary Hollywood investigation in director Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
Based upon a play by screenwriter Brad Fraser, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Denys Arcand's dark-humored drama Love and Human Remains follows the lives of a group of young Canadians, with a particular focus on their romantic and sexual experiences. The central characters are two roommates, David and Candy. The cynical, witty David is a former television actor turned waiter, the lonely, dissatisfied Candy a book critic; the two were formerly lovers, before David proclaimed his homosexuality. Candy is also questioning her sexuality, having begun a lesbian affair after wondering if her failures with men indicates she might be happier with a woman; meanwhile, David is becoming acquainted with Kane, a handsome, young busboy of uncertain sexuality who idolizes the older David. The other members of the ensemble are also somehow connected to the roommates, through friendship or romance, including Benita, a young dominatrix and part-time psychic, and Bernie, a boastful but insecure young businessman. The couplings and shifting relationships of these characters are intercut with the rather more severe story of a serial murderer who has been terrorizing the city's women, allowing Arcand to place the film's melodramatic elements in an edgier context. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, (more)
- 1993
- R
Mia Kirshner plays Page, a troublesome teenager whose low self-esteem has manifested itself into petty thievery. After stealing a car, Page is hauled into court, where she is placed in the custody of her divorced mom (Jennifer Dale). Ordered to move into her mother's Nova Scotia home, Page is resentful of the restrictions placed upon her movements. Before long, she hatches a nasty revenge. The plan: to seduce mom's new boy friend (Gregory Harrison), then laugh in both their faces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Dale, Mia Kirshner, (more)
The action in Canadian provocateur Atom Egoyan's cryptic Exotica revolves largely around the strip club, which lends the film its name, a faux-tropical hothouse where young female dancers cater to their customers' sexual and psychological needs. Among the regulars is Francis (Bruce Greenwood), a troubled taxman haunted by Christina, a young stripper played by Mia Kirshner. As the film hypnotically unfolds, their relationship is slowly explored, the narrative dovetailing with the stories of a gay pet shop owner (Don McKellar), the Exotica's pregnant owner (Arsinee Khanjian), and its embittered DJ (Elias Koteas). Like all of Egoyan's films, Exotica is a riddle, its answers only fostering more questions. The director's recurring themes of family breakdowns, voyeurism and obsession are all in the mix here as well, but essayed with a new clarity of vision and intensity. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, (more)
- 1995
Needing to escape Los Angeles and start a new life fast, petty gangster Johnny Rich moves his family to Alaska and opens a nightclub. Meanwhile his teenage daughter secretly wishes for a more normal family life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Treat Williams, Mia Kirshner, (more)
This shocking prison drama was inspired by a true story. In 1938, Henri Young (Kevin Bacon), sentenced to Alcatraz for stealing $5, attempted to escape from prison with three other prisoners. One of the escapees was captured, and to curry favor with Warden Glenn (Gary Oldman), he informed on the others. Young was soon brought back to custody, and was to be punished by spending 19 days in solitary confinement. Nineteen days stretched into three years, in which Young was kept in a pit with no light, no toilet, no furniture, and nothing to read. Young emerged from solitary a vengeful madman, and he quickly murdered the convict who turned him in. Young was put on trial for the killing, and assigned a first-time public defender, James Stamphill (Christian Slater). Stamphill was horrified by Young's tales of the conditions at Alcatraz, and he used them as the basis of his defense for his client, believing that anyone would be driven to madness and murder if they had been treated the same way as Young. Murder in the First also features Embeth Davidtz, William H. Macy, Brad Dourif, and R. Lee Ermey. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, (more)
Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. After the death of his parents, Collin Fenwick (Edward Furlong) finds himself living in a small town with two of his aunts, Dolly (Piper Laurie) and Verena (Sissy Spacek). Verena is the more stable of the two, an entrepreneur who controls a number of local businesses and rules the roost with a firm hand. Dolly, on the other hand, is a gentle eccentric who claims to hear the voices of the dead as the wind whistles through the grass, and has developed a homemade concoction that supposedly cures dropsy. Dolly's potion attracts the attention of Morris Ritz (Jack Lemmon), a smooth-talking con man from Chicago who wants to snatch the formula away from her. Along the way, Collin also gets to know Catherine (Nell Carter), Verena and Dolly's quick-witted house maid; Amos (Roddy McDowall), a barber who is also the town's one-man rumor mill; Charlie Cool (Walter Matthau), a charmingly cynical retired judge with an opinion about everything; and Sister Ida (Mary Steenburgen), an accordion-toting traveling evangelist who has had a heroic brood of 13 children without benefit of marriage. The Grass Harp was directed by Charles Matthau, the son of Walter Matthau. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, (more)
It is said that when a man dies wrongfully, a crow may bring him back to life to seek vengeance upon his killer. Like the first Crow, this revenge saga is set in a fantastical urban nightmare and is based upon the dark comic book stories of artist James O. Barr. The first film was set in a horrifying Detroit. The second is set in a similar version of Los Angeles. This time, the crow flies on behalf of Ashe, a motorcycle mechanic who was murdered along with his young son after they have witnessed a murder. After rising from the dead, Ashe dons the traditional black garb and funereal white pancake make-up that marks the crow's chosen one. While getting his violent revenge, Ashe is befriended by Sarah, a tattoo expert with great knowledge of the crow legend. Together, they defeat the vile criminals Curve and Kali. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Perez, Mia Kirshner, (more)
Investigative TV journalist Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) suffers setbacks and winds up filing routine reports from Madeline, California. Max and his eager intern Laurie (Mia Kirshner) are doing a story at the local Museum of Natural History when a bigger story erupts. The Museum's director, Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), refuses to talk to former museum security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta) about his firing due to budget cuts. Angered, Sam shoots a shotgun, accidentally hitting another security guard. Realizing he's in the middle of breaking news, Max phones his supervisor (Robert Prosky) and goes to live coverage. A class of young children is visiting the Museum, and Sam holds them hostage. Sam's link to the outside world is the opportunistic Max, who manipulates the situation, telling Sam what to say on camera. Within hours, as the event escalates to national interest, vendors arrive to hawk products at the museum grounds, while the entire country tunes in the ongoing coverage. The screenplay by Eric Williams and Tom Matthews (former managing editor of Boxoffice) is a technological updating of the 1951 Billy Wilder classic Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival) about a scheming journalist (Kirk Douglas) who delays the rescue of a man trapped by a rockfall in order to continue his newspaper reports. Acknowledging the Wilder film, the name "Brackett" is an obvious nod to Charles Brackett, Wilder's long-time collaborator. Filmed in Los Angeles and San Jose, where the San Jose Athletic Club served as the museum location site. Shown at the 1997 Denver Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, (more)
- 1997
- PG13
Leo Tolstoy's classic novel is brought to the screen once again in what was the first American-based production of this story to be filmed on location in Russia. Anna (Sophie Marceau) is married to Alexei (James Fox), but while their relationship is not outwardly unhappy, it's clear that neither has much enthusiasm for either their spouse or their marriage. While visiting her bother Stiva (Danny Huston), who is having marital problems of his own, Anna meets Count Vronsky (Sean Bean). An immediate mutual attraction arises between them, and soon Vronsky has left behind his mistress Kitty (Mia Kirshner) to pursue Anna. Anna is initially uncertain about her feelings, but she soon throws caution to the wind and embarks on a passionate affair with Vronsky. However, Anna's love for the Count is strong enough that Alexei becomes keenly aware of her indiscretion, and when she discovers that she is carrying Vronsky's child, Alexei offers her two options -- she can leave Vronsky, resume her marriage, and keep the baby, or stay with Vronsky and give up her unborn child. This was at least the tenth feature-length production of Anna Karenina to reach the screen, though one of the best known appeared under a different title -- Love, starring Gretta Garbo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, (more)
- 1999
In this period drama laced with music and romance, Keith Carradine plays Dan "Magic Legs" Scott, a tap dancer who has enjoyed great success on the vaudeville circuit and the Broadway stage. However, Scott's tremendous ego, coupled with his compulsive skirt-chasing and bottomless thirst for alcohol, cripple his career, and by the late 1930s, he's convinced that his career as a hoofer is over. However, Scott's mother was originally from Estonia, and his manager Axelrod (Judd Hirsch) discovers that Scott is considered a hero in his mother's homeland. Axelrod arranges a tour of Estonia, where Scott is a tremendous success. Scott also finds romance overseas when he meets Deborah (Mia Kirschner), the daughter of a prosperous Jewish businessman; Deborah asks for private dancing lessons, and Scott, more than happy to oblige, soon begins instructing her in the ways of love, much to the chagrin of Deborah's fiancé, Max (Bronson Pinchot). But Scott is ignorant of Hitler's rise to power in Europe, and his new career in Estonia comes to a halt when he offends a Nazi official. The country is soon occupied by Russian forces, and Deborah, now carrying Scott's child, escapes to the United States. However, when Scott's passport is destroyed, he's unable to prove his identity or American citizenship; he's sent to a labor camp in Siberia, and while he's able to escape to Moscow, by the late 1950s he's still looking for a way to get back to America. This film debut of noted Russian stage director Sasha Buravsky also features Brian Dennehy, Kim Hunter, and Mercedes Ruehl. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keith Carradine, Mia Kirshner, (more)
A young man is torn between responsibilities to his family, his intellectual and professional ambitions, and the temptations of easy money and casual pleasures in the downbeat drama Saturn. Drew (played by Scott Caan) is a college student trying to stay focused on his studies so he can realize his dream of becoming an engineer. But he's also been handed the responsibility of caring for his elderly father (Leo Burmester), who is suffering from an advanced case of Alzheimer's Syndrome. Drew must feed his father -- who can only speak with great difficulty -- bathe him, and change his diapers. The burden puts a great strain on Drew, who has a hard time resisting the offers from his old friend Arturo (Anthony Ruivivar) to join him in his profitable, if dangerous, life as a drug dealer. The temptations are only magnified by Drew's relationship with Sara (Mia Kirshner), a girl who lives for physical pleasure; Drew scores drugs from Arturo for her and, in exchange, she offers him kinky sex, but not love. Saturn was the debut feature from writer/director Rob Schmidt, and the dark, but compelling, story won a respectful response in its screening at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Caan, Leo Burmeister, (more)
Whilst traveling about the Midwestern region of the United States, cellist Gerard Huxley (Jean-Hugues Anglade) meets two young women, sisters Megan (Connie Nielsen) and Dominique (Mia Kirshner). The women learn that their father has passed on and decide to go to Seattle to inform their mother (Anne Archer) of her newly attained widow status, dragging the naïve Gerard with them. The sisters turn out to have a bad streak a mile wide -- violence and death are left in the trio's tracks, including the killing of a judge (Robert Culp). Even though Gerard is guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he is in a precarious situation now that he is traveling with killers and, eventually, everyone involved must answer for their deeds. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Hugues Anglade, Connie Nielsen, (more)
Writer-director Gregory C. Haynes serves up a down-home twist on the traditional romantic comedy with this tale of a 30-something lawyer who starts to feel the marriage bug. Danny (Adam Trese) still harbors dreams of becoming a cowboy when his fiancée leaves him on the eve of their wedding ceremony. Luckily, not one, but two women come along to ease his suffering: the bubbly Jo Jo (High Art's Radha Mitchell) and the more traditional Candice (Mia Kirshner). Which woman will put an end to the tears in Danny's beer? Will he really trade in his briefs and torts for chaps and a lariat? Cowboys and Angels premiered at the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Trese, Mia Kirshner, (more)
- 2001
David Weaver makes his feature debut with this omnibus film in which each tale is told during different points during the 20th century, but in the same hotel room -- room 720. The film opens during the swinging '20s when a beautiful young woman, married against her will to a brutish thug of a man, endures a tension-fraught honeymoon. During the Depression segment, a mail-order bride from China meets her husband for the first time. Following the end of WWII, a soldier returns home to meet his girlfriend and his best friend. During the paranoia of the 1950s, a professor searches for his wife. During the 1980s, a lawyer has too much sex and debt, and during the dawn of the millennium, a woman comes to a newly refurbished room 720 to meet her Internet lover. Such acclaimed Canadian actors as Tom McCamus, Sandrine Holt, and Colm Feore star in this film, which was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindy Booth, Colm Feore, (more)
Two young people learn an invaluable lesson about what love really means in this romantic drama. Angela (Mia Kirshner) and John (Adam Beach) have been close friends since childhood, and as they've grown into adulthood, John's feelings for Angela have matured into love. John is of Cree Indian heritage, and Ghost Fox (Gordon Tootoosis), a spiritual advisor of the tribe, tells John that it is his destiny to be with Angela. Angela, however much she cares for John, has other plans, and ends up involved with T.J. (Gabriel Olds), a mean-spirited man who shows her little respect. John saves the day for Angela after she's brutally attacked by T.J., but rather than stay by his side, Angela, who has always dreamed of being an actress, decides to move to Hollywood and try her luck, only to learn that her bond with John is deeper and more complex than she imagined. Now and Forever also stars Theresa Russell as Dori, Angela's mother. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Kirshner, Adam Beach, (more)
Federal agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is having a very bad day in this unique, action-packed drama series in which events unfold in real time and the entire season takes place within one 24-hour day. Bauer is the director of the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles. He's also a married man who is attempting to rebuild a trust-depleted relationship with his wife Teri (Leslie Hope), and a father to independent-minded teen daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). Shortly after midnight on the morning of the California Democratic presidential primary, Jack receives information that an assassination attempt will be carried out against Maryland senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) -- the first African-American with a legitimate chance of capturing the White House -- sometime within the next 24 hours. Jack's mission is made even more difficult when he learns from his boss Richard Walsh (Michael O'Neill) that someone within CTU may be a mole involved with the foreign-based conspiracy. Meanwhile, Palmer, unaware of the assassination plot, receives a phone call from a dogged reporter who says she has evidence that his son Keith (Vicellous Reon Shannon) committed murder. He allegedly killed his sister's rapist. Palmer initiates an investigation to uncover the truth and must decide whether to break the story himself or wait. Jack is contacted by terrorist Ira Gaines (Michael Massee), who informs him that his wife and daughter have been kidnapped by Gaines' henchmen. Gaines threatens to kill them if Jack refuses to follow his detailed instructions. Gaines' goal is simple: Jack is to carry out the assassination against Palmer himself. As the hours pass, the conspiracy deepens, and Jack learns the surprising truth behind the plot and his role in it. ~ Tim Holland, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kiefer Sutherland, Leslie Hope, (more)
A young man moves to Los Angeles to make something of himself -- but finds that such a task might take a little more work than he thought -- in this romantic comedy. According to Spencer stars Jesse Bradford as the titular Spencer, an ad agency mail room clerk just-arrived in L.A. and eager to make his presence felt. Renting a room in a run-down mansion, Spencer crosses paths with shady eccentrics Ezra (David Krumholtz) and Feldy (Adam Goldberg), aspiring porn filmmakers who convince him to make inroads as a commercial director -- with little success. But when Spencer serendipitously meets his childhood sweetheart Melora (Mia Kirshner), who's currently stuck in a go-nowhere relationship with the smarmy Craig (Brad Rowe), things begin to look up. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jesse Bradford, Mia Kirshner, (more)
- 2001
Due to the round-the-clock coverage of the World Trade Center tragedy, the beginning of the fall 2001 TV season was delayed on all of the major networks. The first "new" primetime series to be unveiled was CBS's Wolf Lake, a quirky supernatural effort in the tradition of The X-Files and Twin Peaks. Six months after the disappearance of his girlfriend Ruby, Seattle policeman John Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips receives an anonymous tip that the girl was spotted in the remote Pacific Northwest community of Wolf Lake. Unbeknownst to John (at least at first!), the community is controlled by shapeshifting werewolves, several of whom are locked in a power struggle to attain the coveted title of Alpha Wolf. Working hand and glove with local lawkeeper Sheriff Jack Donner (Tim Matheson), John sets about to solve Ruby's disappearance, while at the same time trying to sort out the strange goings-on in Wolf Lake. Meanwhile, John's 16-year-old daughter Sophia (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who is herself beginning to exhibit wolflike tendencies, carries on a clandestine romance with local "wild boy" Luke Cates (Paul Wasilewski), the son of powerful industrialist Willard Cates (Bruce McGill), who happens to be the chief competition of local entrepreneur Tyler Creed (Scott Bairstow) for the Alpha Wolf position. The only person who knows all the dark secrets of Wolf Lake is enigmatic biology teacher Sherman Blackstone (Graham Greene. Not surprisingly, the weekly, 60-minute Wolf Lake was executive-produced by an X-Files alumnus, Alex Gansa. The series debuted on September 19, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Diamond Phillips, Tim Matheson, (more)
Former MTV executive Joel Gallen makes his feature directorial debut with this broad spoof of the popular teen comedy genre, lampooning dozens of movies including American Pie (1999), American Beauty (1999), Bring It On (2000), Clueless (1995), She's All That (1999), Road Trip (2000), Can't Hardly Wait (1998), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Never Been Kissed (1999), and even the teen films of an earlier era such as The Breakfast Club (1985). At the aptly titled "John Hughes High School," aspiring artist Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh) is an outcast because of her plain, bespectacled looks and paint-splattered overalls. Football hero Jake Wyler (Chris Evans) makes a bet that he can transform Janey into a gorgeous prom queen, a wager he may come to regret as he discovers Janey's true inner beauty. As their relationship blossoms, several other characters are limned, including a Nasty Cheerleader (Jaime Pressly), a Token Black Guy (Deon Richmond), a Stupid Fat Guy (Ron Lester), an Obsessed Best Friend (Eric Jungmann), an Undercover Reporter (Beverly Polcyn), the Cruelest Girl in School (Mia Kirshner), a Cocky Blonde Guy (Eric Christian Olsen), and several others. A nod to the multiple films that inspired it, Not Another Teen Movie (2001) was originally to have been entitled "Ten Things I Hate About Clueless Road Trips When I Can't Hardly Wait to Be Kissed." ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, (more)
Three rich, pretty people befriend their poor, mousy classmate and live to regret it in this teen-centric thriller. Alicia (Mia Kirshner), Hadley (Meredith Monroe), Julianne (Rachel True), and Sydney (Dominique Swain) are four students enrolled in the same sociology class at Colby University, an exclusive and respected college in the Carolinas. Alicia is a local girl born into modest circumstances who struggles to make ends meet and rarely gets a second look from the male students on campus, while Hadley, Julianne, and Sydney are close friends who all come from wealthy families and seem more concerned with partying than their studies. Alicia and Hadley are paired up to work on their semester project for the class, which is to be centered around the theme "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way." As part of the project, Hadley decides to befriend Alicia, and brings her into her social circle. At first, Alicia seems more than grateful for the attention of her new friends, and blooms under the influence of Hadley, Julianne, and Sydney. But it isn't long before Alicia's personality begins to shift; she develops a powerful appetite for drugs and alcohol, and soon begins taking advantage of her new friendships. Things come to a head when Alicia seduces Sydney's boyfriend, Josh (Oliver Hudson), and soon Alicia ends up in the hospital after OD'ing on drugs. Artie Bonner (Taye Diggs), a local sheriff, begins looking into Alicia's case, convinced that her near-fatal accident with drugs was no accident at all. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Kirshner, Meredith Monroe, (more)
The opening season of American television's first lesbian comedy drama series, The L Word, finds longtime partners Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman) deciding to start a family -- and since it is out of the question for the domineering Bette to be weighed down with the burden of pregnancy, it is up to "happy housewife" Tina to be artificially inseminated. Meanwhile, the couple's next-door neighbor, Tim (Eric Mabius), has invited his fiancée, Jenny (Mia Kirshner), an aspiring writer, to live with him. Fascinated by Bette and Tina's circle of gay friends, Jenny begins seriously questioning her own sexual orientation. Elsewhere, the eternally wisecracking Alice (Leisha Hailey) disappoints her friends by entering into yet another dead-end romance. Tennis pro Dana (Erin Daniels) continues to put off telling her parents that she's a lesbian. And promiscuous hairdresser Shane (Katherine Moennig) continues to leave a trail of broken hearts as she woos women everywhere and beds some of her more vulnerable female customers. By the end of the first season, Jenny has had her first lesbian affair with Marina (Karina Lombard), whereupon Tim kicks her out of the house -- and worse, Marina has not informed Jenny that she already has a lover. And, in the emotional aftermath of Tina's miscarriage, Bette succumbs to the temptation of cheating on her with another woman. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman, (more)
A mother haunted by the decade-old disappearance of her gifted but troubled son travels from Los Angeles to St. Petersburg after learning that her son may currently be living abroad in director Nikolai Lebedev's emotionally turbulent drama. In the years following the inexplicable disappearance of her son, Sarah Hathaway's dreams have been filled with images of the missing boy, and her waking hours filled with grief at not knowing whether he is alive or dead. When Sarah receives a clue that her son may be residing in Russia, she immediately travels to St. Petersburg in hopes of finding out the truth after years of uncertainty. But beneath the stark beauty of St. Petersburg lies a great many dangers, and in order to get the answers that are now within her grasp, Sarah will have to face both the lingering pain of the past and the increasingly dire dangers of the present. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Archer
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. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman, (more)
Season four of the wildly successful "real-time" adventure series 24 begins some 18 months at the end of season three. John Keeler (Geoff Pierson) has succeeded David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) as president of the United States, and the new secretary of defense is James Heller (William Devane) -- who is also the new boss of crack CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). One of Heller's first moves is to reunite Jack with his old nemesis Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson), now the head of the CTU. Unbeknownst to most of the principal characters, Jack is in love with Heller's daughter (and policy assistant), Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), this despite the fact that Audrey is still legally married to estranged husband, Paul (James Frain). Outside of Jack Bauer and President Keeler, the only series character from season three to return as a regular in season four is CTU tech analyst Chloe O'Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub); the rest of the cast is virtually brand-new. The "day" that comprises the fourth season begins, typically, with a nail-biting crisis, when James Heller and his daughter Audrey are captured by a terrorist group headed by Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo), who has already set a fiendish master plan in motion with a train bombing in the U.S. It soon develops that the abduction of Heller and Audrey is but a subterfuge to allow an enemy stealth bomber to blow up Air Force One and eliminate the president -- and ultimately to gain control of a nuclear warhead that will destroy a major U.S. city. Making matters worse, there is a turncoat in the ranks of the CTU -- and without giving the game away, it can be noted that CTU agent Sarah Gavin (Lana Parrilla) tumbles to the mole's identity before Jack Bauer does. As the tension mounts, Paul Raines is seriously wounded saving Jack during a covert mission, which "ices" Jack's relationship with Audrey; a shattering personal tragedy forces Erin Driscoll to resign from her post in mid-season; there is dissension in the terrorist ranks during a concerted effort to trigger nuclear meltdowns in six different cities; the seldom-used 25th Amendment is invoked to change presidents in midstream; and an old enemy of Jack's from the series' first two seasons appears virtually out of nowhere to make a terrible situation far worse than could ever be imagined. Clearly, the fourth season of 24 drew inspiration from the headlines of the day, notably the controversial treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The series also was attacked by certain special-interest groups for making several of the villains Arabs, or of Arab descent. And of course, there were those who carped that the series' notion of "real time" (each episode consisted of a single uninterrupted hour in the same day) resulted in some rather ludicrous lapses of logic. But 24 was as big a hit in the ratings throughout its fourth season as it had been all along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kiefer Sutherland, William Devane, (more)
