Swoosie Kurtz Movies

In this made-for-TV drama based on a true story, two estranged sisters, Debra (Delta Burke) and Kay (Swoosie Kurtz), are brought together when one begins to question if the death of a third sibling when they were children could have been a result of physical abuse from their parents. Using hypnosis to recover repressed memories, the two women force themselves to confront the mistreatment they received at the hands of their mother nearly 40 years earlier. A Promise to Carolyn also stars Shirley Knight and Grace Zabriskie. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A trip to the attic of his new house lands young Brandon and his loyal dog in a magical world ruled by a wicked queen. There he meets a captive prince and vows to help the youthful prince relocate a powerful sword and prevent it from falling into the queen's greedy hands. This fantasy adventure is aimed at younger audiences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This film was one of the more mainstream offerings in the array of films that emphasized the overly hyped "Generation X" phenomenon, a list that ranges from Slacker to Singles and includes a host of other films. Winona Ryder stars as Lelaina, a recent college graduate. Out on her own and independent from her supportive, but out-of-touch parents, Lelaina faces the realities of careers and relationships. She can't stand her internship under a local television personality (John Mahoney), and she's forced to choose between Michael (Ben Stiller), a well-intentioned music-video network executive, and Troy (Ethan Hawke), a brooding, sensitive slacker. Meanwhile, she must also protect the artistic integrity of "Reality Bites," a video documentary that depicts the everyday lives of her friends (Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, and Steve Zahn). This 1994 release also marks the feature directorial debut of Ben Stiller. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide

At the end of Sisters' fourth season, Alex Reed (Swoosie Kurtz), oldest of the Reed sisters of Winnetka, was patiently awaiting the release of her new husband, Big Al Barker (Robert Klein), who'd been jailed on a phony tax-fraud charge; Alex's younger sister, Teddy (Sela Ward), had become the bride of Detective James Falconer (George Clooney), who'd been investigating the rape of Teddy's daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam); and Alex, Teddy, and their other siblings Frankie (Julianne Phillips) and Georgie (Patricia Kalember) were trying to reconcile themselves to the discovery that they had a half-sister named Charley (Jo Anderson), the result of a three-decade affair between their late father and his trusted nurse. Season five begins on a tragic note, as Falconer is killed by a booby-trapped car. The only witness to the crime is wife Teddy, who is suffering from hysterical blindness. She eventually regains her sight, but the loss of her husband after only a few hours of wedded bliss has caused her to start drinking again -- whereupon Cat desperately tries to convince her mom to pull herself together. Only when Teddy almost causes the death of her nephew Evan (Dustin Berkovitz) does she come to her senses.

Later in the season, Teddy takes it upon herself to bring her husband's murderer, heroin smuggler Daniel Albright (Gregory Harrison), to justice; she also has an awkward meeting with Jack Chambers (Philip Casnoff), who received Falconer's heart in a transplant operation. Meanwhile, Big Al is paroled from prison when he rescues the governor's wife from drowning, and subsequently runs for mayor of Winnetka -- and wins. When Big Al suffers a mild heart attack, Alex takes over his duties, thereby increasing a workload that has already been intensified by her decision to care for Rosie (Kathryn Zaremba), the daughter of a terminally ill woman (Caroline McWilliams). Elsewhere, Alex's sister Georgie, not fully recovered from the personal problems that weighed her down in the previous season, begins her therapy sessions with smooth-talking shrink Dr. David Caspian (Daniel Gerroll). Not only does Caspian advise Georgie to "divorce" herself from her family, but he also plants the idea that her father molested her years earlier. Before long, Caspian's ulterior motives become crystal clear to everyone by Georgie -- he wants to get her away from her husband, John (Garrett M. Brown), and into his own bed. After she is seduced by Caspian, Georgie dutifully leaves John, only to have Caspian callously inform her that sex was merely a part of his therapy and that he doesn't love her. Also, newly divorced Frankie begins managing Lucky (John Wesley Shipp), a prizefighter whom she has inherited from her first customer when she'd been a marketing analyst. After a brief romantic fling with Lucky, Frankie leaves him (and the series) to head off to Japan on a new business venture, the world-wide promotion of a children's character named Cowletta the Cow. As for Lucky, he hires on as bodyguard for Daniel Albright as part of the sisters' plans to make Albright pay for Falconer's murder. In other developments, Charley is tentatively accepted into the Reed family during Thanksgiving dinner; with Bea's blessing, Alex assists in Truman's suicide, leading her to be put on trial for murder; and Caspian extends his sexual misconduct to another of the Reed sisters. The season ends with a fantasy episode, wherein everyone's dreams (briefly) come true on the enchanted island of Villa Esperanza. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Texas housewife plots hire a hit man to kill the girl who beat out her daughter for a place on the cheerleading squad in this made-for-cable satire based on a true story. Holly Hunter stars as Wanda Holloway, a twice-married Baptist mother of two who becomes obsessed when her daughter, Shanna (Frankie Ingrassia), gets disqualified from the election for the eighth-grade cheerleading squad because of overly manipulative campaign tactics (i.e. handing out free rulers imprinted with her name). Looking down her nose at neighbor Verna Heath (Elizabeth Ruscio), whose daughter, Amber (Megan Berwick), made the squad, Wanda becomes convinced that there's a conspiracy afoot and decides to do something about it. Getting in touch with her ex-husband's brother, Terry Harper (Beau Bridges) -- a lowlife with a liquor and drug habit and a wife (Swoosie Kurtz) who sees imaginary creatures on the floor -- Wanda all but orders him to find her an assassin on the cheap. Terry chickens out, contacts the police, and helps get the goods on his former sister-in-law before she can do any actual damage. A media circus soon engulfs the participants' small Texas town as Wanda heads to court and tries to prove she was the victim of a setup. Set against the backdrop of the Gulf War and the fall of communism, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom was filmed for HBO by Bad News Bears and Smile director Michael Ritchie. In adapting the Wanda Holloway story for the small screen, the film followed Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story, a 1992 ABC TV movie starring Lesley Ann Warren. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Season three of Sisters begins as Alex (Swoosie Kurtz), the oldest of Winnetka's Reed sisters, insists upon micro-managing the marriage between her widowed mom, Bea (Elizabeth Hoffman), and Judge Truman Ventnor (Philip Sterling). Fed up with her daughter's interference, Bea decides to elope with Truman, causing Alex to throw one of her many hissy fits. Another angry outburst results when Alex finds out that her daughter, Reed (Ashley Judd), has quit college to marry Kirby Philby (Paul S. Rudd). Likewise, Alex expresses jealousy over the unexpected business success of her younger sister, Teddy (Sela Ward), leading to a knock-down, drag-out wrestling match between the two siblings! This is the season that Teddy meets eccentric millionaire Simon Bolt (Mark Frankel), who expresses his fondness for Teddy by investing heavily in her undergarment company; he also donates lots of money to the local leukemia fund on behalf of Teddy's nephew Evan (Dustin Berkovitz). But Teddy is too independent -- and too much the loose cannon -- to adapt to Simon's sumptuous lifestyle; nor is she much of a diplomat business-wise, as proven when she throws a pie at a fashion columnist who has given her a bad review. Throughout the rest of the season, Teddy will alternately break up and reconcile with Simon, at one point accepting his marriage proposal...for a while, anyway. Meanwhile, Teddy's troubled daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam), is showing signs of developing into a problem drinker like her mother and grandmother.

On a more upbeat note, Evan and Trevor (Ryan Francis), the sons of Teddy's sister Georgie (Patricia Kalember), have apparently managed to overcome the health and emotional problems that plagued them in the previous season, while Georgie herself has agreed to be surrogate mother for her sister Frankie (Julianne Phillips) and Frankie's husband, Mitch (Ed Marinaro). Unfortunately, Frankie goes into labor while trapped in a wrecked car, when no one is able to come to her aid -- and with the local TV outlets covering the event. Once the baby is delivery as safely as possible under the circumstances, three different Hollywood studios approach Georgie, hoping to make a movie out of her ordeal. The subsequent film epic, "Her Sister's Love," does not meet with her sibling's approval, even though Suzanne Somers agrees to star in it. Later on, Georgie will find work as a real-estate broker, then as a newspaper advice columnist. As for Frankie, she begins cramming for a quick conversion to Judaism so that her child can be bar-mitzvahed for the sake of her husband, Mitch. Despite this, it is clear that the marriage between Frankie and Mitch is in serious trouble as the season draws to a close -- just as it appears that Alex will patch things up with her ex-husband, Wade (David Dukes), even though he has gotten married again. Season three ends with Alex finding out she has breast cancer, and Reed and Kirby leaving Winnetka for a new life in California. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first "trial" season for Sisters runs seven episodes, beginning with the awkward reunion of the Reed sisters in their hometown of Winnetka, IL, not long after the death of their father. Though Mr. Reed has only been in his grave a short time, his widow, Beatrice (Elizabeth Hoffman), has already begun hitting the bottle more than usual, and is in danger of losing the family home. Beatrice's oldest daughter, Alex (Swoosie Kurtz), has gotten the early warning signs that her 15-year marriage to plastic surgeon Dr. Wade Halsey (David Dukes) is in trouble, and she hires a detective to find out if Wade is fooling around with another woman. Alas, it's worse than she could imagine: Wade is not only a philanderer, but a cross-dresser. All of this bad news has the expected negative effect on Alex's overachieving daughter, Reed, played this season (and this season only) by Kathy Wagner. As for Alex's sister, Georgie (Patricia Kalember), her marital woes are manifested in an unemployed husband named John Whitsig (Garrett M. Brown), who refuses to look for a "real" job while he prepares to make his debut as a lounge singer (and never mind that he hasn't gotten any bookings). Before long, Georgie's recently divorced sister, Teddy (Sela Ward), has moved in with her, bringing along her troubled 15-year-old daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam), who is not exactly a favorite with Georgie's own sons, Trevor (Ryan Francis) and Evan (Dustin Berkovitz). Meanwhile, Teddy has vowed to reclaim the love of her ex-husband, Mitch (Ed Marinaro) -- who in turn is currently the boyfriend of Teddy's other sister, Frankie (Julianne Phillips). Among the season's major crises is the revelation during the one-year observance of death of the sister's father that dear old dad had been carrying on an affair with his nurse -- for 30 years. Later, Frankie marches down the aisle with Mitch, just as Teddy invades the wedding with a shotgun (she thinks it isn't loaded -- but she's wrong). So traumatic is this experience that Frankie and Mitch decide to postpone becoming man and wife for the near future. As the season ends, Georgie's son Evan is diagnosed with leukemia -- and he's the only member of the family who takes the news calmly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Winnetka, IL, was the unlikely setting for the semi-serialized 60-minute drama series Sisters, which made its NBC debut on May 11, 1991. The stories revolved around the endless trials and tribulations of the Reed sisters, four highly individualized women who were brought back together in adulthood by the death of their father. Swoosie Kurtz played Alex Reed, the oldest sister, who in the earliest episodes was the wife of philandering plastic surgeon Dr. Wade Halsey (David Dukes). In the course of the series, Alex would divorce Halsey, survive breast cancer, become a popular local TV talk show host, and wed a second time to her show's main sponsor, store owner (and future mayor of Winnetka!) Big Al Barker (Robert Klein). Alex's troubled daughter, Reed Halsey, was played by three different actresses: Kathy Wagner in season one, Ashley Judd in seasons two, three, and four, and Noelle Parker in the sixth and final season. Patricia Kalember was seen as Georgie Reed, a part-time real-estate agent wed to chronically unemployed nightclub singer John Whitsig (Garrett M. Brown); the couple had two sons, Trevor (Ryan Francis) and Evan (Dustin Berkovitz), the latter a leukemia survivor. Sela Ward co-starred as Teddy Reid, initially the most irresponsible of the sisters and a chronic alcoholic, who pulled herself together long enough to establish a successful career as a fashion designer. Her husbands included Mitch Margolis (Ed Marinaro), the father of Teddy's daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam); police detective James Falconer (George Clooney), who was killed only a few hours after the wedding; and Dr. Gabriel Sorenson (Stephen Collins), who had saved Teddy's life after she was beaten by a carjacker. Julianne Phillips was cast as Frankie Reed, the youngest sister, who began the series as a market analyst and eventually became the owner of the sisters' favorite hangout, the Sweet Sixteen Maltshop.

Early in the series, Frankie married Teddy's ex-husband, Mitch, and when the couple was unable to conceive, Georgie offered to be surrogate mother -- thereby setting up one of several outrageously improbable plot twists that would become a Sisters trademark. After breaking up with Mitch, Frankie had a brief fling with a young boxer named Lucky (John Wesley Shipp), then left Illinois to pursue new career vistas in Japan at the end of season five. Also in the cast was Elizabeth Hoffman as the sisters' widowed mother, Beatrice, who like Teddy suffered occasional bouts with the bottle. Beatrice's second husband was Judge Truman Ventnor (Philip Sterling), who after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's opted to commit suicide -- with the assistance of his stepdaughter, Alex. Later in the series, it was established that the Reed girls had a hitherto unknown half-sister, the product of a lengthy affair between their late father and his loyal nurse. In season five, Jo Anderson joined the cast as the girls' "mystery" sibling Dr. Charlotte "Charley" Bennett, a role taken over in season six by Sheila Kelley. Every so often, the series' main characters would indulge in a "thinkback" sequence, in which they would interact with their younger selves. This was but one of the many quirky dramatic touches that set Sisters apart from the standard "sibling angst" series of the period; other examples included the series' occasional forays into such hot-potato topical issues as racism, homosexuality, the AIDs crisis, and repressed-memory syndrome. After six seasons, Sisters ended with a heavily plotted, surprise-studded final episode on May 4, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this socially conscious drama with romantic overtones, Iris (Jane Fonda) is a working mother with a job at a large commercial bakery who is still getting over the death of her husband, though her circumstances don't give her much time to grieve. She's sharing her house with her two children, Kelly (Martha Plimpton) and Richard (Harley Cross), her unemployed sister Sharon (Swoosie Kurtz), and her thuggish brother-in-law. The tensions at home become even greater when teenage Kelly announces that she's pregnant. One of the few bright spots in her life is her blossoming friendship with Stanley (Robert DeNiro), a nice guy who works in the bakery's cafeteria. However, Iris starts noticing a few odd things about Stanley and it slowly dawns on her that he can't read. When the boss figures this out, Stanley loses his job -- an especially troubling development, as Stanley has just had to put his father in a retirement home. Homeless and out of work, Stanley turns to Iris with a special request -- he'd like her to teach him how to read. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted for stage and screen several times over the past century, French author Francois Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel Les Liasons Dangeureuses was the basis for this Academy Award-winning Stephen Frears film. The plot is motivated by a cruel wager between the beautiful but debauched Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and her misogynistic former lover, the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovitch). The Marquise challenges Valmont to seduce the virginal Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman) before the girl can be wed. Valmont offers a more difficult counter-challenge: He bets the Marquise that he will be able to bed the very moral and very married Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer). In the course of carrying out his plan, Valmont is stricken with a sudden case of honor and remorse, while the Marquise becomes all the more vicious. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A magical jeweled skull makes the wish of 11-year-old Charlie (Fred Savage) come true in this routine but entertaining situation comedy. Charlie wishes he can switch places with his father Marshall (Judge Reinhold), a shallow junior executive of a toy-manufacturing company. Marshall retains his adult form but has the mind of an 11 year old. Charlie still looks 11 but has all the cynical wisdom and experience of his father. The switch provides for many amusing episodes, as father and son try to cope in each other's worlds. Marshall (as Charlie) goes to school while Charlie (as Marshall) tackles the pressures of the corporate boardroom. The performances of Reinhold and Savage are the highlights of this amusing comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Director David Byrne (of Talking Heads) takes an outside-looking-in glance at Texas and Texans in True Stories. Casting himself as the protagonist/narrator, Byrne adopts what he thinks is "standard" western garb and drives his red convertible into the small town of Virgil. Here he observes the town's preparations for celebrating Texas' sesquicentennial, taking time out to introduce us to several of the local oddballs. Swoosie Kurtz plays Miss Rollings, the Laziest Woman in the World; Alix Elias is The Cute Woman, who decorates her home in the most hideously "sweet" manner imaginable; John Goodman is talent-contest entrant Louis Fyne, who harbors dreams of being a C&W star; Spalding Gray is Earl Culver, a vegetable-obsessed civic leader; Jo Harvey Allen is The Lying Woman; and so it goes. The script by Southerners Byrne, Beth Henley and Steven Tobolowksy strives to avoid subtlety. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide