Rafe Spall Movies

Adapted from author David Nicholls' critically acclaimed novel of the same name, director Lone Scherfig's One Day stars Anne Hathaway as a principled working-class girl who forges a unique bond with a wealthy jet-setter that spans two decades. July 15, 1988: Emma (Hathaway) is about to enter the real world. An idealist from humble upbringings, she dreams of making the world a better place for everyone. On the night of her graduation, Emma (Hathaway) meets Dexter (Jim Sturgess), a wealthy flirt without a care in the world. Dexter is also graduating, though unlike Emma he looks forward to a future of comfort and privilege. By checking back with Emma and Dexter every July 15th for the next 20 years, we experience their happiness, hardships, and heartache as they strive to live out their dreams, and find meaning in a world that's constantly changing. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A precocious Edwardian girl suffocating from the social norms is forced to choose between following her heart and obliging her family's wishes after falling for a handsome but unsuitable stranger during a trip to Italy. Based on author E.M. Forster's tale of forbidden love and scripted by Pride and Prejudice scribe Andrew Davies, director Nicholas Renton's playful period drama follows young Lucy Honeychurch as she takes a trip to Italy and exchanges a brief albeit life-altering kiss with the unsuitable George Emerson. Later, as Lucy's snooping chaperone attempts to keep her on the path laid out by her family, her engagement to the dull Cecil draws near, and her repressed feelings boil to the surface, she is taken aback to encounter the dashing object of her affections back in her homeland of England. What's a girl to do when her wedding date has been set in stone but the love of her life won't be standing at the alter? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Screenwriter Andrew Davies (Bleak House) revisits the scandal surrounding D.H. Lawrence's controversial novel Lady Chatterley's Lover in this original BBC drama that explores every detail of the landmark 1960 obscenity trial set into motion by the passionate and explicit book. First printed privately in Florence in 1928, Lady Chatterley's Lover was promptly banned in the United Kingdom for thirty years. Though the details of the trial were all a part of public record, the personal thoughts and reactions of the jury to this controversial novel have remained a mystery. In this fictionalized account of the trial, Davies attempts to get into the minds of two fictional jurors (played by Louise Delamere and Rafe Spall) to explore precisely how Lawrence's prose inflamed an entire generation of readers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This British drama follows a day in the lives of four poor youths living in an impoverished neighborhood in West London, where the pressure and desperation of poverty propels each of them towards the choice between a life of bleakness, violence, and crime, and the terrifying prospect of striving for a better life. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

An American abroad is introduced to the heady but dangerous pleasures of violence in this powerful drama from Great Britain. Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is a journalism student from America who is expelled from college when his roommate sets him to take the fall after drugs are found in their dorm room. Needing time to sort out what his next move should be, Matt travels to London to visit his sister Shannon (Claire Forlani), who has married British Steve Dunham (Marc Warren). As it happens, Matt arrives at a less than opportune moment, and he ends up spending his first evening in the U.K. with Steve's brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam). Pete hangs out with a "firm" of friends who call themselves "the Green Street Elite" and are passionate fans of the West Ham United football club (Matt quickly discovers calling British football "soccer" is an easy way to get your teeth knocked out). Pete has little use for Matt until the Green Street Elite get into a dust-up with another firm; Matt turns out to be a fierce if inexperienced fighter, and discovers he enjoys the kick of street brawling. Matt is cautiously accepted by Pete and the other members of the firm, and is soon absorbed into the very British world of violent football fandom. But when Pete and his friends learn that Matt studied journalism, they begin to suspect he's a reporter doing an undercover piece on hooliganism, and they set out to teach him an ugly lesson about loyalty. The debut feature film from British director Lexi Alexander, Green Street Hooligans (initially shown simply as Hooligans) was the first film ever to win both the Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

It's often said that the true character of a man is only revealed in times of dire crisis, and for likable, lovelorn loser Shaun (Simon Pegg), that moment of reckoning came when the dead rose from their slumber to feast on the flesh of the living. A hapless electronics store employee who spends most of his spare time downing pints at the local pub with his roommate, Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun's life seems to fall apart when he is dumped by his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), and his obnoxious stepfather, Philip (Bill Nighy), shows up to berate him for not being more attentive to his caring mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton) -- especially since he forgot to send flowers for her birthday. Things take a turn for the worse when the dead return to stake their claim on the Earth, and though the chaos that follows threatens to swallow up all of England, it's up to Shaun to keep his cool and prove himself once and for all by successfully rescuing Liz and his mother. With his trusty roommate by his side, nothing -- not even the living dead -- can stand between Shaun and the two most important women in his life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi