Melissa Leo Movies

A suspect, Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), has been hauled in for the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson. Having pursued this case for weeks, Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Andre Braugher) are anxious for a chance to wrest a confession from Tucker. Unfortunately, it will be their last chance: If Tucker doesn't crack within the next 12 hours, they will be forced to let him walk. Writer Tom Fontana won an Emmy for this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Religious and personal tensions escalate steadily in this drama, and nearly everyone in it has some sort of extra-sensitive "toes" that get stepped on by others. James Wilby would seem to have a relatively non-controversial job, for a foreigner, since he is a wildlife conservationist, and foreigners are always going on about the environment. Pakistan is, however, a pretty strange place for his Jewish wife Hannah, the daughter of an American senator. The couple are almost deranged with a desire to have a child together, and when they hear about a local shrine which is said to give the blessing of fertility, they think that it sounds harmless enough and go out to see it. In the rest of the world, eunuches are a thing of the past, but in Pakistan and India, they actually have a culture of their own; ironically enough, they run the fertility shrine. When Wilby and Hannah visit the place, they are rendered unconscious with a drugged drink, and a local boy is called in to inseminate Hannah, who does in fact become pregnant. The birth of the child, however, seems to be the trigger for a lot of strange goings-on, beginning with Hannah's conversion to Islam, which strains her marriage nearly to the breaking point. Also, Hannah has discovered that Alistair has been carrying on with a family friend, and in addition, the eunuches seem to be excessively interested in the child she has by now given birth to. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Carolina Skeletons is based on a prize-winning novel by David Stout. Louis Gossett Jr. plays a former Green Beret colonel who returns to his home town after thirty years. As a child, Gossett was forced to look on in horror as his brother was tried and executed on a trumped-up murder charge. Now that he's back, Gossett seeks out new evidence, intending to bring the real killer to justice. Unfortunatel, there are several people in town who'd prefer that the past remained buried-and aren't averse to burying Gossett should the need arise. Made for television, Carolina Skeletons debuted September 30, 1991. An R-rated version was later prepared for cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Season One of The Young Riders begins in 1860, as a rambunctious teenaged hothead known only as The Kid (Ty Miller) signs on as a rider for the Central Overland Express mail service in Sweetwater, Wyoming. This particular branch of the service is overseen by stationmaster Teaspoon Hunter (Anthony Zerbe, a grizzled-old-codger type who is doing his best to live down his past as a gunslinger. Before long, several other youthful buckaroos have joined up as riders, including natural-born scout Billy Cody (Stephen Baldwin), straight-shooter Jimmy Hickok (Josh Brolin), taciturn mute Ike McSwain (Travis Fine), half-Kiowa Indian Buck Cross (Gregg Rainwater), and short-tempered Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor)--who, unbeknownst to anyone (at least at first), is a girl in male disguise. Emma Shannon (Melissa Leo) is the station's cook and resident "earth mother", while local lawkeeper Marshall Cain (Brett Cullen) is Emma's would-be beau. This season, Don Collier makes the first of many recurring appearances as versatile general store keeper William Tompkins, who hopes to one day be reunited with the wife and daughter who'd been stolen by the Sioux years earlier; the taciturn Ike demonstrates time and again that it would take a bolt from Heaven to persuade him to abandon his curious set of values; and the Riders come to the defense of runaway slaves, abandoned and abused children and wrongly persecuted Native Americans, and overall demonstrate a stronger sympathy for the abolitionist North than the slaveholding South in the months leading to the Civil War. As for historical accuracy. . .well, you can't have everything. The season ends with a two-hour finale, involving the Young Riders' dangerous encounter with a vigilante character clearly based on the infamous "Kansas Raider" Quantrill. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Martin (William Hurt) and Jack (Timothy Hutton) are World War II soldiers who go from being army buddies to bitter enemies during the war in this uneven melodrama. Not realizing they are brothers-in-law, Martin eventually learns that Jack is married to his sister Josie (Melissa Leo). On their wedding night, Josie's father Jorge (Francisco Rabal) had abducted her in an attempt to dominate her with his old-world ideals of marriage. When Jorge drowns in a lake after the car skids off the road, black-sheep Martin returns home to learn of his father's death, vowing to avenge his father after he learns his buddy is his sworn enemy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A young wife and her husband witness the brutal barroom rape of a young woman and now must decide whether or not to testify against the culprits or remain quiet in this made-for-TV drama that exploits an actual Massachusetts case. Compounding her difficulties is the fact that one of the rapists is her brother-in-law. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Henry Jaglom, the best professional "home movie" maker in the business, produced, directed, wrote and starred in Always. Also appearing is Jaglom's ex-wife Patrice Townsend, here cast as...his ex-wife. Showing up one night at Jaglom's home to finalize the divorce decree, Townsend is persuaded to stay by her former husband, who hopes to talk her out of dissolving the marriage. Sideline characters include Melissa Leo as Townsend's uninhibited sister, and Alan Rachins as a reclusive type. Mostly improvised, Always attempts to offer up a few sobering truths about relationships. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi