Alexandra Harvey Movies
- 2005
Tagged as a "fairy tale for adults," Nicola Scott's byzantine spiritual fantasy Fated opens in Liverpool on New Year's Eve of 1992, when Tatty (Michael Angelis), a middle-aged artist, is suddenly and unexpectedly abandoned by his much younger French paramour, Amy (Katrine De Candole). As she flees from him, she is struck dead by a passing car - the incident quietly observed by a local boy (James Harris. Torn asunder with grief, Tatty erects a statue of his beloved and mounts it in the crumbling church of St. Luke's; he then bows to the monument and begs the deceased woman to revisit him in the flesh. Exactly thirteen years later, on New Year's 2005, Tatty's life is now a wreck; the incident has reduced him to an impoverished, ragged hobo who resides in St. Luke's, still hovering over his statue. Fleeing aggressors, a local boy, Cal (Brendan Mackey), opts to evade harm by stowing away in the church for one night. He encounters Tatty, and - when the head of the statue is accidentally knocked off - Amy is resurrected. Tatty informs Amy that her only hope of staying alive resides in kissing Cal (the first man she spotted after her resurrection) before dawn. But he fails to anticipate Amy's continued rejection of himself and her inclination to fall in love with Cal. As the night progresses, events unfurl in surprising and completely unexpected ways.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Mackey, Michael Angelis, (more)
- 2003
When Undercover Christmas first aired over CBS on December 7, 2003, a number of critics lauded the film for its "fresh" and "unique" storyline--blissfully unaware that the film bore a marked resemblance to the 1940 Fred MacMurray-Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Remember the Night. Jamie Gertz tops the cast as Brandi O'Neill, a sassy cocktail waitress who is the "great and good friend" of billionaire Scott Shift (Cameron Bancroft). Determned to nail Shift on a tax fraud charge, FBI agent Jake Cunningham (Shawn Christian) figures that Brandi will make an excellent federal witness, and takes her into protective custody. Unfortunately, not long afterward Jake receives word from his mother Anne (Tyne Daly) that his father Joe (Winston Rekert), a very wealthy and very conservative jurist, has suffered a heart attack--and that it would behoove Jack to come home for Christmas to see his dad just one more time. Naturally, Jake is forced to take Brandi along to meet his folks, who are shocked beyond measure when, to avoid compromising his case against Shift, Jake passes Brandi off as his new girlfriend! Things get dicier still when it turns out that Joe Cunningham's heart attack was just a sham to force Jake to come home and get his annual dressing-down for not living up to his parents' hopes--and all the while, Brandi begins to really enjoy her new luxurious surroundings, and seriously considers latching onto Jake for keeps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
