Mary-Louise Parker Movies
Once called the "long-suffering girl next door," Mary-Louise Parker is one of the stage and screen's more trod-upon -- to say nothing of talented -- actresses. Too often confused with such actresses as Mary Stuart Masterson, Penelope Ann Miller, and Sarah Jessica Parker by virtue of her triple-barreled name, Parker is in a class of her own, capable of communicating an underlying strength and grit that saves her characters from being too easily classified as outright victims.Born in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on August 2, 1964, Parker is the youngest of several children. After graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied acting, she headed north, going to New York to pursue a stage career. Her work on the stage was fairly distinguished, and in 1990, Parker won a Theatre World Award and a Tony nomination for her performance in Prelude to a Kiss. That same year, she made her film debut, playing the only prominent female character in the AIDS drama Longtime Companion. The following year, her recognition increased thanks to prominent roles in Grand Canyon and Fried Green Tomatoes. Parker's portrayal of a long-suffering Southern woman in the latter film earned her particular notice and effectively made it possible for her to do steady film work throughout the remainder of the decade.
Parker subsequently divided her time between mainstream and independent films, popping up as a trailer park mom in The Client (1994), Eric Stoltz's long-suffering girlfriend in Naked in New York (1994), John Cusack's long-suffering girlfriend in Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway (1994), and a woman suffering from AIDS in Boys on the Side (1995). Parker also continued to work on the stage and television, appearing in such made-for-TV movies as A Place for Annie (1994) and Saint Maybe (1998). 1999 saw her talent being put to use in a number of diverse films; among them were The Five Senses, in which Parker played a cake-maker who has lost her sense of taste, and Let the Devil Wear Black, in which she effectively returned to the long-suffering girlfriend arena as the Ophelia-like girlfriend of a young man who suspects that there is a murderous conspiracy behind his father's death.
Along with a recurring role on NBC's The West Wing, the new millennium found Parker delivering her trademark nuanced style in a wide variety of projects, playing opposite Ed Norton in Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon, and appearing as the imperfect mother of Jena Malone in the religious satire Saved!.
Parker's undeniable acting talent was not relegated to low-profile roles and projects, however, as she accepted a part in the epic HBO mini series, Angels in America. Starring alongside greats such as Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, and Emma Thompson, Parker did far more than simply hold her own, earning both an Emmy and a Golden Globe award for her performance.
It wouldn't be long before she visited the award podium again. Parker picked up another Golden Globe in 2005 for her starring role in Showtime's series Weeds, in which she plays a suburban mother who becomes the neighborhood pot dealer in order to cope with the financial woes that follow her husband's death. Stacked against four of the stars of ratings juggernaut Desperate Housewives, it proved to be a true recognition of her talent and integrity.
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1996
- PG13
Jane Campion directed this expressive adaptation of the classic novel by Henry James. Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) is a young American woman who, after the death of her parents, has been sent to England to visit relatives. While her family's tragedy has left her penniless, Isabel's beauty has earned her the attentions of a number of eligible men. When Isabel turns down a proposal of marriage from the wealthy Lord Warburton (Richard E. Grant) because she does not love him, her cousin Ralph (Martin Donovan), who is also smitten with her, arranges for his father to leave her a fortune before succumbing to tuberculosis so that she may live as an independent woman. Isabel takes a tour of Europe, where she meets Madame Merle (Barbara Hershey), a jaded sophisticate and matchmaker who introduces her to Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich), a widowed American artist living abroad. Isabel falls in love with Gilbert and they marry, but his sloth and opportunism soon begin to wear on her, and three years later she is desperate to get out of their relationship. The Portrait of a Lady also stars John Gielgud, Mary-Louise Parker, Christian Bale, and Shelley Winters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, (more)
- 1995
- PG13
Reckless is a dark, dream-like comedy-fantasy adapted by Craig Lucas from his play that takes place in a strange, hallucinogenic otherworld. Mia Farrow stars as annoying, air-headed housewife Rachel, who discovers on Christmas Eve that her husband Tom (Tony Goldwyn) has arranged for a hit man to murder her. Barely escaping with her life into the snowy wastes of her neighborhood, Rachel crosses paths with a social worker, Lloyd (Scott Glenn), and Lloyd's paraplegic, deaf and mute wife, Pooty (Mary-Louise Parker). Rachel takes up house with the friendly couple, but Lloyd is not quite what he appears to be and the naïve Rachel is forced to flee. This time, her travels take her into contact with a variety of eccentric characters, including game show host Fast Tim Timko (Giancarlo Esposito), the staff of a non-profit group, and a troubled nun. As she crosses America, Rachel visits all 50 states, although she repeatedly ends up in towns called Springfield. Reckless (1995) was the third and final film of director Norman Rene, who passed away the following year. Rene had previously collaborated with Lucas on the films Longtime Companion (1990) and Prelude to a Kiss (1992). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Farrow, Scott Glenn, (more)
This emotion-filled story stars Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, and Drew Barrymore as three women from different walks of life who find comfort in each other through tragedy. Parker plays Robin, an HIV-positive real estate executive who meets Jane (Goldberg), a lesbian lounge singer on her way to the West Coast who needs a driver. Robin volunteers for the job, and along the way, they stop in Pittsburgh to visit her friend Holly (Barrymore), who is pregnant and abused by her boyfriend. In an attempt to save Holly, all three decide to head West together to begin a new life. But they get only as far as Arizona before Robin falls ill and the three are forced to learn to rely on one another for growth and emotional sustenance. Jane, though concerned about Robin's condition, also finds herself with a romantic interest in her ailing companion. Holly confronts her need to be with abusive men, while Robin comes to grips with her fear of being alone and the realization of her own impending death. Fans of Herbert Ross' earlier Steel Magnolias (1989) might appreciate this movie, which tackles some of the same themes. Sometimes referred to as a "feminist road movie," the film deals with women who find one another in a time of crisis and realize that the bonds among women are more powerful than any of life's obstacles. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, (more)
- 1994
In this touching drama, a kind-hearted pediatric nurse tries to adopt an HIV-positive baby and ends up taking care of its troubled, dying mother as well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sissy Spacek, Mary-Louise Parker, (more)
Bullets Over Broadway is a Woody Allen romp that, as the title suggests, combines gangsters with show business at the height of the Roaring Twenties. David Shayne (John Cusack) is a straight-arrow playwright who plans to stand firm against compromising his work, but quickly abandons that stance when his producer (Jack Warden) finds a backer to mount his show on Broadway. There's just one catch, however: the backer is a mobster (Joe Viterelli) who sees Shayne's play as a vehicle for his dizzy, talent-free girlfriend, Olive (Jennifer Tilly). Shayne also has to deal with the demands of veteran theatre diva Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest) and is shocked to discover that Olive's hitman bodyguard, Cheech (Chazz Palminteri), is probably a better playwright than he is, as he secretly revises Shayne's work when he sits in on rehearsals. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cusack, Jack Warden, (more)
A sterling cast headed by Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon makes this slick thriller one of the better adaptations of a John Grisham bestseller. Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer, who confesses that the Mob was behind the murder of a U.S. senator. Mark's brother is traumatized into a coma by the incident; gangster Barry Muldano (Anthony LaPaglia) is soon on Mark's trail, and in desperation, he arrives at the office of recovering alcoholic lawyer Reggie Love (Sarandon). With the Mob after them, and a ruthless federal attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) trying to force Mark to reveal what he knows, Love battles to guarantee the safety of her client and his family. The relationship between Reggie Love and Mark Sway is the center of the film, adding considerable character development to plot's routine elements. Director Joel Schumacher helmed another Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill, in 1996. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
A young man (Matt Dillon) is trying to go in with his friends on a bowling-alley investment, but finds that his finances are too strapped to attempt the venture. To curb his outlays, he begins arranging a marriage for his ex-wife (Annabella Sciorra) so he can end the alimony payments which keep him in debt. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Dillon, Annabella Sciorra, (more)
The sponsorship of noted filmmaker Martin Scorsese helped the novice filmmakers making this film get it produced and receive mainstream distribution. In addition, it features a vast number of appearances by well-known performers, who took an interest in the project, taking union minimum pay. In the story, Jake (Eric Stoltz) has grown up in a wonderfully neurotic household. It is just as well that he has developed a fondness for drama, as this material is excellent fodder for his playwriting. He has spent a lot of time collaborating with his friend Chris (Ralph Macchio) writing plays, and eventually is given his chance to prove his stuff in New York City. There, he discovers that Chris wants to be more than just a friend, and an important stage actress (Kathleen Turner) also has the hots for him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, Mary-Louise Parker, (more)
Director Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon is a gathering of random events, uniting the film's wildly divergent protagonists. Driving home from an LA Lakers game, Mack (Kevin Kline), an immigration attorney, is stranded in an unsavory part of town when his car breaks down. He is rescued from a gang of hoods by Simon (Danny Glover), an African-American tow truck driver, inaugurating a friendship between these two men. Mack offers to repay Simon's kindness by helping his sister (Tina Lifford) find an apartment in a better neighborhood, and by arranging a blind date between Simon and Jane (Alfre Woodard), a friend of Mack's secretary Dee (Mary Louise Parker). Woven into this fabric are the tribulations of Mack's best friend, a pompous exploitation movie producer (Steve Martin), who is later wounded in a robbery similar to the one threatening Mack at the beginning of the film; of Mack's wife Claire (Mary McDonnell), who adopts an abandoned baby, and disenfranchised son Roberto (Jeremy Sisto); and of Simon's nephew (Patrick Malone), who is contemplating joining a street gang. The title is symbolic, referring to the class-imposed chasms which would normally separate the characters. Kasdan co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Meg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, (more)
A woman learns the value of friendship as she hears the story of two women and how their friendship shaped their lives in this warm comedy-drama. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is an emotionally repressed housewife with a habit of drowning her sorrows in candy bars. Her husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) barely acknowledges her existence, and while he visits his aunt at a nursing home every week, Evelyn is not permitted to come into the room because the old women doesn't like her. One week, while waiting out Ed's visit, Evelyn meets Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), a frail but feisty old woman who lives at the same nursing home and loves to tell stories. Over the span of several weeks, she spins a whopper about one of her relatives, Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson). Back in the 1920s, Idgie was a sweet but fiercely independent woman with her own way of doing things who ran the town diner in Whistle Stop, Alabama. Idgie was very close to her brother Buddy (Chris O'Donnell), and when he died, she wouldn't talk to anyone except Buddy's girl, Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker). Idgie gave Ruth a job at the cafe after she left her abusive husband, Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy). Between her habit of standing up for herself, standing up to Frank, and serving food to Black people out the back of the diner, Idgie raised the ire of the less tolerant citizens of Whistle Stop, and when Frank mysteriously disappeared, many locals suspected that Idgie, Ruth, and their friends may have been responsible. Evelyn finds herself looking forward to her weekly visits with Ninny, and is inspired by her story to take a new pride in herself and assert her independence from Ed. Fried Green Tomatoes was based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by actress-turned-author Fannie Flagg, who makes a cameo appearance as the leader of a self-help group. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, (more)
At the time of Longtime Companion's release in 1990, the devastating disease of AIDS was seen as a mysterious and deadly scourge, replete with rumors, lies, and panic. As the first narrative film to examine the AIDS epidemic, screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René place the disease in an historical context, dramatizing the impact of the disease through time in a series of vignettes involving seven gay men. AIDS first made its presence felt surreptitiously, as an article in The New York Times reported on a rare cancer attacking gay men called Karposi's syndrome. Then the Village Voice began a series of in-depth articles concerning a "gay plague" which later became known as AIDS. The film follows the AIDS crisis through the lives of the seven main characters so that they are only aware of AIDS in the historical framework of each episode. The characters include former gay couple Willy (Campbell Scott) and John (Dermot Mulroney), first seen partying at a Fire Island club, who don't pay much attention to the mysterious article in The New York Times but become intimately effected by the disease. There is also Sean (Mark Lamos), a soap opera writer whose mind is slowly deteriorating because of the disease, and his supportive friend David (Bruce Davidson). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, (more)
- 1989
Co-produced by the folks from PBS' American Playhouse series, Signs of Life (alternate title: One For Sorrow, Two For Joy) stars veteran actor Arthur Kennedy as a cranky, set-in-his-ways Maine shipbuilder. Unable to keep apace with the 1980s, Kennedy is forced to close up shop. The film probes the various effects this decision has on Kennedy's employees. Beau Bridges has a wife (Kathy Bates) and four kids to support, with a fifth on the way. Kevin J. O'Connor would like to take a salvage-diving job in another state, but must first break off his long-standing relationship with waitress Mary Louise Parker. And Vincent D'Onofrio, who'd managed to find a job for his retarded brother Michael Lewis at Kennedy's establishment, is forced to consider having Lewis institutionalized. Though screenwriter Mark Malone isn't completely successful in avoiding the Obvious, there is much to cherish in Signs of Life. The film represented Arthur Kennedy's return before the cameras after ten years' retirement; after one additional performance in the independently produced Grandpa, Kennedy died in 1990 at the age of 76. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Kennedy, Kevin J. O'Connor, (more)
- 1988
A young boy slips through the cracks and ends up in the Navy in this made-for-television drama. Based on a true story, Rick Schroder stars as Calvin Graham, a mature-looking 12-year-old boy who enlisted in the Navy during World War II. Graham not only fought in the war but was honored for his bravery at Guadalcanal before his secret was discovered. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
