Sarah Jessica Parker Movies
A child performer who went on to become an adult actor in one of the more radical transformations in the history of the American entertainment industry, Sarah Jessica Parker has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd. As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen's Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy hair who was either the sidekick or underdog; when she wasn't cleaning up after Lori Singer in Footloose, she was battling snotty rich girls for the right to dance on local television in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. However, thanks to perseverance, talent, a fabulous stylist, and an HBO series called Sex and the City, Parker had emerged, by the end of the 1990s, as one of the most glamorous and employable actors around, known as much for the designer frocks she wore to awards ceremonies as for her work on the screen.Born in Nelsonville, OH, on March 25, 1965, as the fourth of eight siblings, Parker grew up in relative poverty following the divorce of her mother, an elementary school teacher, and her father, an aspiring writer. Raised by her mother and often out-of-work stepfather, she trained as a dancer and singer, bringing home paychecks from a young age. As a fledgling actor, Parker landed her first TV show at the age of eight; in 1976, after winning her first Broadway role in The Innocents, her family moved to New Jersey to encourage her career. Parker worked on the stage for the next few years, touring -- with four of her siblings -- in the national company of The Sound of Music and getting her first major break when she was chosen to take over the title role of Annie on Broadway, from 1979 to 1980.
Continuing her training at the American Ballet Theater and the New York Professional Children's School, Parker made her film debut in the 1979 Rich Kids, which co-starred John Lithgow, Trini Alvarado, and Olympia Dukakis. In 1982, she won her first starring role in the aforementioned Square Pegs, and then received additional attention thanks to her role as Lori Singer's best friend and Chris Penn's girlfriend in the 1984 hit Footloose. The following year, Parker kept on dancing -- this time alongside a very young Helen Hunt -- in the similarly winning Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The actor's success in both films paved the way for steady work through the rest of the decade; in addition to her work on the big screen, Parker also starred in a number of TV shows, including the 1986 miniseries A Year in the Life and the drama series Equal Justice.
The early '90s saw Parker segue into more adult roles, playing the Southern Californian creation SanDeE* alongside Steve Martin in L.A. Story (1991), then earning both critical and cult credibility as Nicholas Cage's fiancée in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) and as the wife of consummate schlockmeister Ed Wood in Tim Burton's celebrated 1994 film about Wood's life and times. Offscreen, as well, she was garnering notice for her attachment to actor Matthew Broderick; Parker -- who had been in high-profile relationships with Robert Downey Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr. -- married Broderick in 1997.
Following a turn as Mia Farrow's daughter in the widely panned Miami Rhapsody (1995), supporting work in The First Wives Club and Burton's Mars Attacks! (both 1996), and a number of New York productions (including Sylvia, for which she earned a Drama Desk Award nomination), Parker landed the starring role of New York sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the new HBO series Sex and the City. Touted by some observers as the luckiest break in the actor's career to date, the show, which focused on the sex lives of four close friends (played by Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis) became a huge hit among both critics and viewers, ensuring Parker -- who won the Golden Globe for her work in 2000, 2001and 2002 -- both steady employment and an unimpeachably chic image that was eons removed from the bony elbows and frizzy bangs of her days as a square peg. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
This romantic comedy is the first film from two television veterans, writer Winnie Holzman and director Scott Winant. Gwen Moss (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is a writer working on the life story of former child actress Francesca Lanfield (Sarah Jessica Parker), who is recovering from drug addiction. Nick Dawkan (Dylan McDermott) is an architect working on a housing development that will require razing Gwen's beloved vintage apartment. Gwen frequently visits a restaurant designed by Nick, but she never meets him. In the meantime, she is romantically rebuffed by a college professor (Ken Olin), who reveals that he is bisexual. Eventually, Gwen's crusade to save the apartment complex, which is owned by Francesca, attracts the attention of Nick. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dylan McDermott, (more)
- 1997
- NR
Neil Simon adapted this 1997 comedy from his 1972 play, first filmed in 1975 with Walter Matthau and George Burns as two feuding veteran vaudevillians reuniting to do a television special. For this new version, Simon updated the period and characters into a tale of two comedians (Woody Allen, Peter Falk), once popular in the 1950s. Their successful comedy team split up, but now Warner Brothers wants to bring them back together for cameos in a movie that's "funnier than Home Alone" -- so with salaries of $75,000 each, how can they refuse? Filmed in New York, this movie premiered December 28, 1997 on Hallmark Hall of Fame (CBS). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Peter Falk, (more)
Three women plot revenge on their two-timing husbands in this comedy. Brenda (Bette Midler), Elise (Goldie Hawn), and Annie (Diane Keaton) were close friends in college, but 27 years after graduation they've lost touch with each other, and it's not until a mutual friend of the three commits suicide that they meet at the funeral for the first time in years. It seems that their friend grew despondent after her husband left her for a younger woman, and all three find themselves in similar situations. Elise is an actress who finds herself out of work now that she's seen the shady side of 40, and her husband and producer Bill (Victor Garber) is demanding a divorce (and half of her fortune). Brenda helped her husband Morton (Dan Hedaya) open a profitable chain of discount electronics stores, but now that his commercials have made him a minor celebrity, he's taken up with a much younger (and thinner) woman. Annie has allowed her husband Aaron (Stephen Collins) to use her as a doormat throughout their marriage, and she's at a loss now that he's leaving her. After comparing notes, Brenda, Elise, and Annie decide that it's time to do something about their problems, and they hatch an elaborate blackmail scheme that will win them control of their ex-husband's businesses and allow them to do something positive with the money they helped earn. Heather Locklear and Ivana Trump both make cameo appearances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, (more)
Comic leading man Hugh Grant gets serious in this drama about a physician who uncovers a truly disturbing secret. Guy Luthan (Hugh Grant), a British doctor serving a residence in a hospital in New York City, is very puzzled by a patient brought to the emergency room one night. Naked, disoriented, and bearing a hospital bracelet and a fresh surgical scar, the mystery man is suffering from a baffling variety of symptoms, and though he dies not long after he's admitted, Luthan can't get the patient out of his mind. When he asks to see the records on the patient a few days later, he's told they no longer exist, and the more he digs, the more he's convinced that someone knows something they're not telling. Against the advice of his friend Jodie Trammel (Sarah Jessica Parker), a nurse and colleague, and the instructions of his superiors, Luthan keeps digging into this and other strange cases that have come through the hospital lately. Luthan's sleuthing eventually brings him to the door of Dr. Lawrence Myrick (Gene Hackman), a well-known surgeon who is doing research in experimental surgery that could allow patients with severe spinal injuries to walk again. While Myrick's work is done with the most noble of intentions, there turns out to be a sinister undercurrent to his research techniques. Actress Elizabeth Hurley, Grant's offscreen significant other, was co-producer for this picture, the first from their joint production company. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, (more)
In this adaptation of a stage play by Jon Robin Baitz, a successful head of a New York publishing firm unravels after the death of his wife. Isaac Geldhart (Ron Rifkin) is a German Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who has been emotionally scarred by the traumas of his childhood, during which he spent many days hiding in an attic full of books. He has grown into a demanding perfectionist of a businessman, but his company is failing despite a sterling reputation for quality. He becomes obsessed with publishing a four-volume work on the techniques used in the Nazi genocide. His son Aaron (Tony Goldwyn) pleads with his father to try more commercially viable books, especially a hip contemporary first novel written by Val (Gil Bellows), who turns out to be Aaron's lover. But neither Aaron nor Isaac's long-suffering assistant Miss Barzakian (Elizabeth Franz) can dissuade the publisher from carrying out his financially disastrous plan. Aaron calls his two siblings Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), a children's TV show personality, and Martin (Timothy Hutton), a college professor, to a family meeting to try to resolve things, but their father blows up. Aaron's siblings sign over their shares in the publishing company to Aaron, effectively freezing out their father, who stubbornly sets up his own company and proceeds with his Holocaust project, which in the end proves a disappointment to him. Isaac's world falls apart as he becomes more belligerent, and Martin moves in with him to take care of him. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Rifkin, Sarah Jessica Parker, (more)
This vanity project from writer, director, and star Eric Schaeffer is a romantic comedy about a pair of New Yorkers with a suicide pact. Joe MacGonaughgill (Schaeffer) is a painter and teacher who has been spying for years on Jane (Elle Macpherson), the gorgeous woman who lives across the alley, where she can be secretly observed undressing. Joe lives with Lucy Ackerman (Sarah Jessica Parker), a psychotherapist who's also his best friend. Suffering from her own relationship troubles with her boyfriend Dick (William Sage), Lucy is reminded of a long-ago pact she made with Joe: if neither is involved in a serious relationship by her rapidly approaching 30th birthday, they will commit suicide by jumping together off the Brooklyn Bridge. Then Jane comes to a show of Joe's artwork and he musters up the courage to ask her out, while Lucy begins dating Bwick Elias (Ben Stiller), an oddball artist who paints with his body parts. Only after Jane and Bwick turn out to be major disappointments do Joe and Lucy realize that they're perfect together -- and not in the platonic sense. Struggling independent filmmaker Schaeffer convinced Parker to take the female lead in If Lucy Fell when she hailed the cab he was driving. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Eric Schaeffer, (more)
This quirky science fiction comedy is a characteristic feature by iconoclastic director Tim Burton, known to moviegoers for Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The storyline affectionately harkens back to the deadpan sincerity of such '50s and '60s science-fiction films as The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds. Flying saucers have been reliably seen over the capitals of the world, and the whole world awaits with bated breath to see what will transpire. Among those waiting is the President of the United States (Jack Nicholson), who is assured by his science advisor (Pierce Brosnan) that the coming aliens are utterly peaceful. This advice is hotly contested by the military (led by Rod Steiger), who advices the President to annihilate them. When the aliens land, they are seen to be green, garish, and very cheerful. But appearances prove deceiving when the "friendly" aliens abruptly disintegrate the entire U.S. Congress. Hollywood notables appear in vast quantities in roles (and sub-plots) of all sizes in this zany feature. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, (more)
- 1995
A story from children's author Kevin Henkes -- whose tales, illustrated with sketches of friendly mice, offer gentle, but important, lessons about understanding others and yourself -- comes to life in this animated video. In Owen, a boy has to face giving up the security blanket that's been his constant companion for years. Sarah Jessica Parker narrates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker
The discovery of marital troubles in her family causes a young woman to question her own upcoming nuptials in this clever romantic comedy. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Gwyn, a bright, slightly neurotic advertising copywriter who is initially thrilled when her boyfriend Matt (Gil Bellows) finally proposes. Soon afterwards, however, she learns that her mother Nina (Mia Farrow) is indulging in an extra-marital affair with a handsome Latin stud (Antonio Banderas). This is only the first of several shocking revelations, as Gwyn soon learns of infidelity by her father (Paul Mazursky), brother (Kevin Pollack), and even newlywed sister (Carla Gugino). These indiscretions make Gwyn question the validity of the entire institution of marriage and doubt her own future. Director David Frankel, who also penned the screenplay, follows in the footsteps of Woody Allen in using introspective dialogue to detail the romantic troubles of a wealthy, neurotic Jewish family; practiced performances and a colorful use of Miami locations give the film its own personality. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Gil Bellows, (more)
- 1994
This 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker and features musical guest R.E.M. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, R.E.M., (more)
Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, (more)
- 1994
With his impending divorce nearly finalized, an increasingly troubled Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) begins exhibiting increasingly bizarre behavior and hitting on guests Sarah Jessica Parker and Mary Gross. With his desperation spiraling increasingly out of control, Hank hits on a visibly distressed Darlene (Linda Doucett) before checking into a hotel to embark on a hollow frenzy of sex and drugs. When the network begins to catch wind of Hank's plunge into darkness, Artie (Rip Torn) sets out to convince his old friend to stay away from destruction and join his old friends in the land of the living. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy romp around like coked-up versions of The Three Stooges in the frantic Disney romp Hocus Pocus. The film begins in 1693 where three witches -- Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) -- are preparing a potion that will grant them immortality and eternal youth. But before they finish mixing their cocktail, the people of Salem capture them and execute them for practicing witchcraft. Before their deaths, they vow to return to Salem 300 years hence on Halloween to exact their revenge. Three hundred years later, a skeptical, newly transplanted Californian, Max (Omri Katz), explores the ruins of the legendary witches' house and dares the witches to manifest themselves. Disregarding the warnings of his sister Dani (Thora Birch) and girlfriend Allison (Vinessa Shaw), Max lights the Candle of Black Flame. With that, the witches reappear to wreak havoc on the town. The kids take off with the witches' spellbook and a musty tome of hexes and recipes. The sorceresses, who will die by the morning light if they don't recite the incantation for immortality, have to get the books by whatever means they can. So, Winifred, Sarah, and Mary hop on their broomsticks for a chase through Halloween night. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, (more)
A maverick Pittsburgh policeman loses his job after he shares his suspicion that one of his colleagues is a serial killer. This thriller centers on his hunt to prove his point, a search that becomes more desperate when the killer begins killing the cop's female associates. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, (more)
- 1992
After being released from an institution, a manic-depressive attempts to get custody of her 5 children and struggles with the opposition of her oldest daughter and the foster parents. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Sally Struthers, (more)
After making a deathbed promise to his mother that he would never marry, Jack Singer (Nicolas Cage) finds that resolve challenged when his girlfriend, Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker), begins making noise about wanting to start a family. Worried he might lose her, Jack makes the rash decision that they should fly to Las Vegas that weekend to tie the knot. Feet still cold, Jack spurns Betsy's idea to get married the moment they step off the plane, preferring to procrastinate for a few hours over a game of poker arranged by notorious gambler Tommy Korman (James Caan). Peddling the game as a get-to-know-you thrown by the hotel, Korman steadily raises the stakes on Jack until the novice is in for 65,000 dollars of the house's money on a hand he's sure he'll win -- a straight flush to the jack. When he loses the fixed hand, the flabbergasted Jack has a major problem on his hands. Korman offers an unusual solution: If Betsy, whom Korman spotted in the lobby because of her resemblance to his late wife, will spend the weekend with him, Jack's debt will be forgiven. Betsy initially refuses, considering it a ploy by Jack to postpone the wedding, but soon agrees to fly to Hawaii with Korman, in part because it will teach Jack a lesson. When she finds herself charmed by Korman's smooth and sensitive shtick, her desperate fiancé goes to incredible lengths to win her back, including jumping from a plane with a troop of skydiving Elvises. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Caan, Nicolas Cage, (more)
- 1991
Shalom Sesame 10: Passover -- Jerusalem Jones and the Lost Afikoman is the tenth tape in the Muppets special edition series, Shalom Sesame, an educational journey through ancient and modern Israel. Kids meet old and new Muppet friends on Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli version of Sesame Street, including Grover, Cookie Monster, Moishe Oofnick the grouch, and Kippy ben Kipod, a large porcupine. In this episode, kids join Jerusalem Jones, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and the Rechov Sumsum gang for a Passover adventure. There is a mystery to be solved, as the afikoman has disappeared. Without the afikoman, the seder cannot come to a conclusion. By jumping literally into the pages of the story of Passover, or the Haggadah, Jerusalem Jones and Kippi ben Kipod look for clues and learn something new. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide
Steve Martin wrote and stars in this look at the promise and dreamtime of Los Angeles culture. Martin stars as Harris K. Telemacher, a light-hearted television weatherman who does wacky comedy in lieu of reports since, being in L.A., he has very little weather to report. He spends his time roller-skating through museums and spending time with California's beautiful people. But Telemacher is fired and discovers that his girlfriend Trudi (Marilu Henner) is having an affair. He walks away from the relationship and re-evaluates his life, getting advice from a friendly electronic highway road sign. The sign suggests that he call SanDeE (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sprightly and attractive Valley Girl he met in a clothing store. With SanDeE he experiences a liberating and carefree spirit. But Telemacher comes to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Sara (Victoria Tennant), a tuba-playing British journalist who is in California to do a feature on Los Angeles lifestyles. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, (more)
- 1989
The four-part British miniseries Pursuit, based upon Robert L. Fish's novel of the same name, was first telecast in the United States as the two-part "movie special" Twist of Fate. Bruce Greenwood essayed the leading role of Helmut Von Schraeder, an ex-S.S. officer on the run after conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Undergoing plastic surgery, Von Schraeder assumed the new identity of Jewish concentration camp survivor Daniel Grossman. And as if that wasn't unbelievable enough, "Grossman" went on to a colorful career as an Israeli freedom fighter. The huge multinational cast included British film and TV stalwart Ben Cross and American leading lady Sarah Jessica Parker. Though made for British television, Pursuit did not air in that country until 1990, a full year after its American debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Cross, Veronica Hamel, (more)
- 1988
Ryan White was the teenaged hemophiliac who contacted AIDS through a blood transfusion, then was barred from attending school in Kokomo, Indiana. All but ostracized by the community, Ryan's mother (Judith Light) engages the services of a high-powered attorney (George C. Scott) to win back her son's basic rights. While the film ends with Ryan triumphing over his human adversaries, no effort is made to sugarcoat the situation. Even after he has been welcomed by another school, we see how the boy is shunned by certain students and their parents; nor is there any glossing over the fact that Ryan's days are numbered, despite the boy's enthusiastic plans for the time he has left (young White died shortly after this TV movie was first telecast in 1989). Despite its inherent sadness, The Ryan White Story is a celebration of an exceptional young human being whose short life touched so many others in a positive, uplifting manner. While Lukas Haas portrays the title character, the real Ryan White appears in the small role of Chad, another hemophiliac AIDS victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
This two-part TV movie, produced in Australia, was based on the tragically true story of an Australian teenager (John Polson) condemned to death for dealing in drugs in Malaysia. Part One set up the circumstances which landed Polson and his friend Hugo Weaving on Malaysia's death row. In Part Two, Polson's mother, played by Julie Christie, races desperately against time to save her son from the gallows. She enlists the support of the Queen of England, the Pope, and a large international organization of concerned citizens--but the Malaysian government remains unmoved. Evocatively filmed in Macao, Dadah Is Death had the bad luck to premiere on American TV opposite the highly rated miniseries Favorite Son. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, John Polson, (more)
More a series of ragged comic anecdotes than a unified whole, the made-for-TV The Room Upstairs top-bills Stockard Channing as a Boston teacher of the hearing-impaired. Strapped for cash, Ms. Channing converts her family home into a boarding house. Six tenants with varying degrees of eccentricities and personal hang-ups take up residence, including soft spoken cellist Sam Waterston. Various crises involving her boarders inspire Ms. Channing to come out of her own emotional shell--she even stops her chain-smoking. Based on a novel by Norma Levinson and originally telecast as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special, The Room Upstairs was filmed on location in Boston and Vancouver. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
