Sarah Polley Movies
Known as much for her intelligence as for her talent, Canadian actress Sarah Polley has been wowing television and film audiences since she was barely out of diapers. Born January 8, 1979, in the Toronto area, Polley got her first screen role at the age of six, in Disney's One Magic Christmas. From 1987 to 1988, Polley made her name in the title role of the Canadian television series Ramona. Her work on the show led to more screen work, first in the Matt Dillon flop The Big Town (1987) and then in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989).In 1990, Polley got a lead role on the acclaimed TV series The Road to Avonlea, a part that she played for five seasons. In 1994, she had a small but significant role in Atom Egoyan's Exotica and again collaborated with the director in 1997, for his critically lauded The Sweet Hereafter. The film was nominated for a host of awards, including a Best Director Oscar for Egoyan, and won a Special Grand Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Polley drew her share of praise for her performance as the paralyzed survivor of a catastrophic bus accident and soon Hollywood was courting the waifishly unconventional actress, whom one critic remarked looked like Uma Thurman's wiser younger sister. However, for her next picture, Polley opted for a small Canadian production, The Last Night (1998), directed by Don McKellar.
Hollywood did become part of the picture with Polley's casting in Doug Liman's Go (1999), in which she starred with such other young notables as Katie Holmes, Scott Wolf, Taye Diggs, and Breckin Meyer. Her role in the film, combined with her performance in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999) and a lead role in Guinevere (also 1999), helped to classify her as one of the most talented actresses of her generation, not a bad accomplishment for someone who repeatedly stated that her primary goal in life was to become a writer.
In 2000, Polley returned to Canada to star in Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight of Water, a drama about the efforts of a photojournalist and her husband (Catherine McCormack and Sean Penn) to investigate a 19th century murder. That same year, she also appeared in Michael Winterbottom's The Claim, playing the daughter of a gold miner (Peter Mullan) who sells his family for a bag of gold.
Over the next four years, Polley continued to stick mostly to smaller independent films. She played a journalist opposite a monster in Hal Hartley's 2001 fantasy No Such Thing and won rave reviews and a Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for her performance as a terminally ill young woman in 2003's My Life Without Me.
In 2004, Polley took another stab at Hollywood, heading up the ensemble cast in the remake of George Romero's horror classic Dawn of the Dead. She returned to artier fare with the 2005 film The Secret Life of Words opposite Tim Robbins.
Polley made her direcotiral and screenwriting debuts in 2007 with Away From Her), an adaptation of Alice Munro's story The Bear Came Over the Mountain, a beautifully observed drama about an elderly married couple dealing with the wife alzheimer's disease. The film earned a handful of year-end awards and nominations, garnering Polley a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Academy.
She returned to acting in the award-winning miniseries John Adams, and appeared in the sci-fi film Splice in 2010. Her released her sophomore directorial effort, Take This Waltz the next year. The movie, starring Michelle Williams as a young married woman contemplating cheating on her husband, was a festival favorite and got a release in the United States in the summer of 2012. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 2012
- PG13
Sarah Polley's documentary Stories We Tell finds the director/actress exploring a family secret. She had discovered a few years earlier that her biological father was not actually the person she knew as her father; in an effort to fully understand this long-held family secret, Polley interviews every member of her family, and had the man she thought of as her dad write his version of events and record it, using him reading his story as a recurring voiceover throughout the film. Stories We Tell screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
Sarah Polley's sophomore directorial effort Take This Waltz stars Michelle Williams as Margot, a 28-year-old Toronto woman who has been married for five years to Lou (Seth Rogen), a cookbook author who specializes in chicken dishes. One day she meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) her neighbor across the street, and there is a quick and lasting connection between the two. While she remains faithful to Lou, she finds herself drawn more and more to this seemingly perfect other man. Eventually, Margot is forced to confront the truth about herself, and share her feelings with her unsuspecting husband. Take This Waltz had its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, (more)
Celebrated genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) conduct a clandestine experiment to create an animal/human hybrid that could revolutionize modern medicine -- if it doesn't destroy humanity first. On the heels of engineering an entirely new species of animal, Clive and Elsa become the toast of the scientific community. Their experiment begins to spiral out of control, however, when the superstar scientists introduce human DNA into the equation. When Dren is born, Clive and Elsa welcome her into the world as the next leap in human evolution. Now, the faster Dren evolves, the more her creators start to realize they may have made a catastrophic mistake. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, (more)
The founding members of a legendary female punk outfit are reunited years after their band imploded, and spend a long night reflecting on both their fractured friendship, as well as their moment in the spotlight in this raucous drama from director Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Pontypool). Ever since they were little girls, Victoria "Vic" Sawchyn (Tracy Wright) and Kathryn "Kat" Lake (Molly Parker) were inseparable. Eventually, Victoria and Kathryn started making music together. Dubbed Trigger, their punk-inspired band went through numerous line-up changes before hitting the perfect formula, and storming the charts. Then as quickly as success came, clashing egos and rampant excess brought it crumbling down like a house of cards. Unfortunately, Victoria and Kathryn's friendship appeared to die along with Trigger. A decade later, however, a small record label announces a benefit concert staged to celebrate women who rock. It's clear that the owners of the label expect Victoria and Kathryn to take part in the event, but when the two former friends come together over dinner both end up feeling responsible for the band's demise. Later, after the concert has ended, the two old friends prepare to attend an after-party, and the details of their turbulent relationship slowly come into focus. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Molly Parker, Tracy Wright, (more)
- 2009
A man close to death ponders the many lives he might have led in this fantasy from director and screenwriter Jaco van Dormael. 117-year-old Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) is ill and facing his last days as he looks back on his past and a particular crucial moment -- at the age of nine, Nemo's parents divorced, and as his mother (Natasha Little) and father (Rhys Ifans) stood on a train platform, he had to choose who he would go with, and whether he would live in the United States or Great Britain. Either choice would bring with it a wide variety of possibilities regarding the sort of life he would lead, and Nemo imagines nearly all of them, including two different wives -- sweet but emotionally blank Jeanne (Linh-Dan Pham) and lovely but troubled Elise (Sarah Polley) -- and another woman, Anna (Diane Kruger), who he loves but can not marry. But as Nemo considers the many different paths his life could have taken, his memory begins to fail him, and he finds it increasingly difficult to be certain which was his real life and which is a product of his imagination. Mr. Nobody also stars Thomas Byrne as nine-year-old Nemo and Toby Regbo as Nemo in his teenage years. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, (more)
Emmy Award-winning director Tom Hopper takes the helm for this epic, seven-part miniseries produced by Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and presenting American history as seen from the perspective of fiercely independent founding father John Adams (Paul Giamatti). Based on author David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, the film tells the tale of a leader whose remarkable vision helped to guide a burgeoning republic through an especially tumultuous period. Thanks to the tireless support of his loving wife Abigail (Laura Linney), and lifelong friendship with political rivalry Thomas Jefferson (Stephen Dillane), John Adams rose to prominence as the spokesman for the American independence movement before moving on to become America's first ambassador to Holland and England, the first American Vice President, the second American President, and the father of the sixth American President. As with McCullough's best-selling biography, the film draws on a comprehensive collection of letters, diaries, and family papers in order to create the most accurate representation of Adams' life and achievements ever captured on film. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, (more)
Filmmaker Atom Egoyan -- a longtime onscreen collaborator with the gifted young actress Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter) -- executive-produced Polley's directorial debut, Away from Her, starring Julie Christie, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, and Wendy Crewson. Adapted by Polley from a short story by Alice Munro, this small-scaled two-character drama concerns Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Christie), a long-married couple, well into their golden years, who are much in love and connected to one another on every level. "Soul mates" in the purest sense of the term, the two feel a sense of ease and tranquility in their rural home. But when Fiona's memory begins to slip away and she insists on being taken to a rest home, the decision stirs up torrents of guilt and regret in Grant's heart. The rules of the center only complicate matters, as they forbid visitation and communication with Fiona for an interminable period of time. He determines to support his wife at all costs, even if must happen at the expense of his own peace of mind. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, (more)
One of the oldest epic poems in the English language gets a robust visual interpretation in this historical epic shot on location in Iceland. Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård) is a Danish king who murders a troll that has been terrorizing his countryside. But Hrothgar spares the life of the troll's strange young son, who with the passage of years grows to become Grendel (Ingvar Sigurdsson), a fearsome warrior intent upon avenging his father's death. As Grendel begins his slaughter of the king's closest confidants, Hrothgar realizes his life is in danger, and he calls upon the brave and fearless Beowulf (Gerard Butler) to track down and kill Grendel. As Beowulf and his band of warriors search for the vicious and elusive Grendel, he crosses paths with Selma (Sarah Polley), a beautiful and sensuous witch whose alliances are divided between Beowulf and his archenemy. Produced by Canadian, British, and Icelandic concerns, Beowulf & Grendel was a major box-office success in Canada before crossing south to American theaters in the summer of 2006. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, (more)
Writer-director Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (Sarah Polley), a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30s, quietly drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold number of hours in a loud factory, Hanna must wear a hearing aid. When her supervisors -- deeply concerned about the four years that have lapsed in Hanna's life without a break -- force her to go on holiday for a month, she hesitantly takes off for a coastal village in the north of Ireland. Once there, she decides to dine in a local restaurant, and overhears, by chance, a telephone conversation conducted by Victor (Eddie Marsan), regarding an accident on a nearby oil rig that he precipitated, which left a victim, Josef (Tim Robbins) in its wake. Hanna tells Victor that she is a nurse, and is instantly flown to the rig to treat the bedbound Josef -- temporarily blind from extensive cornea damage, and his body blanketed with severe burns. She also encounters the structure's motley and eccentric band of workers -- from ecologist Martin (Daniel Mays), who spends his time studying mutated mussels that collect on the ship's base and the waves that strike the side of the rig, to Josef, to chef Simon (Javier Camára), who prepares "gourmet" food no one else can stand, to Dimitri (Sverre Anker Ousdal), an elderly gentleman who is as much of a loner as Hanna. As Hanna begins to foresee a new place for herself among these individuals, a relationship gradually develops between Hanna and Josef, who holds his new friend rapt with lyrical, evocative, magisterial tales from his past -- unknowingly drawing Hanna, one step at a time, toward inner joy, self-expression, and revelation of her own sad and complex story. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, (more)
Director Wim Wenders and writer Sam Shepard, who collaborated on the award-winning film Paris, Texas, once again join forces for this dark drama of a man trying to turn over a new leaf late in life. Howard Spence (Sam Shepard) is a veteran actor who has been a popular Western star since the mid-'70s. Spence's onscreen image as a strong, principled lawman is a severe contrast to his life off the set, which has been dominated by drinking, drugs, and promiscuous womanizing. However, Spence has begun to find his hedonistic life a shallow existence, and one day, in the midst of filming his latest movie, he simply hops on his horse and rides away, eventually making his way to the small Nevada town where his mother lives. Mother (Eva Marie Saint) has little interest in seeing her wayward son after so many years, but she does share a recently discovered bit of information with him -- one of Spence's former girlfriends stopped by with word that she had given birth to his son years before. Spence borrows his father's old car and drives to Butte, MT, where he finds Doreen (Jessica Lange), the woman who was his lover years ago. Doreen runs a tavern where her son, Earl (Gabriel Mann), plays for the locals with his rock band; Spence is in fact Earl's father, but the young man has no interest in meeting his biological father, and shuts out Spence as the actor tries to get to know him. As Spence struggles to find some sort of familial connection in Butte, he makes friends with a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley), only to discover she was also fathered by him during his rowdy younger days. Don't Come Knocking's distinguished supporting cast includes Tim Roth, George Kennedy, Fairuza Balk, Julia Sweeney, and Tim Matheson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, (more)
Adapted from a series of short stories by Canadian cult favorite Bruce La Bruce, this seriocomic coming-of-age story stars Andre Noble as Cliff, a teenager growing up in Toronto in the 1980s. While Cliff is aware of the fact he's gay and has a ravenous curiosity about sex, he hasn't been able to do much about it. However, on his 18h birthday, Cliff's free-thinking mother, Madge (Marnie McPhail), pours him a stiff drink, offers him a reefer, and politely but firmly tells him to go downtown and have some fun. Eager to lose his virginity, Cliff instead encounters Butch (Brendan Fehr), a good-looking guy in his early twenties who makes his living as a male prostitute. Cliff is infatuated with Butch from the first moment he sees him; however, while Butch appears fond of Cliff and strikes up a friendship with him, his career has forced him to develop a sense of emotional distance from others, and he isn't interested in sex with other men unless he's being paid for it. Cliff becomes a regular visitor to Butch's apartment and gets a crash course in the underbelly of the Toronto gay community, but one day Butch drafts Cliff into performing a sex act with him for a customer, leaving Cliff humiliated and heartbroken. Sugar also stars Sarah Polley and Maury Chaykin. Only the second feature film from respected theatrical director John Palmer, it was screened as part of the 2004 San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The feature-film debut of director Zack Snyder, Dawn of the Dead is a modern retelling of George Romero's 1978 horror classic, which was actually the second film in a trilogy that began with Night of the Living Dead and concluded with Day of the Dead. Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames star as two of the last remaining people on an earth that has been ravaged by flesh-eating zombies. After escaping to a shopping mall with a handful of other survivors, they decide that they only way to truly elude the approaching throng of undead is to somehow make their way to an island that is supposedly zombie-free. Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, (more)
Roland Suso Richter's psychological thriller The I Inside stars Ryan Phillippe as a man who, as the film opens, becomes involved in a terrifying accident that leaves him unable to remember the last two years of his life. As if the protagonist being unable to recognize his wife (Piper Perabo), and learning that his brother (Robert Sean Leonard) has died, were not bad enough, dreams of a woman (Sarah Polley) he once loved come to him regularly. The hero must negotiate the terrain between fact and fiction in order to figure out what happened to his life. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Polley, (more)
Isabel Coixet's Mi vida sin mi (My Life Without Me) is a tale of a woman dying before her time. Sarah Polley plays Ann, a 24-year-old mother of two. Ann is married to Don (Scott Speedman), and they live near Ann's mother (Deborah Harry), who is bitter about the fact that Ann's father is serving a ten-year prison sentence. Ann learns that she has only a few months to live. She makes a series of goals to complete before her time on Earth comes to an end. Among her accomplishments are taking a lover (Mark Ruffalo), finding someone to care for Don, and recording birthday greetings for her two daughters. My Life Without Me was screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, (more)
Canadian filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald directs the sentimental ensemble drama The Event. Nick (Parker Posey) is a district attorney investigating several deaths in the gay community of New York City's Chelsea District. It seems that many AIDS sufferers have died under similar mysterious circumstances. Each case suggest the use of assisted suicide, which is illegal in New York. HIV-infected cellist Matt (Don McKellar) has died of a drug overdose following a large party in Manhattan given by his family and friends. Nick first questions his lover Brian (Brent Carver), who runs an HIV support clinic. Still looking for answers, she interviews Matt's closest family members, including his mother Lila (Olympia Dukakis), his younger sister Dana (Sarah Polley), and his older sister Gaby (Joanna P. Adler). Meanwhile, Nick battles with her own past secrets involving her family back in New Jersey. The Event premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Parker Posey, Olympia Dukakis, (more)
Beauty meets the Beast, and neither is sure just what to make of the other, in a modern-dress comic variation on the ancient folk tale, written and directed by the eternally offbeat Hal Hartley. Beatrice (Sarah Polley) works with the office staff of a sleazy tabloid TV news show, run by a harridan producer (Helen Mirren) eager for something other than the usual spate of violent crimes and natural disasters that are her show's bread and butter. The producer sends her camera crew to Iceland in search of something new and unusual, and they certainly find it when they run across a village that has its own monster (Robert John Burke), a large part-mammal and part-lizard with a short temper and habit of killing people who get on his nerves. The show's camera crew (including Beatrice's boyfriend) doesn't survive their first encounter with the monster, and Beatrice is sent to find out what happened to them. En route to Iceland, Beatrice's plane crashes into the waters off the coast, and while she survives the accident, a group of unsympathetic locals decide (after a few drinks too many) to take her to the monster's lair, where a grim fate doubtless awaits her. Except that the monster is a bit depressed and Beatrice isn't in the mood to take any guff from anyone; after the monster wonders aloud why folks aren't as frightened of him as they once were, he asks Beatrice to help him find Dr. Artaud (Baltasar Kormakur), a mad scientist who might be able to cure him of the curse of eternal life. No Such Thing received its world premiere at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Un Certain Regard series. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Robert Burke, (more)
An aspiring comic, Neville (Larenz Tate) is burdened by drug abuse and memories of childhood traumas. He and his older half brother Matthew (Martin Cummins), a boxer, are unable to escape from the painful repercussions of their past, which includes their mother serving a prison sentence for killing Neville's father. Things seem to look up for Neville when he becomes involved with a gifted singer (real-life R&B chanteuse Deborah Cox), but still he must struggle to surmount a family legacy that has resulted in so much anger and emotional ruin. Screened at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival, Love Come Down features renowned Canadian actress Sarah Polley in a role as an unconventional nun. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Larenz Tate, Deborah Cox, (more)
- 2000
Two young people struggling to find happiness in the midst of adversity exist side by side with their alter egos, an older and very unhappy married couple, in this offbeat drama. Beatrice (Sarah Polley) is a supermarket checkout girl fascinated by Henry (Brendan Fletcher), an angry and withdrawn young man whose bitterness stems largely from having been diagnosed with a rare, often fatal form of cancer. Beatrice and Henry fall in love, their passion intensified by the possibility of Henry's imminent death, but Henry's life is saved by surgery and they soon marry. In contrast, Bea (Diane Ladd) and Hank (Sean McCann) are a sixtysomething couple whose love burned out long ago. Bea and Hank have first grown bored, and then bitter, their rancor coming to a head when Hank buys a retirement home without consulting Bea, and she gets back at him by incurring financially ruinous construction and decorating expenses. Living near Bea is her old friend Myra (Shirley Douglas), whose husband Stan (Victor Cowie) is dying of cancer, while Beatrice's best friend Myrah (Kristin Thompson) has fallen deeply in love with Stanley (Rob Stefaniuk), a soldier soon to leave for the Gulf War. The Law of Enclosures was based on the well-regarded novel by Dale Peck and was the first non-gay-themed project from director John Greyson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Brendan Fletcher, (more)
One man's small empire threatens to collapse under the weight of his greed and deceit in this drama that transplants the story of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge to 19th century America. In 1867, Dillon (Peter Mullan) is an Irish immigrant who settled in California during the Gold Rush of '49 and has done quite well for himself. Dillon owns nearly every business of consequence in the town of Kingdom Come; if someone wants to dig for gold, rent a room, open a bank account, or even order a drink, they have to go to Dillon to do it. One of the few profitable enterprises in town that he doesn't own is the brothel, which is operated by Lucia (Milla Jovovich), Dillon's lover. Circumstances change somewhat when Dalglish - a surveyor with the Central Pacific Railroad - turns up and expresses his plans to implement a railroad in the area. Dillon, sensing a great opportunity afoot, travels well out of his way to ensure that the line is run through Kingdom Come, to enhance the town's commercial prospects. Also arriving in town the same time as Dalglish are two women, the beautiful but ailing Elena (Nastassja Kinski) and her lovely teenage daughter Hope (Sarah Polley); their presence is deeply troubling for Dillon, for they are the keys to a dark secret Dillon has kept from the people of Kingdom Come. The Claim is Michael Winterbottom's second adaptation of the works of Thomas Hardy; his 1996 feature Jude was adapted from Hardy's final novel, Jude the Obscure. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, (more)
A woman studying a crime of the past finds her own life becoming a morass of suspicion and deceit in this drama based on the novel by Anita Shreve. Jean Janes (Catherine McCormack) is a photographer working on a project that would document surviving evidence of a multiple murder that occurred a hundred years ago -- when a man named Louis Wagner (Ciaran Hinds) brutally killed two immigrant women from Norway with an axe, only to discover a third, Maren Hontvedt (Sarah Polley), witnessed the mayhem and survived to identify him in court. Jean travels to the small New Hampshire coastal town where the killings occurred with her husband Thomas (Sean Penn), an award-winning poet; his brother Rich (Josh Lucas); and Rich's girlfriend Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley). As Jean digs deeper into the troubling facts of the long-ago murder, as well as the tangential details of Maren Honvedt's unhappy marriage to John Hontvedt (Ulrich Thomsen) and her incestuous affair with her brother Evan (Anders W. Berthelsen), Jean begins to believe that she has a crisis of her own to contend with: she is convinced Thomas is having an affair with Adaline. The Weight of Water also features Katrin Cartlidge as Maren's sister Karen and Vinessa Shaw as her sister-in-law Anethe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Catherine McCormack, Sarah Polley, (more)
Exploring concepts of fate and free will, Jerry Ciccoritti's contemplative drama shows the lives of a handful of random people during the 12 hours leading up to a bloody shooting spree in a posh coffee shop. Maggie (Emily Hampshire) is a waitress in the café whose acting career is going nowhere fast. Her co-worker Connie (Sarah Polley), who is learning to love her lawyer boyfriend, is supposed to have the day off. Sheena (Catherine O'Hara), who frequents the shop, is a lovelorn bridal consultant looking for a decent man. And Brian (Stephen Rea), an exterminator/philosopher, is still mourning the death of his daughter, who died a year ago. Their petty, everyday problems gain ironic resonance when juxtaposed with the day's bloody ending. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Catherine O'Hara, (more)
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