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
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)
Based on the beloved children's books character, this animated family story focuses on the early days of lovable elephant Babar, before he rose to his current position of king. With the help of female elephant Celeste, the young Babar attempts to save a village from a group of bad-tempered rhinoceroses. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gordon Pinsent, Gavin Magrath, (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)
- 1987
This slick throwback to the giant-mutant-insect movies of the 1950's has built a small reputation solely on its irrelevant title -- the film contains no monkeys, blue or otherwise -- which confused both reviewers and viewers alike. (This dilemma was solved in its second video incarnation, under the more honest title Insect.) The story begins when a gardener becomes infected with a plant-borne insect larva, which he disgorges upon his arrival at the County Memorial Hospital. When the bug-baby ingests a large dose of growth hormone called NAC-5 (hospitals are always leaving that stuff around where bugs can get at it), it immediately bulks up to the size of a bulldozer. The plot quickly shifts into Alien mode, as scientists, police (namely wild-eyed cop Steve Railsback) and hospital personnel creep down the hospital's labyrinthine corridors in search of the insectoid monster, which they hope to destroy with conveniently-provided experimental laser equipment before it can test the capacity of the maternity ward with a few million larvae. Despite the lurid promotional materials (showing pretty nurses SCREAMING IN HORROR!!), the story is played quite straight -- more of an homage to films like Them! than a parody of same -- and benefits from good performances (John Vernon is great as the hospital director), a tight script and a strong emphasis on suspense and action from director William Fruet. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Railsback, Gwynyth Walsh, (more)
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)
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)
The action in Canadian provocateur Atom Egoyan's cryptic Exotica revolves largely around the strip club, which lends the film its name, a faux-tropical hothouse where young female dancers cater to their customers' sexual and psychological needs. Among the regulars is Francis (Bruce Greenwood), a troubled taxman haunted by Christina, a young stripper played by Mia Kirshner. As the film hypnotically unfolds, their relationship is slowly explored, the narrative dovetailing with the stories of a gay pet shop owner (Don McKellar), the Exotica's pregnant owner (Arsinee Khanjian), and its embittered DJ (Elias Koteas). Like all of Egoyan's films, Exotica is a riddle, its answers only fostering more questions. The director's recurring themes of family breakdowns, voyeurism and obsession are all in the mix here as well, but essayed with a new clarity of vision and intensity. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, (more)
Director/cinematographer Doug Liman's third feature links together three edgy stories, all beginning in the same Los Angeles supermarket with an interconnected group of characters. Ronna (Sarah Polley) is a down-on-her-luck checkout girl who is sweet talked into taking an extra shift from her friend Simon (Desmond Askew) so he can go to Las Vegas. Ronna is then approached by two good-looking actors, Adam (Scott Wolf) and Zack (Jay Mohr), who want to buy drugs. Ronna, who needs money, plans to act as a go-between between the actors and a dealer friend of Simon's, Todd (Timothy Olyphant), until a cop named Burke (William Fichtner) enters the picture. Meanwhile, Simon is living it up in Vegas; in the course of a very wild night on the town, he manages to bed two women, accidentally steal a car with his good friend Marcus (Taye Diggs), and get thrown out of the best strip club in town, with more than a few people after him, especially when he leaves behind a credit card he borrowed from Todd. Once again back at the supermarket, Adam and Zack turn out to not be quite what they seemed, and their relationship with Burke and his wife Irene (Jane Krakowski) takes an unexpected turn as their evening becomes very, very complicated. Go, Liman's long-awaited follow-up to his indie hit Swingers, received its World Premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Desmond Askew, (more)
Writer Audrey Wells (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) makes her directing debut in Guinevere, which won the screenwriting award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it made its world premiere. The film concerns Harper Sloane, a twenty-something upper class pre-law student who falls for Connie, a bohemian photographer 30 years her senior. Shy, waifish, and camera shy, Harper feels her life is mapped out for her, coming from a long line of successful, Harvard-educated lawyers living in San Francisco. At her older sister's wedding, Harper meets Connie, who photographs her privately. When he shows her the photos, Harper (whom Connie refers to only as Guinevere) is intrigued, and a passionate romance and sexual attraction begins. Harper moves in with Connie to become his student, against her mother's wishes. Harper also learns that she isn't Connie's first Guinevere; in fact, there have been a half-dozen others, all of whom have remained friends. As the relationship takes its ups and downs, Harper comes out of her shell to become a stronger woman, more in control of her life and destiny than she would have ever dreamed possible. As Connie slowly dies from poverty and alcoholism, all of his Guineveres, including Harper, come together to remember (and drink to) his work and his life. ~ Arthur Borman, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Sarah Polley, (more)
- 1987
Hands of a Stranger was adapted by playwright Arthur Kopit from the best-selling novel by Robert Daley. Armand Assante plays a New York City narcotics officer who aids DA Blair Brown in her investigation of a rape case in which drugs were involved. In the subsequent days, Assante becomes something of an expert in rape evidence. Thus, when his wife Beverly D'Angelo is sexually assaulted while en route to a rendezvous with her lover, Assante suspects something even though D'Angelo remains mum about the incident. Conducting his own investigation, Assante determines the rapist's identity while wiretapping a phoned-in attempt to blackmail his wife. Will Assante forget everything he's learned about police procedure and attempt to take the law into his own hands? Co-starring in Hands of a Stranger is Arliss Howard as the scummy rapist. Preceded by a warning that the film contained scenes of a violent and graphic nature, Hands of a Stranger was originally broadcast in two parts, on May 10 and 11, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1997
- NR
Writer/director Peter Wellington's Joe's So Mean to Josephine tracks the slow unraveling of a dysfunctional relationship. Josephine (Sarah Polley from Go), a smart but immature college girl living in Toronto, is out drinking with some friends when she sees Joe (Eric Thal) sitting at the bar. Joe is cute, wears a leather jacket, and seems quite unfriendly. Josephine is intrigued enough to smile at Joe as he leaves the bar. Joe ignores her. The next morning, Josephine wakes up to find Joe in her kitchen, arguing with her mother (Dixie Seatle). It turns out that when Joe's not earning an extra dollar illegally wiretapping phone lines, he works as a telephone repairman. Josephine approaches him and introduces herself. He doesn't seem particularly interested. Later, Josephine steps out of a bar and sees Joe waiting for his hapless partner-in-crime, Mike (Canadian indie superstar Don McKellar). Joe is pretty cold to her, but this time, he invites her out to eat. She's nervous, but delighted, and ends up going home with him. After their tryst, she shows up at his job, and then at his apartment, and she buys a goldfish for his empty aquarium. He seems sick of her, and treats her rudely. She tells him off and leaves, which he likes. When she returns later, he's nicer to her, and they start dating again. But when they run into some of her friends from the newspaper where she works, Joe's rude to them, and the two argue. Eventually, Josephine moves out of her parents' house, and in with her friend, Mona (Waneta Storms). Her budding writing career starts coming together, and Joe feels threatened by her success. She tries to break up with him, but finds he's not so easy to get rid of. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Thal, Sarah Polley, (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)
In this Canadian film, overweight piano prodigy Junior Brown (Martin Villafana) searches for a piano because his goofy mother (Lynn Whitfield) severed the strings on the family piano. Since paranoid Miss Peebs (Margot Kidder), his piano teacher, won't let him finger her keyboard, he has to run scales on her dining room table. Fortunately, Junior has a friend -- troubled Buddy Clark (Rainbow Sun Francks) who lost his family in a fire when he was a young child. Buddy goes out with a teen runaway (Sarah Polley), and he helps eccentric school janitor Mr. Pool (Clark Johnson) construct a model of the solar system in the school basement. Junior's frustrations mount as his quest continues. Music includes Chopin's "Prelude No. 4". Shown at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Martin Villafana, Lynn Whitfield, (more)
- 1990
This Canadian TV movie stars Marion Bennett as a young girl possessed of mysterious powers. No Carrie she, Bennett hopes to harness her unique gifts for good. Her main mission is to reunite her long-estranged mother and father. The film makes excellent atmospheric use of its mist-enshrouded Prince Edward Island locations. Lantern Hill was originally telecast in two parts on PBS' weekend Wonderworks series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Don McKellar wrote and directed this comedy-drama about the last night of the world, part of the 12-film Arte series of movies about the Millennium. Set in Toronto, Patrick (McKellar) endures a faux Christmas celebration with his family while Sandra (Sandra Oh) tries to get across town to commit suicide with her husband, a gas company employee Duncan (David Cronenberg). Meanwhile, Craig (Callum Keith Rennie) hopes to achieve sexual satisfaction with several women on his list. Still mourning his dead wife, Patrick plans his last moments alone, until he and Sandra crosspaths. Shown in the Directors Fortnight section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Don McKellar, Sandra Oh, (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)
- 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)
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)
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)
- 1985
- G
The "magic" in One Magic Christmas is often (and surprisingly) of the "black" variety. Like Jimmy Stewart before her, worn-out wife and mother Mary Steenburgen wishes that she'd never been born. And like Stewart, Steenburgen is visited by a guardian angel, in this case the western-garbed Harry Dean Stanton. Instead of granting Steenburgen's wish, Stanton shows her what life would be like without Christmas--and that vision is as grim as anything you're ever likely to see in any Holiday film. Throughout the horrendous tragedies heaped upon Steenburgen, we are comforted in the knowledge that Stanton is working in concert with Steenburgen's young daughter. Steenburgen learns her lesson of course, but what a ride! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mary Steenburgen, Gary Basaraba, (more)
- 1987
- R
In this grim exploitation outing, a luckless detective begins working for a worried madam who wants him to find one of her hookers, a woman suffering from a dual personality, one of whom is a cold-blooded killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Birney, Season Hubley, (more)
- 1987
This 15-part family-oriented series chronicles the lively adventures of author Beverly Cleary's much loved and ever mischievous 8-year-old Ramona as she grows up in a midwestern middle-class suburb. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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