Stephen Rea Movies
Exhibiting perpetual intensity and the dark, hangdog looks of someone who has been run over by life one too many times, Stephen Rea is one of Ireland's most popular and well-respected actors. Although he has acted in films in diverse genres, Rea is most closely associated with his collaborations with director Neil Jordan, particularly The Crying Game, for which he earned Oscar and BAFTA nominations.Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1943, Rea was brought up in a working-class Protestant family. After training at the Abbey Theatre School, he began acting on the stage, screen, and television, making his film debut in the 1970 thriller Cry of the Banshee. He first collaborated with Jordan in 1982 on Angel, a crime drama in which he played a saxophonist who witnesses a number of brutal murders. The two again collaborated in 1984 on The Company of Wolves, a modern retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. That same year, Rea worked with Mike Leigh on Four Days in July; he would later work with him on Leigh's celebrated Life is Sweet (1991). In addition to his work on the screen, Rea formed the Field Day Theatre Company with playwrights Brian Friel and Seamus Heaney, bringing theatre to rural communities across Ireland.
In 1992, Rea was introduced to international audiences with his role as an IRA "volunteer" in The Crying Game. Thanks to the film's great success and the praise surrounding his performance, Rea went on to appear in a number of high profile films, including Jordan's adaptation of Interview with the Vampire and Robert Altman's Ready to Wear, in which he gave a delightful portrayal of an egotistical fashion photographer. In addition to further collaborations with Jordan (1996's Michael Collins, 1997's The Butcher Boy), Rea continued to do solid work in films ranging from dramas (This is My Father, 1998) to comedy spoofs (Still Crazy, also 1998). In 1999 alone, Rea could be seen in no less than four divergent films. Following a turn as a psychiatrist in the big-budget thriller In Dreams, he starred as a bohemian photographer with a predilection for young, deeply insecure women in Audrey Wells' celebrated Guinevere. Later that year, he returned to Ireland for I Could Read the Sky and then starred alongside Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes in the adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 2009
Vincent Regan stars in this French-language paranoia thriller as Peter Burton, a diabolically brilliant young man. In lieu of pursuing a formal education and a 9-to-5 office job, Peter ankled the standard route to success and now makes his living as a serial thief, lifting the valuables of patrons at an airport where he's nominally employed as a baggage handler. His life takes an astonishing turn when one of his colleagues, Gerard, pries open the suitcase of a Syrian diplomat and is promptly blown up by a terrorist bomb; the DST (Directorate of Territorial Surveillance) then approaches Peter, acknowledges that it knows all about his criminal activities, and offers him an ultimatum: it will arrange immunity for all of the pickpocketing if the thief helps the agency track down the parties responsible for the bomb plant. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Regan, Stephen Rea, (more)
Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America director Douglas Buck follows that gruesome collection of three short films with this feature-length reimaging of cinema auteur Brian De Palma's 1973 horror film concerning a pair of mysterious siblings and the curious reporter who stumbles upon their deadly secret. Grace (Chloë Sevigny) is an ambitious young journalist conducting an investigation of a controversial psychiatrist (Stephen Rea) who is currently maintaining a questionable relationship with disturbed patient Angelique (Lou Doillon). As the investigation continues, Grace soon stumbles into an ongoing conspiracy populated by human experimentation, strange deaths, and a controversial operation. As the probing reporter delves ever deeper into the profoundly unsettling details and witnesses a brutal murder thanks to the unintended assistance of Angelique's latest love interest, Dr. Dylan Wallace, her fragile mental state is quickly shattered by the spiraling violence and unspeakable revelations to which she is now inextricably bound. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Doillon, Stephen Rea, (more)
A family discovers that their new apartment houses a sinister secret in director Melanie Orr's low-budget frightener. Upon discovering a newly renovated apartment in a beautiful Connecticut home, young parents Beth and Matt Winters were overjoyed. It seemed like the perfect place to start a family; their new downstairs neighbor Tyler Grant (Stephen Rea) has a young niece that's just about the same age as their six year old son Calvin, and the surroundings were nothing less than picture perfect. But things soon begin to look grim when Calvin grows restless and claims that monsters dwell in this home. At first, Beth writes off her son's stories as a mere figment of his overactive imagination. Later, when the evidence becomes too powerful to deny, the frightened parents must struggle to keep their family together while fighting against forces beyond human comprehension. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Hannah Lochner, (more)
A woman who has come to a strange land is torn between the life she knows and the new life around her in this epic-scale historical drama. In 1854, New Zealand's indigenous Maori tribes were engaged in an ongoing battle to drive away European settlers eager to establish colonies in the nation's wilderness, which the Maori saw as a threat to their way of life. However, some outsiders had made a home in New Zealand with the cooperation of the Maori, and an Irish settlement had been established, with Francis (Stephen Rea), the colony's doctor, bringing his daughter Sarah (Samantha Morton) with him to this new land. Sarah becomes acquainted with the son of one of the Maori leaders, and in time their friendship grows into something deeper. When Sarah discovers she's pregnant with the chief's son's child, the father has been called off to fight against the Europeans, and by the time her son is born, his father is dead. Sarah raises her child, whom she simply calls "Boy," but when Boy reaches the age of six, he's abducted by his father's family, who believes he should grow up among the Maori. Fearing further reprisals, Francis returns to Ireland, but Sarah stays behind to care for the sick and look for her son. Years later, while in search of Boy, Sarah encounters Wiremu (Cliff Curtis), a Maori warrior whose father Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) is ill. When Wiremu learns that Sarah is well versed in medicine, he makes an offer -- if she will treat Te Kai Po and return him to health, he will find Boy. Sarah is able to cure Te Kai Po's ailment, and Wiremu returns the now-teenaged Boy (David Rawiri Pene) to his mother. Boy is not eager to leave behind the Maori people who have become his family, and he and Sarah stay with Te Kai Po's tribe for a while, but in time she is drawn back to the Irish colony, where she finds herself torn between Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland), the soldier who loves her and wishes to protect her, and Wiremu, who she has grown to love. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samantha Morton
Andie MacDowell, Olivia Williams, and Stephen Rae star in this bittersweet tale of two grieving women connected by an accidental phone call. Connecticut mother Marilyn Vine (MacDowell) has always lived a charmed life, so when her adolescent son Dale suddenly dies while celebrating his fifteenth birthday the tragedy of her loss is almost too powerful to bear. 3000 miles away in Dublin, Ireland, Ria Lynch (Olivia Williams) finds her marriage to longtime husband Danny (Iain Glen) coming to an unexpected in when Danny reveals that he is divorcing her to set up home with his pregnant mistress Bernadette (Heike Makatsch). When fate delivers the telephone call that connects these two women, both at a crucial turning point in their lives, Marilyn and Ria both agree to a two-month house exchange that could provide them with the space and down time to move beyond the pain that threatens to consume them. As both women grow increasingly accustomed to their new environments, the kindness of strangers and opportunity for reflection provides them both with the courage to face their changed lives with a newfound sense of hope. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, Olivia Williams, (more)
A priest caught in the middle of a deadly murder investigation must risk his life to prove the innocence of a fellow clergyman in a tense, religious-themed thriller directed by Lewin Webb and starring Christian Slater. Daniel Clemens (Slater) is a fallen priest who has lost his faith. Now a loyal but troubled public-relations representative for the Catholic Church, Clemens is disturbed to learn that a man he knows does not possess capacity for murder has been accused of a crime beyond comprehension. Despite direct orders from the church to cease his investigation, Clemens enlists the aid of a dedicated reporter (Molly Parker) and a truth-seeking church lawyer (Stephen Rea) in uncovering a scandal with the power to shake his faith to the very core. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Slater, Molly Parker, (more)
The inspirational tale of the USS Mason comes to the screen in a dramatic account of the perils faced by the all-African-American-crewed World War II sea vessel, and the brave souls who cheated death to overcome the cancerous racism eroding the very shores they fought for. From the very onset of their mission, the men aboard the USS Mason knew they had little chance of returning from their mission alive. Return they did, though, and after a harrowing journey through some of the most treacherous international waters of the war years, the remarkable crew of the USS Mason proved without question that they could stand tall and fight fiercely alongside soldiers of all races and backgrounds. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Ossie Davis, (more)
First-time Irish writer/director Sean Walsh spent ten years making Bl,.m (Bloom), an adaptation of James Joyce's infamously difficult 1922 epic Ulysses. Set in Dublin on the day of June 16, 1904, the film attempts to make a visual reconstruction of Joyce's stream-of-consciousness style. Following all the major themes of the original novel, it's bookended by the internal monologue given by the sexually driven Molly (Angeline Ball). Stephen Rea plays her husband, the introspective Jewish-Irishman Leopold Bloom. Hugh O'Conor plays the philosophical young writer Stephen Dedalus. Bloom premiered at the 2003 Taormina Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Angeline Ball, (more)
Adapted from the Tony award-winning play by Michael Frayn, Copenhagen is set in the titular Denmark capitol in the year 1941. According to existing records, it was in that city and year that German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his Danish mentor Neils Bohr met together on the brink of WWII. It will never be known what these two men, so politically divergent yet so much alike in their scientific goals, discussed during that fateful meeting (several attempts to reconstruct their conversation from memory proved both futile and bitterly divisive), though it is a matter of record that both men had discovered the methodology for splitting the atom -- which, of course, was the foundation for the atomic bomb. Frayn's play offers a fanciful yet utterly believable and incredibly witty and charming speculation on the words that might have passed between the idealistic Bohr (played by Stephen Rea) and the pragmatic Heisenberg (Daniel Craig) -- as recalled decades later by the principal characters from the vantage point of the Afterlife. Co-produced by Britain's BBC and U.S. public-TV outlet KCET, Copenhagen was first broadcast as an episode of the PBS Hollywood Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Daniel Craig, (more)
A boy learning the lessons of the Torah wonders if they can be used to avenge an attack on his best friend in this drama based on the novel by Pete Hamill. Michael (Peter Tambakis) is an 11-year-old boy growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1947. While looking for a place to get out of the weather in the midst of a freak snowstorm, Michael meets Judah Hirsch (Stephen Rea), a rabbi from Czechoslovakia, and the two become unlikely friends. Judah fascinates Michael with tales from Jewish folklore, and Michael gives Judah a crash course in the finer points of baseball. But not everyone in Michael's neighborhood is as open-minded as he is, and Judah is attacked by a gang of anti-Semitic toughs. As Judah's life lies in the balance, Michael wonders if Judah's tales of magic and mysticism might hold a key to getting justice for his friend. Snow in August also features Lolita Davidovich as Michael's mother. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Lolita Davidovich, (more)
- 1999
An elderly Irish man (Dermot Healy) thinks about his life as he sits alone in a shabby room in London. He recalls his childhood along the Western Coast of Ireland, and then his days as a laborer as he moved to London from his native land. With no central narrative, I Could Read the Sky concentrates on images of Ireland and England (photographed on both film and videotape), remembered moments with people from the old man's past, and a poetic narration drawn in part from the book of the same name by Timothy O'Grady and Steve Pike. This debut feature by Nicola Bruce made the film festival circuit in 1999, showing at the Edinbugh, Galway, Montreal, and Toronto Film Festivals. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Healy, Maria Doyle Kennedy, (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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Catherine O'Hara, (more)
- 1997
An IRA volunteer tries to leave his life of violence behind -- only to discover it's waiting for him in America -- in this drama based on a story by leading man Stephen Rea. Dowd (Rea) is a convicted terrorist with the Irish Republican Army who is serving a sentence in a prison in Northern Ireland. While his girlfriend Roisin (Maria Doyle Kennedy) patiently waits for his release, Dowd feels that he has no real future to offer her; the path he's chosen in life is not an easy one to move away from. After a visit from Roisin, Dowd is returning to his cell when he finds himself in the middle of a group of prisoners attempting an escape; Dowd impulsively joins them and turns out to be one of only two convicts to make it out alive. With forged papers, Dowd sneaks into the United States, where he takes a job as a dishwasher and lives in a dingy welfare hotel in Manhattan. While trying to mediate a domestic dispute among his neighbors, Dowd is stabbed in the back; a group of Guatemalan exiles who share an apartment in the building, led by Tulio (Alfred Molina), come to Dowd's rescue and treat his wounds. Dowd becomes friends with Tulio, his friend Paco (Jorge Sanz), and his daughter Monica (Rosana Pastor), and in time, he learns why they've come to the United States. The CIA operative who tortured and killed Tulio's father now lives in New York City, and they have come to assassinate him. However, Tulio and Paco have no experience in political violence, and no talent for it; Dowd soon finds himself drawn into their plan as he helps them organize a serious attempt on the CIA man's life, a situation that becomes all the more complicated when he finds himself falling in love with the beautiful Monica. The supporting cast includes Pruitt Taylor Vince, Paul Giamatti, Brendan Gleeson, and Coati Mundi, a former member of the adventurous R&B group Kid Creole & the Coconuts. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
In this satirical "inside" look at the world of TV scripters, agent Danny (Tom Arnold) gives a 22-episode assignment to depressed, self-destructive writer-producer Brian (Stephen Rea), creatively spent and bereft of ideas. At his weekly poker game, Brian sees a romantic couple on a hotel balcony. When he tells the other writers about this, it triggers an impromptu story session. All four retreat across the street to the bar where Brian sees Georgia Feckler (Illeana Douglas) and decides she was the woman on the balcony. Desperate for ideas, he offers to buy the story of her life. After Brian vanishes with Georgia, his fellow scripters become concerned as to his whereabouts and decide to break into his living quarters. Shown at the AFI/Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Illeana Douglas, (more)
A football fan tries to reconcile his obsessive love of the game with his job, his romantic relationships, and his life in general in this comedy/drama. Since he was a child in North London, Paul Ashworth (Colin Firth) has been a loyal fan of the Arsenal football team; he attended many a match with his father as a child, especially after his parents divorced, and Arsenal's annual season is one of the few emotional anchors in his life. Now in his mid-30s, Paul teaches English at a state-run school and has become involved with Sarah (Ruth Gemmell), a fellow member of the school staff. While she's pretty, bright, and in nearly all ways a good catch, Sarah doesn't care for football. This lack of interest unfortunately shows itself at a time when Arsenal seems poised to win their first championship in 18 years, and Paul hopes to buy a house near their stadium to make it easier to attend home games. When Sarah becomes pregnant and the long-term stability of their relationship becomes a crucial issue, she forces Paul to decide what he loves more: Sarah and their baby, or Arsenal? For Paul, the answer isn't as simple as one might imagine, as he weighs the joys and responsibilities of adulthood against the passionate enthusiasm that sustained him through his youth. Fever Pitch was based on the semi-autobiographical book by Nick Hornby, who has a cameo as a football coach. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Firth, Ruth Gemmell, (more)
Set in Ireland, this beautifully rendered drama offers a fascinating portrait of a nomadic peddler who travels about the countryside selling housewares from his van. Trojan Eddie's unusual moniker comes from the logo upon his van. He works for John Power, the owner of several such traveling vans. Eddie, who is married with two children (and a mistress), wants to own his own business but lacks the means. He has just spent time in prison on robbery charges and now works as a partner with Dermot, Power's nephew. Power (the story's protagonist) attempts to deal with his overriding passion for the glorious traveler Kathleen. Trouble comes when Dermot tries to steal Kathleen from his uncle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Made-for-cable drama based on the true story of Bruno Hauptmann, who was convicted and put to death for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindberg's son in a case still regarded as a travesty of justice. Stephen Rea plays Hauptmann, and Isabella Rossellini co-stars as his wife. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
The debut feature from writer/director David Keating, The Last of the High Kings is the coming-of-age story of Frankie Griffin (Jared Leto), a 17-year-old virgin in 1977 Dublin. Convinced he is about to flunk out of school and forlorn over the recent death of Elvis Presley, Frankie decides to throw a beach party. With his hormones raging, he finds himself trying to decide between two possible gal-pals: Jayne (Lorraine Pilkington) and Romy (Emily Mortimer). Frankie's life becomes a little more difficult with the arrival of an American family friend Erin (Christina Ricci). Gabriel Byrne, who co-wrote the screenplay with Keating, also stars as Frankie's father, Jack Griffin. Based on a novel by Ferdia Mac Anna, The Last of the High Kings won second place at the 1997 Emden International Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Two very different people become friends and partners in this nautical drama. Nikos (Stephen Rea) is a radio man working on a Greek freighter when he finds himself stranded in Hong Kong after the firm that owned his ship suddenly goes out of business. Nikos is already depressed over his recent breakup with his girlfriend, and this latest turn of events hardly makes him feel any better; he develops a dependence on opium as he works a variety of odd jobs trying to keep himself together while waiting for his ship to return to the sea. Li (Ling Chu) is a ten-year-old Chinese girl, cut off from her mother and father, who has a sampan and asks Nikos to help her get the boat ready for the water. Nikos doesn't much care for Li at first, but her youthful optimism and determination to succeed make an impression on him, and in time he leads her on a voyage to find the family she left behind years before. Director Marion Hansel's work on this film was honored with a Golden Palm nomination at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Ling Chu, (more)
- 1995
This European drama is adapted from Simone de Beauvioir's novel of the same name. It is set in post WW II France and tells the story of renowned theatrical actress, Regina, a temperamental diva who feels a great hole in her life until she goes on a provincial tour and meets an enigmatic stranger who is too busy looking inward to notice the world around him. Regina becomes obsessed with this man, and learns that he is an amnesiac. She follows him, and eventually they hesitantly begin an affair. Much of the story centers around their resulting conversations about love, life and death. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Shergar was made for British television in 1984. With so offbeat a title, one might suspect that the film was based on a true story, and one's suspicions would be confirmed. It seems that Shergar was the name of a famed British champion race horse, whose kidnapping made headlines for months. The film traces the nationwide search for Shergar and the ongoing media coverage. Stephen Rea, Niall Tobin and Dermot Crowley star in this production, which was first telecast in America over the A&E cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Niall Toibin, (more)
The setting of Mike Leigh's Four Days in July is Belfast in the mid-'80s, just before the annual July 12th march of The Orangemen to celebrate the 17th century victory of the Protestant William of Orange over the Catholic King John II. Two couples prepare to have their first child. Collette (Brid Brennan) and Eugene (Desmond McAleer) are Catholic, while Lorraine (Paula Hamilton) and Billy (Charles Lawson) are Protestant. Eugene is injured and awaiting a disability check, so he has time to dote on his pregnant wife. Billy is in the military, and when he's not manning checkpoints, he hangs out with his fellow soldiers, Big Billy (Brian Hogg) and Little Billy (Adrian Gordon). On the 11th, as the celebrations and bonfires are being prepared, Brendan (Shane Connaughton, who later co-wrote the script for My Left Foot) comes by to fix Collette and Eugene's toilet. Then an old friend of Brendan's, Dixie (Stephen Rea), comes by to clean the building's windows. The four of them sit around for a while and chat. The upcoming marches are a sore spot that is briefly alluded to, and Eugene reveals that his injuries were suffered at the hands of the British military. Lorraine goes with Billy to a bonfire, where there's drinking, singing, and high spirits. The next morning, both women go into labor and are brought to the same hospital. In the waiting room, Eugene strikes up a conversation with Billy. Four Days in July was the last film Leigh made for the BBC and one of the first films scored by composer Rachel Portman. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brid Brennan, Desmond McAleer, (more)
- 1983
Two strangers with almost no common ground are stuck travelling across Europe together in this British comedy. Sally (Lindsay Duncan) is an ardent feminist from London who, with the help of two of her closest friends, builds her own car. Sally and her comrades are to attend a conference on women's rights in Germany, and they intend to drive the new vehicle there as a symbolic gesture. However, when the time for the symposium rolls around, her friends are unable to attend, and Sally doesn't care to drive that far on her own. Searching for a travelling companion, at the last minute she settles on Harry (Stephen Rea), whom she's told is a leftist gay man. However, Harry is not the person Sally thought he was; he turns out to be a bullheaded and thoroughly heterosexual football supporter who regards the women's movement as little more than a joke. Will these two make it all the way to Germany without killing each other? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Lindsay Duncan, (more)
