Dorothee Berryman Movies

Police detective Jacques Laniel's life becomes a nightmare the day drive-by shootists gun down his partner Thomas Colin. His colleagues make matters worse by blaming him for the death, and after his wife leaves him, Laniel decides to quit the force and launch a private investigation into Colin's murder. Soon afterward, Laniel finds the bullet-riddled body of famed author and literature professor Zachary Osborne tied to his car hood. The professor's wife hires Laniel to solve the murder, but what the detective finds is ugly: Osborne was a part of a lucrative land-speculation deal that involved the sale of a crumbling old rectory that had been turned into a halfway house called the Haven of the Monsters. The name is apt, for all the residents are convicted killers who were given inordinately light sentences. Up to this point in the plot, the film has been a standard crime thriller. But when Lanier starts questioning the Haven's tenants and their crimes are revealed via flashback, it takes on the character of a David Lynch production. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A couple are forced to get to know one another after they've gotten married in this drama. Claire (Genevieve Bujold) is a 40-ish college professor who lives and teaches in Montreal, supplementing her earnings by writing textbooks. Claire isn't especially satisfied with her career, and her on-going affair with a married man seems to be leading her into a emotional dead end. One day, Claire's sister Annie (Dorothee Berryman), a lawyer, asks a rather large favor of her -- one of her clients, Pablo (Manuel Aranguiz), is a political activist from Chile who illegally escaped to Quebec rather than face certain death in his homeland. Bouchard (Gilbert Sicotte), a Canadian immigration official, has taken it upon himself to find and deport Pablo, and Annie is trying to keep him in the country. Annie tells Claire that she could save Pablo's life by marrying him so he could stay in Canada; while Claire bristles at the notion of this in-name-only marriage, she eventually relents and weds Pablo in a brief ceremony. However, Bouchard is certain something is fishy about Pablo's sudden nuptials, and sets up an interview with the couple to determine that theirs in a "real" marriage, which gives Claire and Pablo two days to learn the small details about one another which would be second nature for a married couple. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Picking up where Scanners left off, this sequel has good and evil scanners combatting when a crooked politician schemes to gain control of a major city. Scanners are people who, because their mothers had taken a certain drug during pregnancy, have acquired telepathic powers. Here, a "bad-guy" scanner escapes from a mental center and is hired by the politician to use his powers to gain control of others' minds, and then, their actions. A "good-guy" scanner teams with his sister to thwart these plans. ~ All Movie Guide

Director Denys Arcand revisits the situations and relationships that informed his international breakthrough The Decline of the American Empire with this dialogue-driven character study. Set 17 years after Decline, The Barbarian Invasions, like its predecessor, examines the varying politics -- economic, personal, and sexual -- at play among an aging group of friends, lovers, and ex-spouses. This time around, leads Remy (Rémy Girard) and Louise (Dorothee Berryman) are divorced, with their son Sebastien (Stéphane Rousseau) living in capitalist splendor in London. But the slightly estranged family is brought together by Remy's losing battle with terminal cancer, and the hedonistic, ex-radical father and straight-laced son have to overcome their differences. Along the way, Remy waxes nostalgic with many of the same pals who made up the dinner party of the first film. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

A rousing "he said/she said" endeavor, The Decline of the American Empire begins by separating the boys from the girls. Preparing a gourmet dinner, four male intellectuals begin trading stories of their sexual experiences. At the same time, four well-read women, all working out in a gym, exchange their own tales from the love front. The film is set in the lofty circles of academia, a world well known to Canadian director Denys Arcand. The anecdotes related herein are based on actual events in the lives of Arcand's professorial friends. There's nothing bookish, however, about the subject matter of the stories themselves, which ranges from mild philandering to S & M. The Decline of the American Empire was the winner of eight Canadian Genie awards (that's the above-the-border equivalent of the Oscar), including Best Picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a group of children around the age of twelve decide they want some extra money for the summer holidays, they get together under the leadership Charles, who is used to getting his way, and start a house-cleaning company. At the same time another classmate has set up a video advertising company and is making an ad for the cleaners. Despite their hard work and good intentions, it takes more to run a business than a desire to make money and a good idea, as these youngsters learn as each participant's willfulness leads the enterprise astray in some fashion. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Shimon Dotan directed this Canadian comedy-drama from Oren Safdie's screenplay based on Safdie's play, Hyper-Allergenic, set in a hospital room where a dysfunctional family awaits the results of surgery. Shirley Cooperberg (Ellen Burstyn) heads a Montreal Jewish family, and during her husband's operation, her brood arrives at the hospital -- failed writer Eli (Ted Levine), neurotic Susan (Amanda Plummer), and successful theatrical producer Edward (Mark Blum). Edward's wife Linda (Macha Grenon) is also present, as is Eli's ex, Diane (Mary McDonnell). An onslaught of one-liners find targets amid sibling rivalries and angst-ridden animosities. Shown at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide