Moira Buffini Movies

Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan star in Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan's lavish yet decadent tale of a blood-sucking mother/daughter duo whose dark 200-year history threatens to catch up with them at a run-down hotel on the English coast. Their story begins during the Napoleonic Wars, when young Eleanor (Ronan) is abandoned as Clara (Arterton) falls into a passionate love affair. Two centuries later, demure Eleanor and extroverted Clara are on the run when they seek sanctuary in a dilapidated coastal resort. There, Clara sets her sights on a lonely soul named Noel (Daniel Mays), who has just inherited the Byzantium hotel, a once-thriving inn that has fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Before long, the elder vampire has transformed the Byzantium into a makeshift brothel where she and her young companion can quench their thirst for human blood while maintaining a low profile. Meanwhile, Eleanor falls for Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), a charming young waiter who unwittingly draws out the natural storyteller in her. Amidst a string of mysterious disappearances in the sleepy coastal town, Frank realizes that Eleanor's extraordinary tales are much more than simple fantasy. As Clara and Eleanor's sanguinary past slowly comes into focus, it's only a matter of time before the pair will be forced to either flee once again or face their fates with a sense of dark courage. Jonny Lee Miller and Sam Riley co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Stephen Frears directed this comedy drama about an ugly duckling who's followed by a handful of suitors after maturing into a sexy swan. Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) was born and raised in Ewedown, a quiet community on the outskirts of London dominated by a writer's colony run by Nicholas Hardiment (Roger Allam), a best-selling novelist who specializes in crime fiction, and his wife Beth (Tamsin Greig). When Tamara left Ewedown, she was a plain and awkward teenager, but when she returns home for the first time in years, the locals are surprised to discover that time (and a nose job) have turned her into an attractive and alluring woman, and she's gained a share of money and fame thanks to a successful newspaper column. Tamara has returned to Ewedown after the death of her mother in order to refurbish the family home and put it on the market. Before long, Tamara finds herself pursued by three men from her past -- Andy Cobb (Luke Evans), her former boyfriend who has been hired to help fix up the house; Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper), the swaggering drummer with a local indie rock band flirting with larger success; and Nicholas (Roger Allam), who is chronically unfaithful to his wife and sees an opportunity with the neighborhood girl who was infatuated with him in her teens. Tamara Drewe was adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Posy Simmonds, which was in turn inspired by Thomas Hardy's novel Far From the Madding Crowd. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi