Keri Russell

Estranged from his parents by circumstance and nudged toward a foster family, a young boy seeks out his long-lost folks and discovers prodigious musical talent in this family-oriented drama from Disco Pigs director Kirsten Sheridan. In the aftermath of a passionate night together above New York's Washington Square, a charismatic Irish guitarist named Louis (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and a reserved cellist named Lyla (Keri Russell) are forced apart by fate. Despite the fact that they do not remain together, however, their fleeting union has created something amazing that neither could have ever anticipated -- a baby. Unfortunately, just after the child's birth, the mother is misinformed that the infant has died. Cut to 11 years later, when the child, Evan, is living in a Gotham-area boys' home and has developed an acute ability to listen to the sounds of the outside world -- hoping against all hope that his biological mother and father will turn up to claim him, while those in charge try to encourage him to open himself up to the possibility of adoption. Unduly rejecting these bids, Evan runs away into the city. Out on the streets, the child falls into the clutches of a manipulative, untrustworthy street person named Wizard (Robin Williams), who renames Evan "August Rush" and opens the boy up to the depth and breadth of his own musical talent even as he smells the opportunity to grow rich off of the foundling. Meanwhile, Evan/August's hope persists that he will be reunited with his folks, and Louis and Lyla, unable to forget their initial night of love, feel themselves being drawn back together by fate. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Trapped in a miserable marriage and blessed with the ability to transform her misery into delicious desserts, a small-town waitress finds her life forever changed by an unplanned pregnancy. Every day, Jenna (Keri Russell) ties on her apron and serves her customers with a smile, and every night she goes to bed knowing that she is one step closer to the day that she can kiss her scarily domineering husband (Jeremy Sisto) goodbye forever. A smart and sassy baker whose extraordinary pies are inspired by her daily trials and tribulations, Jenna fears that her dreams are all but dead when handsome Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) reveals that she is soon to become a mother. As Jenna begins penning a series of letters to her unborn baby, her life starts to change for the better in ways she never could have imagined. The final film from actress/filmmaker Adrienne Shelly, Waitress debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah just months after the director was discovered dead in her New York City apartment -- the victim of a homicide. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young woman finds herself becoming obsessed with a violently disturbed man in this gruesome thriller inspired by actual events. Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is an American college student who is majoring in criminal psychology while studying abroad in Germany. Needing to explore a notorious murder case for a class project, Armstrong begins looking into the life and crimes of Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann), who had been convicted of murder after killing and eating another man. Hartwin's crime was unusual in that he posted a message in an internet chat room asking for a male volunteer between the ages of 21 and 40 who would be willing to be murdered and cannibalized afterwards. While Hartwin did find a man willing to die and be eaten, this did not make matters safe or simple for the German cannibal. As Armstrong digs deeper into the horrible facts of Hartwin's crimes, she finds her reserve beginning to crack as she can no longer control her feelings about the killer. Also shown under the titles Grimm Love and Rohtenburg, Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story was inspired by the true story of Armin Meiwes, who was convicted of the 2001 death of a man he killed and partially ate who he met through a posting on the internet, in which he asked for a volunteer willing to be slaughtered. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the sprawling six-part, 12-hour TV miniseries Into the West covers 65 years of American history, from the first major migration westward in the mid-1820s to the massacre at Wounded Knee in the early 1890s. The story is largely seen through the eyes of two protagonists (and their families): Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle), a wheelwright who leaves his Virginia hometown and his family's business in 1827 to seek his destiny in the company of legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith (Josh Brolin); and Loved by the Buffalo (George Leach), a Lakota Sioux holy man who spends a lifetime seeking the answers to his profound and disturbing images about the future of his country -- and his people. Eschewing the usual "old-age makeup" route often pursued in epic tales of this nature, the main characters are played by progressively older actors in the course of the story: for example, Loved by the Buffalo is portrayed by no fewer than four different performers! In a more traditionalist How the West Was Won vein, the miniseries is festooned with major stars, some cast in very brief roles: among these are Josh Brolin, Keri Russell, Matthew Modine, Beau Bridges, Gary Busey, Tom Berenger, and Judge Reinhold. Nor is How the West Was Won the only inspiration for the multi-plotted storyline: other films echoed and emulated throughout the saga include The Iron Horse, The Big Trail, Westward the Women, The Searchers, and Dances With Wolves. As mentioned, the story is divided into six parts: "Wheel to the Stars," in which the fates of Jacob Wheeler and Loved by the Buffalo become forever intertwined; "Manifest Destiny," chronicling the first major trek to California; "Dreams & Schemes," wherein the Lakota lands are despoiled by Gold Fever and war breaks out between the North and South; "Hell on Wheels," chronicling the postwar chaos and the coming of the railroad; "Casualties of War," wherein the conflict between Native Americans and the white man results in wholesale bloodshed -- and, surprisingly, a "counter-revolution" of compassion and understanding; and "Ghost Dance," the last great stand of the Lakota, which brings the story full circle. Largely filmed in the Canadian Rockies over a six-month period, and utilizing the talents of six directors, Into the West premiered June 10, 2005, on the TNT cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter Randall Wallace, a specialist in sweeping historical epics, steps behind the camera for this fact-based Vietnam War drama that reunites him with his Braveheart (1995) star Mel Gibson. Gibson is Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, the same regiment fatefully led by George Armstrong Custer. As part of the Pleiku Campaign of late 1965, Moore is assigned to an action at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Drang Valley, an area that would come to be known as the "The Valley of Death." Moore soon finds himself and his men contained to an area about the size of a football field, surrounded by more than 2,000 enemy troops and engaged in the first major battle of the war. Heroism becomes the order of the day as men like Moore, chopper pilot Bruce Crandall (Greg Kinnear), and Lt. Henry Herrick (Marc Blucas) refuse to yield, in spite of heavy losses of life. The film co-stars Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, and Sam Elliott. We Were Soldiers is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (retired) and UPI reporter Joe Galloway (played in the film by Barry Pepper). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Appropriately enough, season three of Felicity gets under way as heroine Felicity Porter (Keri Russell) begins her junior year at the University of New York in Greenwich Village. Forever leaving dorm life behind her, Felicity moves into an apartment with her boyfriend Ben Covington (Scott Speedman), while her former beau (and ex-dorm advisor) Noel Crane (Scott Foley) returns to school with his new wife Natalie (Ali Landry) in tow. Having decided to drop out of school so he can devote all his time to his high-living spouse, Noel is talked out of this rash decision by his friends and also realizes (as the viewer has known for weeks) that marrying Natalie was a big mistake. Just as Noel is annulling his marriage, Felicity's best friend and Ben's ex-flame Julie (Amy Jo Johnson) leaves the U.of N.Y. -- and, simultaneously, bids farewell to the series except for the occasional guest appearance in later seasons. In other developments, Felicity's classmate Elena (Tangi Miller), impatient over the fact that her boyfriend Tracy (Donald Faison) refuses to have sex until marriage, cheats on the poor boy. Eventually he forgives her -- and "gives in" to her in the bargain. Also, two new recurring characters have been added: Molly (Sarah Jane Potts), an English exchange student, and Ben's alcoholic father Andrew (played by an uncredited John Ritter). Season three is divided into two distinct sections, separated by a four-month hiatus. When the season's second half begins, we find out that Elena has been seriously wounded by Molly's unstable drug-dealing boyfriend -- and in consequence, Elena frightens one all by obsessing on self-defense (as for Molly, she returns to England to get her head together). Additionally, Noel, newly hired as a web-site designer, offers to get Felicity a job with his company -- and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that their romance will soon be rekindled, much to Ben's dismay. The season concludes as Ben's one-time roommate Sean (Greg Grunberg), having launched an affair with Felicity's mysterious ex-roomie Meghan (Amanda Foreman), is heading overseas; Ben himself traveling to Kansas City for his EMT training; and Tracy giving Elena the shock of her life by popping the question. ~ All Movie Guide

Season two of Felicity was the celebrated "year of the haircut," in which series star Keri Russell became a tabloid favorite through the simple expedient of shearing her familiar long tresses. Evidently, Russell's character, Felicity Porter, had made the big snip while traveling cross-country with her erstwhile boyfriend Ben Covington (Scott Speedman). Now summer has segued into fall, and Felicity enters her sophomore year at the University of New York in Greenwich Village. Changing her major from pre-med to fine art, Felicity also undergoes a few changes in her personal life as well. For starters, Ben briefly drops her to have a fling with a caterer named Maggie Sherwood (Teri Polo) but eventually returns to our heroine. Meanwhile, Felicity's former beau, dorm advisor Noel Crane (Scott Foley), starts dating a freshman named Ruby (Amy Smart) but ends the relationship upon learning that Ruby is pregnant with another man's baby. At the same time, Felicity's best friend and Ben's ex-flame, Julie, surprises one and all by moving in with Ben and his naïvely idealistic roommate Sean Bloomberg (Greg Grunberg) -- who, as it turns out, is harboring a crush on Felicity, expressing his ardor by way of a student documentary film. And in another "affair d'amour," Felicity's classmate Elena Tyler (Tangi Miller) falls for new student Tracy (Donald Faison) -- who, in a reversal of the standard "teen TV" cliché, refuses to have sex until marriage. Later in the season, Ben pines away as Felicity dates Greg Stenson (Chris William Martin), who runs the health center where she occasionally does volunteer work. By the time Felicity goes back to Ben, he has accepted a construction job in faraway California. On the verge of taking a summer internship at the Metropolitan Museum, Felicity discovers that her parents are divorcing, which sends her into therapy. And at season's end, Felicity's former boss Javier returns to New York, intent upon wedding his gay lover in an elaborate ceremony. Of the many individual Felicity episodes this season, the best remembered is "Help for the Lovelorn," a black-and-white Twilight Zone spoof in which the viewer learns a lot more about Felicity's somewhat spooky roommate Meghan Rotundi (Amanda Foreman). ~ All Movie Guide

Dan Rosen directed this thriller, filmed in and around Baltimore, based on the college urban legend that you get a cool 4.0 semester grade if your roommate commits suicide. Roommates Rand (Randall Batinkoff), manipulative Tim (Matthew Lillard), and good-guy Chris (Michael Vartan) are seniors at a university where this legend is legit. Since Rand mistreats his pregnant girlfriend Natalie (Tamara Craig Thomas), he's the obvious choice. Tim gets Cliff to assist in Rand's "suicidal" leap from a cliff -- but with that foul deed done, Tim points the police in Chris's direction and then seduces Chris' girlfriend Emma (Keri Russell). After Natalie really does commit suicide, students, cops, and the campus psychiatrist (Dana Delaney) begin to ask probing questions. Track tunes include The Cure, Suzanne Vega, Joy Division, and The Smiths. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this socially-conscious drama, a single mother attempts to go to school. Because she places her daughter in daycare she finds herself in a legal custody battle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful drama, a babysitter learns that she may be marked for murder by her best employer, a man whose wife was recently killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Trumain College student Bud (David Faustino) endeavors to steal his dream girl April (a pre-Felicity Keri Russell) away from her football-jock boyfriend Nickolai (Timothy Elwell). He gets his chance in a roundabout fashion when campus-radio deejays Oliver Cole (Eric Dane) and Mark Campbell (Andrew Kovavit) are kicked off station W-HIP for revealing a few inconvenient truths about dean Steve Rhodes (David Garrison), in his final series appearance). This episode was intended as the pilot for a spinoff series starring Eric Dane and Andrew Kovavit, which unfortunately never came to fruition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a bumbling but brilliant scientist (Rick Moranis) accidentally makes his two-year-old son into a giant who becomes larger every time he comes in contact with electricity. Though he and his wife try to control their son, the child inevitably escapes and wreaks havoc, eventually terrorizing the streets of Las Vegas. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide