Mary Nell Santacroce Movies

The feminist outrage of Thelma & Louise (1991) screenwriter Callie Khouri blended superbly with director Lasse Hallstrom's predilection for stories about idiosyncratic families in this effective comedy-drama. Julia Roberts stars as Grace King Bichon, a prim small-town wife who is incensed when she learns that her husband Eddie Bichon (Dennis Quaid) is having an affair, and that it's not his first dalliance. Grace embarrasses her husband publicly -- then moves in with her wise-mouthed little sister Emma Rae (the scene-stealing Kyra Sedgwick). Grace becomes even angrier when her mother Georgia (Gena Rowlands) and wealthy father, horse breeder Wyly King (Robert Duvall), side with Eddie in the conflict, fearing the small-town gossip that's sure to swirl around their daughter's marital woes. However, when Georgia finds that Wyly has been a long-term philanderer as well, she kicks him out of his palatial home, embroiling the entire King family in a war between the sexes. Something to Talk About went through several title changes, variously being named "Game of Love" and "Grace Under Pressure" before producers settled on the title of the popular Bonnie Raitt song. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Jon Avnet's The War is set in the rural south and brimming with lessons on social consciousness, much like his previous effort, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). During the summer of 1970 in backwoods Mississippi, Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner) is struggling to be a breadwinner for his family while still suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in the Vietnam War. His wife Lois (Mare Winningham) provides most of the family income. Stephen gets a job in a mine and saves a friend who has been injured, helping him erase his guilt over abandoning another friend during a firefight in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Simmons children, Stu (Elijah Wood) and Lidia (Lexi Randall) are feuding with an even poorer family of neighbors, the Lipnickis, over access to a tree fort that Stu and Lidia built. Mr. Lipnicki (Raynor Scheine) is drunken and abusive and helps escalate the disagreement into a major battle for the fort. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Inspired by a 60 Minutes story, the made-for-cable Stolen Babies is the fact-based story of supposed "angel of mercy" Georgia Tann. Throughout the 1940s, Ms. Tann oversaw the adoption of children from her Tennessee orphanage. Since she was considered a pillar of the community, few questioned Tann's methods. Only when dedicated social worker Anne Beals began chipping away at Tann's respectable veneer did a terrible truth come to light. The principal selling angle of Stolen Babies was the way-against-type casting of Mary Tyler Moore as purse-lipped, bespectacled, quietly sinister Georgia Tann (not surprisingly, Moore won an Emmy for this chilling performance). Lea Thompson was more traditionally cast as the whistle-blowing Anne Beals. Stolen Babies first aired March 25, 1993, over the Lifetime Cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Music bridges a gap between two cultures in this made-for-TV drama. In 1957, Derek Sanders (Peter Scolari) is hired to teach music and direct the choir at Blanton Academy, a private school in South Carolina. Integration has not yet come to Blanton, and a number of students display an open hostility towards African-American in the community, most notably Taylor Bradshaw (Justin Whalin), one of the school bullies who makes no secret of his dislike of people of color. As Sanders tries to impress a more open-minded attitude upon the boys in his choir, he introduces a new vocalist to the group -- Landy Allen (Eugene Byrd), the teenaged son of Zeke (Moses Gunn), the school's black caretaker. Despite his initial enmity, Bradshaw strikes up a friendship with Allen based on their shared love for music, and as Allen teaches Bradshaw about the blues, he also finds himself learning about a people and a community he previously know almost nothing about. Noted folk-blues Richie Havens also appears in the film's supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

"Remake fever" spread in 1991 to the producers of the TV-movie Night of the Hunter. 36 years earlier, writer James Agee, director Charles Laughton and stars Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish combined their considerable talents to create the original Night of the Hunter, a first-rate allegorical suspenser involving stolen funds, a homicidal phony preacher, and two innocent but resilient children. The 1991 remakes stars Richard Chamberlain in the old Mitchum role as Harry Powell, the bogus preacher with the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles. In pursuit of stolen money hidden by an old prison cellmate, "Reverend" Powell ingratiates himself with the cellmate's widow (Diana Scarwid), then kills her. The woman's children seem to know where the money is, so Powell pursues them through the woods, nearly catching up with them before they are taken in by a kindly old woman. The 1991 Night of the Hunter couldn't come up with an adequate substitute for Lillian Gish, so the new script altered the ending, thereby diminishing most of the property's inherent value. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Brian Dennehy stars in this made-for-cable drama about a blue-collar family man laid off from his auto-industry job who learns that his resentful son plans to drop out of medical school. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In this docudrama based on true events, a mid-'80s Michigan housewife finds her life turned upside down when a vacation to Tehran with her Iranian husband turns into virtual imprisonment for her and her young daughter. Betty Mahmoody (Sally Field) is reluctant to visit the wartorn homeland of her doctor husband, Moody (Alfred Molina). But, depressed about the racism of the American medical establishment and pining for contact with his family, Moody convinces her to join him for a two-week jaunt. The Islamic fundamentalism and strange customs of Iran bewilder and frighten Betty and her daughter, Mahtob (Sheila Rosenthal). But nothing prepares her for Moody's announcement that the family will be remaining in Tehran indefinitely. Despite beatings and more pervasive psychological control from her husband and his relatives, Betty makes it to the Swiss embassy (there is no American ambassador at the time). There, she learns that as the wife of an Iranian, she is now automatically considered a citizen and that she has absolutely no parental rights over Mahtob in this country. Betty then endures several years as a virtual prisoner, escaping only with the help of Westernized Iranian friends. Based on the book by the real-life Mahmoody and William Hoffer, Not Without My Daughter was coincidentally released during the long build-up to 1991's Gulf War. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

As this Catholic-oriented drama opens, a definition of purgatory is offered by Dame Judith Anderson and then four men are seen sitting in a drab, nondescript room. One (John Putch) is a soldier who died in Vietnam, and the others range from a businessman (Terry Beaver) to a husband and father (Brad Dourif). The four soon discover that they went to the same Catholic school together during the 1960s, and they trace their youthful careers. Mixed with jokes and ribbing about a Catholic school education, the memories of the four are alternately humorous or insightful, given their current situation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Tim Conway and Don Knotts play two bumbling Scotland Yard investigators out to solve a double murder in this silly send-up of vintage, "old dark house" films. The intrepid Winship (Knotts) and his assistant Tart (Conway) arrive at a Gothic mansion occupied by the grieving heiress Phyllis (Tricia Noble), whose parents have just perished under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, a quirky crew of servants ranging from a butler with serious rage issues to a samurai warrior cook and busty maid with a bubbly personality all display likely motives for murder. As a mysterious, black-cloaked killer methodically dispatches with the help, the inept investigators search for clues while being watched by paintings with moving eyes, exploring a frightful a torture chamber, and attempting to communicate with their superiors at Scotland Yard via carrier pigeons who never seem to reach their intended destination. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In this musical, New York gangsters head South in search of that magical Nashville sound. Unfortunately, they misunderstand the directions given to them by a friendly gas station attendant and wind up in Atlanta instead. Songs include: "A Dollar Ain't a Dollar Anymore," "I Can't See Me Without You," "It's a Mean Ol' World," "Anywhere USA," "Alone with You," "One Bum Town," "7-11," and "The Gold Guitar." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi