Fiona Shaw Movies
Thin-lipped and statuesque Irish actress Fiona Shaw frequently takes the lead on the theatrical stage but steers her talents toward supporting roles in feature films. Born in County Cork, she studied philosophy before moving on to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. During the '80s she worked mainly on-stage as part of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Some of her stage credits include As You Like It, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and a one-woman reading of T.S. Eliot's epic poem The Waste Land, just to name a few. She made her film debut in 1984 as one of the nuns in the WWII drama Sacred Hearts, but her breakthrough role came in 1989 as the doctor whom Christy Brown grows infatuated with in My Left Foot. The next year, she played the wife of an explorer in the British Empire film Mountains of the Moon. She also excelled at comedy with memorable roles in Three Men and a Little Lady, London Kills Me, Super Mario Bros., and Undercover Blues. In 1995, she turned to literary adaptations and costume dramas with Persuasion, Jane Eyre, and Anna Karenina. She then played Francie's sharp-tongued mother in Neil Jordan's childhood drama The Butcher Boy. Around this time, her longtime colleague Deborah Warner directed the controversial television adaptation of Richard II, with Shaw in the lead role of the young king. Also on television, she played Hedda Hopper in the HBO movie RKO 281 and Irma Prunesquallor in the BBC miniseries Gormenghast. She collaborated with director Warner again for The Last September, based on the novel by Irish author Elizabeth Bowen. In 2001, she received the honorary Companion of the British Empire award and portrayed the spinster scientist Leontine in Clare Peploe's The Triumph of Love. Returning to the stage to play Medea on Broadway, she found herself well-costumed once again as the wretched Aunt Petunia Dursely in the series of Harry Potter feature films. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide- 1993
Written by British TV screenwriter, Malcolm McKay, this is the second of three movies that revolve around the concept of forgiveness. In this comedy, a dancer becomes pregnant. Discovering that her live-in boyfriend has been cheating on her, she kicks him out, but since he is not the Father of this child, his ejection really doesn't change the problem of whether or not she should keep the child. Vacillating back and forth, she imagines a dialogue with her baby. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yolanda Vasquez, David Patrick O'Hara, (more)
Nick and Nora Charles are updated to a touchy-feely couple of the 1990s who take a break from the action to raise their eleven-month-old child. Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quaid star as Jane and Jeff Blue, two CIA super-agents who have abandoned the daily grind to devote quality time to their baby but find trouble on vacation in New Orleans. First a group of muggers try to take advantage of Jeff as he walks down the street with his baby in tow. Jeff teaches the boys a humiliating lesson, but one of the creepy bad guys, Muerte (Stanley Tucci), vows revenge, and he spends the rest of the movie dogging Jeff and Jane and getting kicked in the teeth in the process. But Muerte is small potatoes compared to Novacek (Fiona Shaw), a former Czech agent. Convinced to return to work by their superiors, Jeff and Jane have to catch Novacek red-handed buying illegal explosives from a New Orleans traitor so that the government can send her back to the Czech republic. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Turner, Dennis Quaid, (more)
- 1991
- R
Screenwriter Hanif Kureishi marked his directorial debut in this slice-of-life chronicle about a collection of drug-dealing slackers in London. Centering on a band of delinquents calling themselves "the posse," the group is led by an ambitious male hustler named Muffdiver (Steven Mackintosh). His friend, Mr. Clint Eastwood (Justin Chadwick), begins to wonder about Muffdiver when he announces that he will no longer sell drugs for the gang. But soon Clint is wondering about himself, and after being beaten and stripped naked, he decides to go legitimate and look for a real job. He applies to a chic restaurant for a job as a waiter. The owner, Hemingway (Brad Dourif), promises to hire him if he comes back to the restaurant wearing a good pair of shoes. Obsessed with landing the job, he tries any way he can to get the pair of shoes. Impressed by the efforts of Clint and Muffdiver to get normal jobs, Sylvie (Emer McCourt), a drug addict who lives with the two, is inspired to leave the street life behind herself and pursue a more ordinary vocation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Justin Chadwick, Steven Mackintosh, (more)
Emile Ardolino directed this treacly sequel to Three Men and a Baby. The middle-aged trio of doting fathers -- Peter the architect (Tom Selleck), Michael the cartoonist (Steve Guttenberg) and Jack the actor (Ted Danson) -- have returned, sublimating their swinging bachelor instincts in order to raise 5-year-old Mary (Robin Weisman). The child of Jack and Sylvia (Nancy Travis), Mary was abandoned by Sylvia in the foyer of the boys' apartment house in the first film. In five years, Mary has grown from a diaper-filling infant to a cute kid who insists that the guys sing rap songs to her before she goes to bed. Sylvia now also lives with the bachelors as she pursues a promising Broadway career. Peter, Michael, and Jack dote on the moppet and parenthood has rarely seemed more idyllic. But Sylvia once again disrupts their placid existence. Accepting the marriage proposal of British director and surly cad Edward (Christopher Cazenove), she announces that she and Mary are going to move to England, leaving the boys high and dry. When it turns out that Edward is secretly planning to ship Mary away to a boarding school after the marriage, the three guys race frantically to disrupt Sylvia's wedding. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, (more)
Director Bob Rafelson fulfilled a lifelong dream when he finally received backing to complete Mountains of the Moon. The film recreates the exploratory adventures of 19th century visionaries Sir Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin) and John Henning Speke (Iain Glen). The heart of the film is the effort by Burton and Speke to discover the true source of the Nile river. This occurs well into the film, after several torturous scenes involving the injuries sustained by the protagonists during other expeditions and their growing friendship (which, the film intimates, goes far beyond friendship). Rafaelson's fascination with this story, and his insistence upon painstaking historical accuracy, unfortunately compromises his ability to make an interesting film. There are so many starts and stops during the first half that we sincerely hope Burton and Speke will chuck it all and set up a pub in Bristol or something. What saves Mountains of the Moon is the rapport between its stars and the brilliant, epic-like cinematography of Roger Deakins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Bergin, Iain Glen, (more)
An alternative to the general run of "triumph over the odds" biopics, My Left Foot is the true story of Irish cerebral palsy victim Christy Brown. Paralyzed from birth, Brown (played by Hugh O'Conor as child and Daniel Day-Lewis as an adult) is written off as retarded and helpless. But Christy's indomitable mother (Brenda Fricker) never gives up on the boy. Using his left foot, the only part of his body not afflicted, Brown learns to write. He grows up to become a well-known author, painter, and fundraiser, and along the way falls in love with nurse Mary Carr (Ruth McCabe). There's no sugarcoating in My Left Foot: Brown, a heavy drinker, was by no means lovable. Day-Lewis and Fricker both won Academy Awards for their performances, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Also notable are the late Ray McAnally in his next-to-last film role as Christy's father, and venerable Cyril Cusack as Lord Castlewelland. Director Jim Sheridan co-scripted with Shane Connaughton from Christy Brown's autobiography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Ray McAnally, (more)
- 1985
"The Crooked Man" is an episode of the television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, an excellent adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories, produced in Britain for Granada TV. In this episode, directed by Alan Grint, Jeremy Brett portrays the famed detective, aided by his companion Dr. Watson (David Burke) as the two help investigate and solve the mysterious murder of Colonel Barclay (Denys Hawthorne). This episode, written by Alfred Shaughnessy, re-creates the adventures of Conan Doyle's Victorian detective with impeccable faithfulness to the original story first published in the Strand Magazine during the late-19th century. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Brett, David Burke, (more)
- 1984
Sacred Hearts in one of the more trenchant of the "nun- bashing" films of the 1980s. Anna Massey plays the unbalanced Mother Superior in charge of a British convent during the war years. Through the rigid enforcement of her Spartanlike rules, Sister Massey puts her fellow nuns through the torments of the damned (are we mixing metaphors?). Her greatest crime is to refuse to acknowledge the doubts and fears of the novices in times of extreme crisis--such as the war itself. Sacred Hearts might be even more fascinating if it were double-featured with The Nun's Story--or The Sound of Music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Massey, Katrin Cartlidge, (more)
