Brenda Blethyn Movies
Though Brenda Blethyn has enjoyed a long and successful career as an actress on the British stage and in television, it wasn't until the release of Mike Leigh's film Secrets and Lies in 1996 that she became well-known to moviegoers as well, earning a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for what was only her third film.Blethyn's early stage experience included stints in the stock companies of the Bubble Theatre and the Belgrade Theater of Coventry. In 1975, she joined the Royal National Theater, where she worked with some of Britain's leading stage directors, including Peter Wood, Peter Hall, and Bill Bryden, and her roles ran the gamut from Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House to Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. With the Royal Shakespeare Company, she appeared under the direction of Maximillian Schell in Tales From the Vienna Woods and in Alan Ayckbourn's Wildest Dream. In 1991, she received the British Drama Awards' Best Actress prize for her role in Steaming and the Theatre World Awards' Outstanding New Talent prize for her role in the Broadway production of Absent Friends.
Blethyn made her film debut in 1990, with a small part in Nicholas Roeg's The Witches. Robert Redford cast her as Brad Pitt's mother in A River Runs Through It in 1992, but 1996's Secrets and Lies provided Blethyn with her first substantial screen role. In a story developed through six months of improvisations with Leigh and the cast, Blethyn's performance as a woman getting to know the daughter she had given up made her an international sensation almost overnight. Blethyn received another Oscar nomination in 1999, for her role as the overbearing mother in Little Voice; her nomination complemented her growing popularity in Hollywood, reflected by her casting in such high profile projects as Billy Bob Thornton's Daddy and Them (1999). The following year, Blethyn again earned raves for her starring role in Saving Grace, a comedy about a woman forced to start growing marijuana to stave off creditors following her husband's death.
On television, Blethyn has appeared in BBC productions of King Lear and Henry VI, Part One, as well as several series, including The Labours of Erica, The Buddha of Suburbia, and Outside Edge, which first teamed her with Secrets and Lies co-star Timothy Spall. ~ All Movie Guide
What do you do when you've loved someone literally all their life? As Music From Another Room opens, five-year-old Danny is with his father, a U.S. Army doctor, when Dad is faced with an emergency. It seems Grace Swan (Brenda Blethyn), an old friend of the family, is in the last stages of labor and there's no time to get her to the hospital. Danny ends up helping his father deliver the infant, and moments after birth, Danny is holding the baby in his arms, convinced this is the girl he will marry someday. 20 years later, Danny (played as an adult by Jude Law), now an artist educated in England after the death of his father, is back in the States to help restore a church, and he meets Anna Swan (Gretchen Mol), the girl he helped deliver now all grown up and very beautiful. However, she's also become cold and cynical, and has a fiance to boot, so while Danny's attraction to her hasn't dimmed in two decades, it's clear winning her heart will be an uphill battle. The increasingly eccentric Swan family isn't much help either, including sweet but dizzy Grace, eggheaded father Richard (Bruce Jarchow), angry feminist Karen (Martha Plimpton), shy and blind Nina (Jennifer Tilly) and self-centered lout of a doctor Billy (Jeremy Piven). Screenwriter Charlie Peters steps up to the directors chair for this romantic comedy with a superb supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brenda Blethyn, Jude Law, (more)
Based on Jim Cartright's play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, this screen adaptation directed by Mark Herman is an underdog film about an underdog girl named Little Voice (or LV for short). LV (Jane Horrocks from Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet who does all her own singing) is a shy, mousy woman living with her mom Mari (Secrets and Lies' Brenda Blethyn). Little Voice doesn't leave her house. Instead she sings along to her record collection of Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland, and Marilyn Monroe. Her mother Mari, however, is an outspoken woman who is convinced her sex appeal (which is little) will land her a man, especially when she's drunk. One night while bar-hopping, Mari meets the suave yet sleazy talent agent Ray Say (Michael Caine), whom she takes home for a nightcap. There Ray hears the beautiful Little Voice singing a perfect rendition of Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. He's stunned by its beauty and thinks he can make her a star. From there the story heads in complicated, romantic, and sweet-hearted directions that should not be given away. Also starring in this small independent film is Ewan McGregor. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks, (more)
- 1998
In the British North Country, in-laws Jackie (Julie Walters) and Dawn (Brenda Blethyn) work together on an assembly line at an electronics firm. Dawn is married to Jackie's brother Steve (George Costigan). Jackie's marriage is collapsing, and she has a secret affair with a bingo club run by Paul (James Gaddas). TGIF, the girls' night out, and while Jackie and Paul are engaged in a back-office tryst, Dawn wins the pot of $100,000. She shares the loot with Jackie, who uses it as an opportunity to ditch both the husband and the job. Dawn has a seizure, diagnosed as a brain tumor, but she keeps it secret. When Jackie buys two tickets to Vegas, Dawn joins her at the airport, not bothering to let her husband or children know about the trip. In Vegas, the two dress as rhinestone cowgals, ogle an Elvis impersonator, and meet Cody (Kris Kristofferson), heading home just before things turn grim. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brenda Blethyn, Julie Walters, (more)
James Bogle directed this Australian psychological thriller adapted (by Bogle and Peter Rasmussen) from the novel by Tim Winton. Living on their farm for 30 years, Maurice (Ray Barrett) and Ida Stubbs (Brenda Blethyn) have never recovered from the loss of their child, smothered by a cat. Elsewhere in the valley are pregnant, spaced-out Ronnie (Miranda Otto), abandoned by her lover, and lonely misfit Laurie (Richard Roxburgh), a fan of Jim Reeves recordings. Fear brings these four together when an unknown predator starts slaughtering local livestock. Shown at the Sydney Film Festival (Opening Night). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brenda Blethyn, Ray Barrett, (more)
- 1997
This comedy of manners from playwright Michael Frayn, author of Noises Off (1992), was based on his teleplay for "Jamie, On a Flying Visit," a 1968 episode of the legendary BBC television series The Wednesday Play (1964-70). Middle class couple Ian (Rik Mayall) and insurance adjuster Lorna (Imelda Staunton) have their troubles, including a rebellious teenage daughter who's dating a car thief, Lorna's frustrated dreams of being a writer, and Ian's joblessness. Then Jamie (Robert Lindsay) appears on their doorstep. An ex-boyfriend that Lorna hasn't seen in twenty years, Jamie's keeping a few secrets past and present, all of which emerge to the chagrin of Ian and Lorna, as Jamie and his buxom girlfriend Georgina (Natalie Walker) are invited to share dinner and then stay the night. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lindsay, Rik Mayall, (more)
A family is forced to confront the personal issues they've been avoiding for years in this powerful, realistic drama. Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a working-class British woman whose life has been a long series of painful disappointments. She's single with no romantic prospects and a dead-end job at a box factory. Her daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook) works as a street sweeper and is chronically bitter. Cynthia helped raise her brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall), who is doing well as a photographer, but she rarely sees him and usually blames his wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan). One day, Cynthia receives a phone call from a woman named Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who claims to be the daughter Cynthia put up for adoption years ago. Cynthia initially reacts with panic, but she agrees to meet Hortense and is surprised to discover that she's a successful and soft-spoken eye doctor -- and that she's black. Cynthia is soon convinced that Hortense is just who she claims to be, and they quickly form a friendship that gives Cynthia a new source of emotional strength. However, when Cynthia decides to introduce the family to her new "friend," it forces them to confront the lies and evasions that have kept them apart all these years. Largely improvised by director Mike Leigh and his cast, Secrets & Lies features standout work by Brenda Blethyn (who earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (who was nominated as Best Supporting Actress), and Timothy Spall. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, (more)
Produced for Central Television, the British sitcom Outside Edge was based on Richard Harris' 1982 TV play of the same name. The stories dealt with the relationship between two couples, united only by the fact that both played for a Sunday League Cricket Team. Wealthy Roger Dervish was imperious and self-absorbed, while his wife Miriam was the long-suffering anchor (and occasional doormat) in the marriage. Their opposite numbers were the Costellos: slovenly Kevin and his outgoing, sexually supercharged wife, Maggie . Others in the cast included two Doctor Who veterans, Dennis Lill and Michael Jayston. Making its British TV debut on March 24, 1994, Outside Edge toted up 21 half-hour episodes and one 60-minute special before ending its run on February 13, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brenda Blethyn, Timothy Spall, (more)
In the new tradition of "Tales of the City," this long, complex British satire profiles a decade in the life of a British family. The story opens in a South London suburb where main protagonist Karim Amir lives with his Indian father, Haroon, and his English mother during the 1970's. Haroon is a civil servant who makes extra cash, and gains notoriety for teaching "Eastern Philosophies," of which he knows nothing. Still, as Buddhism is in fashion, people pay him a bundle to hear his vapid, happy ramblings. When not preaching, Haroon is trysting with a rich follower, Eva Kay. Karim's mother learns of the affair and leaves with his younger brother. Karim stays with his father and his new love. He begins a career on the stage. The story also follows Charlie, Eva's boy as he aspires to become a rocker. Other plots and subplots abound in this film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roshan Seth, Naveen Andrews, (more)
Robert Redford's lyrical direction sets the tone for this evocative adaptation of author Norman MacLean's memoir of his idyllic Montana youth. The MacLean family is presided over by the strict but encouraging Rev. MacLean (Tom Skerritt) and his loving wife (Brenda Blethyn). Craig Sheffer stars as the young Norman, the older son in his family, who takes his school work and writing a bit too seriously for Paul (Brad Pitt), the impetuous younger son, to take much stock in. Paul would rather have a good time, drink and play cards than get involved with academic study. Where Norman wants to be a college literature professor, Paul would prefer to stay in Montana all his life and wrangle some kind of job writing for a local newspaper. But, ironically, Paul is the better fly fisherman and in this way attains a sense of perfection. The film also details the MacLean boys' involvement with a colorful group of town's people -- including a young Indian woman Paul decides to date and the defiant Jessie (Emily Lloyd), whom Norman later marries. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, (more)
In Nicolas Roeg's adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel The Witches, a young boy is vacationing at the seaside with his grandmother when he discovers that the hotel he is staying at is hosting a convention of witches. Eavesdropping on the witches, he learns that the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston) has devised a plan to turn all of the children in England into mice. With creature-effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, The Witches was the last film Henson worked on before passing away in 1990. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, (more)
Roy Marsden stars as Commander Adam Dalgliesh in this made-for-television adaptation of the novel by P.D. James. Edwin Lorrimer (Geoffrey Palmer) is a noted forensic scientist who is often called upon to testify in court proceedings as an expert witness, and when he dies as a result of foul play, Dalgliesh is called in to investigate. Lorrimer was killed inside the building where he worked, and given the tight security of his offices, initial police research assumes that someone who worked alongside Lorrimer is the most likely culprit. However, the longer Dalgliesh looks into the murder, the more he's convinced the answer lies elsewhere. Originally aired as a three-part miniseries, Death of an Expert Witness also features John Vine, Barry Foster, and Brenda Blethyn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Made for British television by filmmaker Mike Leigh, Grown Ups is a detailed slice-of-life drama about a married, working-class couple in Canterbury, England. The film begins with the young couple, Dick and Mandy, moving to a new, rather small home and becoming neighbors to Mr. Butcher, an abrasive, ill-humored man who they once had as a schoolteacher. This rather awkward living situation soon becomes even more uncomfortable, thanks to the near-constant presence of Mandy's older sister, Gloria. (Gloria is portrayed by Brenda Blethyn, who 17 years later would win recognition and an Oscar nomination for her work in Leigh's Secrets and Lies.) Gloria's eccentricity and desperate, child-like neediness leads her to become increasingly dependent on the young couple, showing up at all hours and rarely leaving. Her behavior grates on the already sour Dick and comes to test Mandy's patience as well. When Mandy's efforts to politely discourage her sister's visits prove fruitless, the extended family is forced into a painful, emotionally charged confrontation. Leigh purposefully alternates the film's more immediate dramatic elements with careful, real-time portraits of daily life, giving equal weight to both traumatic arguments and extended conversations about home decor and vacuum cleaners. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
