Emma Thompson Movies
One of the first ladies of contemporary British stage and cinema, Emma Thompson has won equal acclaim for her work as an actress and a screenwriter. For a long time known as Kenneth Branagh's other half, Thompson was able to demonstrate her considerable talent to an international audience with Oscar-winning mid-1990s work in such films as Howards End and Sense and Sensibility.Born April 15, 1959 in Paddington, West London, Thompson grew up in a household well-suited for creative expression. Both of her parents were actors, her father, Eric Thompson, the creator of the popular TV series The Magic Roundabout, and her actress mother, Phyllida Law, a cast member of This Poisoned Earth (1961), Otley (1968) and several other films. Thompson and her sister, Sophie (who also became an actress), enjoyed a fairly colorful upbringing; as Emma later said, "I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals." She excelled at school, was well liked, and went on to enroll at Cambridge University in 1978. It was at Cambridge that Thompson started performing as part of the legendary Footlights Group, once home to various members of Monty Python, who provided a huge inspiration to the fledgling comedienne. Unfortunately, Thompson's studies and her work with fellow Footlights members Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were interrupted when her father had a debilitating stroke. Thompson went home for a few months, where she taught him how to speak again. After her return to Cambridge, she graduated in 1980 with a degree in English, and she got her first break working for a short-lived BBC radio show.
Personal tragedy struck for Thompson in 1982 when her father died of a heart attack. Ironically, it was in the wake of this turmoil that her professional life began to move forward: she got a job touring with the popular satire Not the Nine O'Clock News and worked with co-conspirators Fry and Laurie on the popular BBC comedy sketch show Alfresco. This led to Thompson's biggest break to date when she was picked for the lead in a revised version of the musical Me and My Girl. Coincidentally featuring a script by Fry, the show proved popular and established Thompson as a respected performer. She stayed with the show for over a year, after which she got her next big break when she was cast as one of the leads in the miniseries Fortunes of War (1988). The other lead happened to be Kenneth Branagh, and the two were soon collaborating off-screen as well as on. Following Thompson's BAFTA Award for her work on the series (as well as a BAFTA for her role on the TV series Tutti Frutti), she helped Branagh form his own production company, Renaissance Films. In 1989, the same year that she starred in the nutty satire The Tall Guy (which teamed her with Black Adder stalwarts Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis and Mel Smith)
and in a televised version of Look Back in Anger with Branagh, she appeared as the French queen in Branagh's acclaimed adaptation of Henry V.
Following the success of Henry V, Thompson had a droll turn as a frivolous aristocrat in Impromptu (1990) and then collaborated with Branagh on the noirish suspense thriller Dead Again in 1991. The film proved a relative hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and it further established the now-married Branagh and Thompson as the First Darlings of contemporary British theatre. The following year, Thompson came into her own with her starring role in Merchant Ivory's Howards End. She won a number of awards, including an Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for her portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, and she found herself an international success almost overnight.
After a turn in the ensemble comedy Peter's Friends that same year, Thompson starred as Beatrice opposite Branagh's Benedict in his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in 1993. That year proved an unqualified success for the actress, who was nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, the former for her portrayal of a repressed housekeeper in Merchant Ivory's The Remains of the Day and the latter for her role as Daniel Day-Lewis's lawyer in In the Name of the Father. Although she didn't win either award, Thompson continued her triumphant streak when -- after starring in Junior in 1994 -- she adapted and starred in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in 1995. Directed by Ang Lee, the film proved popular with critics and audiences alike, and it won Thompson a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. She also earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination, a BAFTA Best Actress Award, and a Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay.
1995 also proved to be a turning point in Thompson's personal life, as, after a much-publicized separation, she and Branagh divorced. Just as well publicized was Thompson's subsequent relationship with Sense and Sensibility co-star Greg Wise. The somewhat tumultuous quality of her love life mirrored that of Dora Carrington, the character she played that year in Carrington. This story of the famed Bloomsbury painter was not nearly as successful as Sense, and Thompson was not seen again on the screen until 1997, when she starred in Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest. The film -- which featured the actress and her mother, Law, playing an estranged daughter and mother -- received fairly positive reviews. The following year, Thompson continued to win praise for her work with a starring role in Primary Colors and a guest spot on the sitcom Ellen, for which she won an Emmy. In 1999, Thompson announced her plans for semi-retirement: pregnant with Wise's child, she turned down a number of roles -- including that of God in Dogma -- in order to concentrate on her family. The two married in July 2003.
In the years that followed Thompson would still remain fairly active onscreen, with roles as a frustrated wife in Love Actually (which found her BAFTA nominated for Best Supporting Actress) and a missing journalist whose husband (played by Antonio Bandaras) is looking for answers in Missing Argentina (which marked the second collaboration, after Carrington, between Thompson and director Christopher Hampton) serving to whet the appetites of longtime fans. For her role as a respected English professor who is forced to re-evaluate her life in Mike Nichols' made-for-television drama Wit (2001), the renowned veteran actress and screenwriter would earn Emmy nominations for both duties. Following an angelic turn in the HBO mini-series Angels in America, Thompson essayed a pair of magical roles in both Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Nanny McPhee - in which she potrayed a governess who utilizes supernatural powers to reign in her unruly young charges.
Thompson then joined the cast of Marc Forster's fantasy comedy Stranger than Fiction, which Columbia slated for U.S. release in November of 2006. She plays Kay Eiffel, an author of thriller and espionage novels suffering from a massive writer's block. The central character in Eiffel's book (an IRS agent played by Will Ferrell) hears Kay's audible narration and - realizing that she's planning to kill him off - tries to find a way to stop her, with the help of Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman). ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 2011
An impetuous princess discovers that her reckless choice has put both her family and her father's kingdom in peril in this animated adventure from Pixar films and Lion King director Brenda Chapman. Merida may be the daughter of royalty, but all she wants out of life is to become a truly great archer. When Merida and her mother clash over the willful girl's future, the decisions she makes have greater repercussions that she ever imagined. Now, in order to save her mother's life and bring peace back to the Highlands, Merida will have to face off against the forces of nature and contend with an ancient curse. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reese Witherspoon, Billy Connolly, (more)
- 2011
A beloved musical comes back to life with this Columbia Pictures' production, once again telling the tale of Cockney girl-turned-aristocrat Eliza Doolittle, famously portrayed by Audrey Hepburn in George Cukor's 1964 production. John Madden is handling directing duties, while Duncan Kenworthy and Cameron Mackintosh produce the romantic musical, taking their inspiration from the original book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
The epic HBO miniseries Angels in America is directed by Mike Nichols and written by the play's author, Tony Kushner. This six-part drama is adapted from the two full-length award-winning plays (Part I: The Millennium Approaches and Part II: Perestroika) originally performed on Broadway in 1993. Set in New York City during the mid-'80s, the story follows the interconnected lives of several people affected by the AIDS crisis, intense spiritual experiences, and the Reagan Administration. Newcomer Justin Kirk plays Prior Walter, a young man dying of AIDS. Things are made worse when he's abandoned by his lover, Jewish court clerk Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman). Then he's visited by an Angel (Emma Thompson), who keeps crashing through his roof and insisting that he's a prophet.
Meanwhile, conservative power monger Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) is also dying of AIDS, but he's in serious denial about it. While in the hospital, he's continually visited by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), a woman he had sent to the electric chair. Roy's protégé is Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), who also tries to deny his own homosexuality. Joe's estranged wife Harper (Mary-Louise Parker) suffers from a Valium addiction and has an acute sensitivity to the world around her. Joe leaves her to start up a relationship with Louis, who works in his building. Jeffrey Wright reprises his stage role of the trusty friend and nurse Belize. Angels in America first aired in two parts on HBO during December of 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Meanwhile, conservative power monger Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) is also dying of AIDS, but he's in serious denial about it. While in the hospital, he's continually visited by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), a woman he had sent to the electric chair. Roy's protégé is Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), who also tries to deny his own homosexuality. Joe's estranged wife Harper (Mary-Louise Parker) suffers from a Valium addiction and has an acute sensitivity to the world around her. Joe leaves her to start up a relationship with Louis, who works in his building. Jeffrey Wright reprises his stage role of the trusty friend and nurse Belize. Angels in America first aired in two parts on HBO during December of 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, (more)
Mike Nichols directs Emma Thompson in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Margaret Edson. Thompson plays Vivian Bearing, a college professor who teaches a course on English poetry. Vivian learns that she has advanced ovarian cancer and only a short time to live, which gives her a sudden and dramatic insight into the importance of kindness and compassion. Wit also features Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins, Audra McDonald, and Jonathan Woodward as Dr. Jason Posner, a former student of Vivian's who helps treat her. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, (more)
- 1994
The ghost of a dead child preoccupies a woman in this British made-for-television supernatural thriller. Emma Thompson stars as Marie, a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage to philandering husband Joe (Adrian Dunbar). When the couple goes on holiday, Marie gets obsessed with the ghost of a little boy who drowned in a nearby lake. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Emma Thompson guest stars as Nanny Gee, a popular children's singer whose sappy compositions make Barney the Dinosaur's ballads sound like Cole Porter. When Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) suggests that baby Frederick might enjoy Nanny's upcoming Boston concert, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is forced into a startling confession. It seems that, before the ebullient entertainer was Nanny Gee, she was his first wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Made for British television, 1989's Look Back in Anger is the third film adaptation of John Osborne's legendary "kitchen sink" stage drama. Kenneth Branagh plays working-class roisterer Jimmy Porter, the archetypal "angry young man" whose college education has led nowhere. Stuck in a go-nowhere job at a candy store, Porter rebels against the establishment through his boorish treatment of his wife (Emma Thompson) and mistress (Siobhan Redmond). Branagh's forceful performance allows us to ignore the structural shortcomings inherent in the play (Osborne writes in fluent tract). Earlier filmizations of Look Back in Anger starred Richard Burton and Malcolm McDowell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Originally produced for the BBC, the seven-part Fortunes of War was adapted from Olivia Manning's "The Balkan Trilogy" and "The Levant Trilogy". Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, who in 1987 were husband and wife, star as Guy and Harriet Pringle, a British couple who move to Rumania in 1939. As the war clouds gather, Guy becomes involved in political resistance activities, which tends to make him neglectful of Harriet, who'd just as soon remain aloof from world events. While Guy goes off on such missions as destroying the German supply lines along the Danube, Harriet attempts to maintain decorum in her home-a task rendered well nigh impossible when such "guests" as Prince Yakimov (Ronald Pickup) drop in. Separated in mid-war, the Pringles are reunited in Greece, where the lonely Harriet becomes involved with handsome army officer Jeremy Brudenell. Then it's off to further adventures in Alexandria, Cairo, and finally, Damascus. Fortunes of War was first telecast in America from January 17 to February 28, 1988, as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2009
- R
- Add Pirate Radio to Queue
In mid- to late-'60s Britain, an unusual yet colorful subculture sprang up and thrived as a product of the upswing in British pop music, only to meet its doom within a few short years. Though the BBC functioned as the country's main source of news and music, its programmers offered very little airtime to rock & roll -- which left an overwhelming need unfulfilled. In response, small bands of "pirate" radio enthusiasts set up broadcasting towers on boats just outside of English boundary waters, and transmitted signals to an estimated 25 million listeners, 24 hours a day and seven days per week. Unsurprisingly, the DJs who took charge of these broadcasts could rival just about anyone in terms of flamboyance and outsized personalities. With Pirate Radio (released as The Boat That Rocked in the U.K.), writer-director Richard Curtis (Love Actually) travels back to the Swinging Sixties and takes a headfirst plunge into this colorful realm.
The story opens in 1966, aboard a rusty fishing trawler christened Radio Rock and equipped with pirate broadcasting equipment. Here, the slightly daft elitist Quentin (Bill Nighy) presides over a motley crew of joint-toking, sex-hungry disc jockeys including Dave (Nick Frost), a heavyset boob who nevertheless considers himself a hot property with women and loves to chase skirts; "The Count" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ who aspires to be the first person to drop an F-bomb over the British airwaves; the gloom-laden Irishman Simon (Chris O'Dowd); bonked-out hipster Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke); womanizer Mark (Tom Wisdom); Angus (Rhys Darby), a New Zealander whom nobody likes; and the only female member of the group, lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson). These misfits pull off quite a show -- enough of one that they attain the status of national idols for the youth culture -- but the super-conservative government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) detests the whole business and will do almost anything in his power to shut them down. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
The story opens in 1966, aboard a rusty fishing trawler christened Radio Rock and equipped with pirate broadcasting equipment. Here, the slightly daft elitist Quentin (Bill Nighy) presides over a motley crew of joint-toking, sex-hungry disc jockeys including Dave (Nick Frost), a heavyset boob who nevertheless considers himself a hot property with women and loves to chase skirts; "The Count" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ who aspires to be the first person to drop an F-bomb over the British airwaves; the gloom-laden Irishman Simon (Chris O'Dowd); bonked-out hipster Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke); womanizer Mark (Tom Wisdom); Angus (Rhys Darby), a New Zealander whom nobody likes; and the only female member of the group, lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson). These misfits pull off quite a show -- enough of one that they attain the status of national idols for the youth culture -- but the super-conservative government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) detests the whole business and will do almost anything in his power to shut them down. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, (more)
All of London is in love -- or longing to be -- in Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy," Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away (Rodrigo Santoro), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to cash in and get laid -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. A working print of Love Actually premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, (more)
Accomplished British screenwriter Christopher Hampton directs the political drama Imagining Argentina, based on the novel by Lawrence Thornton. Set during the unsettling disappearances in Buenos Aires during the dictatorship of the 1970s, the film involves theater director Carlos Rueda (Antonio Banderas) and his wife Cecilia (Emma Thompson). Shortly after Cecilia writes an editorial commentary questioning the mysterious abductions, she is herself abducted and taken into police custody. Soon Carlos develops the supernatural ability to see into the future and he imagines his wife meeting an awful fate during an escape attempt. To make matters worse, their teenage daughter Teresa (Leticia Dolera) is also kidnapped. Imagining Argentina was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson, (more)
In this light comedy directed by British writer-comedian Ben Elton, Sam and Lucy Bell (Hugh Laurie and Joely Richardson) are an upwardly mobile London couple who are trying desperately to conceive a baby. Along for the ride, which is laden with sperm-count and hormone-injection jokes, is a cast that reads like a Who's Who in British comedy. Rowan Atkinson makes an appearance as an obstetrician, Dawn French and Joanna Lumley show up as an Australian nurse and Lucy's snooty boss, and Emma Thompson has a stint as a New Age health freak. Adrian Lester and Tom Hollander also co-star, the latter as a Brit-loathing Scottish director. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rowan Atkinson, Dawn French, (more)
Mike Nichols directed this Elaine May screenplay adapted from the 1996 bestseller by "Anonymous" (Joe Klein), who fictionalized Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. In the New Hampshire primary, Governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta) convinces Henry Burton (Adrian Lester), grandson of a respected civil rights pioneer, to become his deputy campaign manager. Stanton's smart wife Susan (Emma Thompson) always comes through with public support for her philandering husband. The film's parallel for James Carville is Stanton's redneck advisor Richard Jemmons (Billy Bob Thornton), who knows every strategy and tactic but worries, "The woman thing, that's the killer." Sure enough, problems during the New Hampshire primary include charges of adultery. To get a handle on past peccadillos, Stanton's staff brings in an old family friend, lesbian Libby Holden (Kathy Bates), who knows how to clean up dirt. Stanton, a strong debater, moves on to Florida and New York. When one opposing candidate drops dead of a heart attack, he's replaced by Florida's Governor Fred Picker (Larry Hagman), but Holden holds the skeleton key to the skeleton in Picker's closet. Just how the Stantons put this information to use reveals whether they are ruthless politicians or inspirational leaders with ideals. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Emma Thompson, (more)
- 1998
- R
Young lovers and small-time New Orleans scammers Coco Chavez (Carla Gugino) and Junior Armstrong (Simon Baker-Denny) move up a few rungs when they kidnap wealthy computer mogul Ben Dyson (Greg Wise) in Sebastian Gutierrez's neo-noir. During the crime, Coco kills Dyson's girlfriend, Patty (Beverly Penberthy), wife of Senator Rupert Hornbeck (Hal Holbrook). Assigned to the case are FBI Agent Sadie Hawkins (Emma Thompson) and Police Lt. David Friedman (Alan Rickman). When Hornbeck threatens Friedman instead of assisting him, the detective suspects that this is no ordinary kidnapping for ransom, and he does his own investigation. A conscience-stricken Coco realizes that she may have been set up to kill Patty, and she, too, takes matters into her own hands. A fairly complex tale of betrayal and corruption, Judas Kiss also spoofs noir conventions -- for instance, agent Hawkins is reading Jim Thompson's crime novel The Killer Inside Me, and he discusses the writer's works with Friedman during lulls in the action. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simon Baker-Denny, Gil Bellows, (more)
Adapted from a stage play by Sharman McDonald, this film marks the directorial debut of British character actor Alan Rickman. Set against a bleak winter landscape of rural Scotland, the story centers around the recently widowed Frances (Emma Thompson) and a visit from her mother, Elspeth (Phyllida Law, Thompson's real-life mother). Elspeth seeks to console Frances, but Frances resists. The mother and daughter have a prickly relationship. While they thrust and parry emotionally, Frances' son Alex (Gary Hollywood) longs for the tomboy Nita (Arlene Cockburn). Two young boys, Tom (Sean Biggerstaff) and Sam (Douglas Murphy), are in the neighborhood looking for adventure. Two older women, Chloe (Sandra Voe) and Lily (Sheila Reed), go to funerals of strangers. The epidosic film eventually ties together all these characters in a surprising way, but the core of the drama is the evolution of the difficult mother-daughter relationship. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson, (more)
Carrington is the true story of the peculiar love affair between two nonconformists in Victorian England: painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and author Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce). Dora is a young English artist who is part of the Bloomsbury Group, an assemblage of British writers, painters, and eccentrics that includes the likes of Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, when she meets Strachey. A confirmed homosexual before meeting Carrington, Strachey inquires who the "ravishing boy" is and discovers that it's a woman. Shocked to discover this, he finds himself captivated by her, and they begin an unusual 17-year love affair/friendship. Strachey (most famous for the groundbreaking book Eminent Victorians) and Dora eventually move in together and have a series of offbeat sexual experiences with other members of the group and sometimes even with the same man; at one juncture, Dora even marries another man. Yet their relationship endures until Strachey's death years later. Pryce was honored as Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce, (more)
The My Left Foot team of star Daniel Day-Lewis and director Jim Sheridan were reunited to make this political docudrama about Irish citizen Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis), who was wrongly convicted of taking part in an IRA bombing that killed five in Guildford, England in 1974. After a brutal interrogation forces him to sign a false confession, Gerry is sentenced to prison, his family is raked over the coals, and later his father Giuseppe (Pete Postelthwaite) is charged with being an accomplice and is also sent to prison where he lives out the last days of his life. Day-Lewis gives an outstanding performance as a man tormented by the injustice served him. Watch for Emma Thompson as the persevering lawyer who works for years, gathering evidence to clear Gerry's name. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, (more)
This comedy drama, a sort of British version of The Big Chill (1983), was directed by Kenneth Branagh. Ten years after they were members of a music and comedy troupe at Cambridge University, a diverse group of friends in their early 30s gather at the expansive estate of Peter Morton (Stephen Fry), who's invited them there for a reunion. Among the guests are Andrew (Branagh), who has married Carol (Rita Rudner), the star of the American situation comedy he writes; lonely Maggie (Emma Thompson), who thinks she may be in love with Peter; Roger (Hugh Laurie) and Mary (Imelda Staunton), a couple in advertising who have lost a child; and single Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel), who's always attracted to the wrong men, including her latest boyfriend, the married Brian (Tony Slattery). Also on hand is Vera (Phyllida Law, the real-life mother of Thompson), a housekeeper who has protectively watched over Peter since childhood. Over the course of the weekend, various jealousies and fears are revealed between joyous feasts, but a startling, tragic announcement from Peter puts everyone's petty dramas into proper perspective. American stand-up comedienne Rudner wrote the screenplay with her husband, (Martin Bergmann). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth Branagh, Alphonsia Emmanuel, (more)
Set in contemporary Los Angeles as well as the Los Angeles of the 1940s, Dead Again explores a romance between two star-crossed lovers -- and the doomed passion they shared in their last lifetime. Los Angeles detective Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) comes to the aid of mute, amnesia-victim Grace (Emma Thompson) and falls in love with her. He sets out to discover her true identity and the source of her terrible nightmares. Mike is aided in his investigation by hypnotist/furniture dealer Franklyn Madison (Derek Jacobi) who discovers that in a past life Grace was Margaret Strauss (also played by Thompson), who may have been mudered by her husband Roman (Branagh). ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, (more)
Dexter King (Jeff Goldblum) is an actor who spends his nights on-stage in London's West End as a comedic punching bag for obnoxiously self-centered comedian Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson). He gets hit in the head with hammers, he trips, and he stands by dumbly as Anderson gets all the laughs. His home life is little different. His roommate, Carmen (Geraldine James), is a nymphomaniac, so he's always surprised by naked men parading through the kitchen in the morning. A chance meeting with lovely nurse Kate Lemon (Emma Thompson) and a tryout for the lead in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish musical based on The Elephant Man (called, not surprisingly, "Elephant!") jolt Dexter from his torpor. Not that it makes him much less of a loser, which is the quality the show's producers are looking for. "You're a victim," they tell him. His attempts to seduce Kate are equally jarring. She asks him if he is a big believer in having sex on the first date. "Why, no," he tells her, trying to impress her with his sensitivity. Too bad, she replies -- she doesn't believe in getting serious with someone if they're sexually incompatible. Romance and showbiz go on, with the show a hit, though Dexter's romance hits a temporary snag: his backstage romance with a co-star (Kim Thomson) gets found out. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson, (more)
A disastrous trip to London proves to have a silver lining for a middle-aged American jingle writer in this romantic slice-of-life drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Harvey (Hoffman) is about to lose his unfulfilling dead-end job writing jingles when he boards a plane to attend his daughter's wedding in London. He hasn't turned out a memorable tune in some time, and should Harvey fail to come up with something catchy during his trip overseas, he knows that his boss (Richard Schiff) is ready and willing to let him go. Upon arriving in London, Harvey is devastated to learn that his daughter (Liane Balaban) has opted to have her stepfather (James Brolin) walk her down the aisle instead of him. And things are about to get worse, too. Harvey realizes that he won't be able to suppress his sadness through the whole reception, and makes a quick getaway in hopes of catching a plane back home. Perhaps if he can attend an important meeting on Monday morning, his boss will have some sympathy and grant him a momentary reprieve. No such luck, however, because when Harvey misses the flight and calls his boss to explain, he is fired over the phone. Later, at the airport bar, Harvey is drowning his sorrows when he strikes up a conversation with no-nonsense Office of National Statistics employee Kate (Thompson). Kate doesn't have much of a social life; most of her time outside of work is spent suffocating under the love of her smothering mother (Eileen Atkins). She's just gotten through a humiliating string of blind dates, and something about Harvey's situation and demeanor strikes a sympathetic chord in the lonely civil servant. Likewise, Kate's intelligence and compassion prove unexpectedly invigorating to Harvey. Both Harvey and Kate had always assumed that love had passed them by -- could this middle-aged romance be the glimmer of a new beginning? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, (more)
Evelyn Waugh's classic novel of love and the British class system has been given a polished screen adaptation in this film version from director Julian Jarrold. Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) was raised in a middle-class household and though he's never known want and is fortunate enough to have been accepted into Oxford, the life of the upper class is foreign to him. While serving in the British Army during the waning days of World War II, Charles is assigned to a temporary base set up on the estate of the wealthy and aristocratic Flyte family, where he strikes up a friendship with twentysomething Lord Sebastian (Ben Whishaw). Sebastian enjoys the pleasures his privileged life has afforded him, but he also senses that something is missing, and he tries to drown his frequent episodes of depression in alcohol. Charles is captivated by the splendor of Sebastian's life, and he finds himself drawn into a web of decadent comfort, while also developing an infatuation with Sebastian's sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell), even as Charles senses his relationship with Sebastian is something deeper than simple friendship. The idyllic days at the Flyte estate come to an end with the arrival of Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), a fierce Catholic who objects to her son's free and easy life and has become increasingly bitter since her husband, Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon), has left her to live in Italy with the lovely Cara (Greta Scacchi). This was the first cinema adaptation of Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, though it was the basis of an acclaimed miniseries produced for British television in 1981. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayley Atwell, Ben Whishaw, (more)
- 2008
- PG13
A suburban London teen finds her traditional education replaced by something slightly more sinister when an older, more worldly suitor sweeps her off of her feet while placing her future in jeopardy. London, 1961: 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is smart, attractive, and eager to start her adult life. She's grown tired of the familiar adolescent routine, so when urbane newcomer David (Peter Sarsgaard) appears in town, Jenny senses a rare opportunity to shake things up a bit. Quickly falling under David's spell, the impressionable Jenny begins accompanying her newfound beau to classical concerts, art auctions, crowded pubs, and dinners that stretch into the small hours of the night. But Jenny is brighter than most kids her age, and her parents always dreamt of getting their exceptional daughter into Oxford. These days it seems like she's headed in a different direction -- will David ultimately be her undoing, or the person who helps her finally realize her true potential? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, (more)
