Deborah Kara Unger

Bobby Long (John Travolta) is a washed up former literature professor with a voracious drinking habit. He lives in a rundown house in New Orleans with Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht of The Recruit), his former star pupil, also an alcoholic. Lawson is allegedly writing a novel about Bobby. Their depressive little corner of the world is disrupted when Lorraine, the beloved eccentric singer who owns their house, dies. Her teenage daughter, Pursy (Scarlett Johansson), who hasn't seen her mother in years, arrives in town too late for the funeral, and crashes at the house. Afraid of being thrown out on the street, Bobby convinces Lawson to tell Pursy that the house has been left to all three of them. Pursy, having little else to do, decides to move in, and starts cleaning up the place, making it her own. Lawson is involved with Georgianna (Deborah Kara Unger), who works at the local bar, but he quickly develops a crush on the comely Pursy. The cantankerous Bobby seems determined to drive the girl away. As Pursy settles into the diverse little community, all of Lorraine's old friends tell her how much she looks like her mother, and she begins to uncover some startling truths about her family history. A Love Song for Bobby Long is based on the novel Off Magazine Street, by Ronald Everett Capps. It was adapted for the screen and directed by Shainee Gabel, who co-directed the documentary Anthem. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Independent Canadian filmmaker Carl Bessai directs Emile, the final entry in his identity trilogy that started with Johnny and Lola. Ian McKellen plays Emile, a retired university professor who travels from England to his hometown in Canada in order to accept an educational honor. Visiting the family farm in Saskatchewan, he recalls his childhood relationships with brothers Freddy (Tygh Runyan) and Carl (Chris William Martin). He stays with his grown-up niece, Nadia (Deborah Kara Unger), who still hasn't forgiven him for his misdeeds of the past. Trying to make up for abandoning her, Emile develops an emotional bond with her daughter, Maria (Theo Crane). Emile premiered at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Conner MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) returns in this, the third film in the Highlander series. MacLeod is an "Immortal," a 16th century Scottish soldier who has been both blessed and cursed with the gift of eternal life. After the death of his beloved wife (a common occurrence for him, but one he's never gotten used to), MacLeod travels to Japan during the feudal era where he encounters a fellow immortal, the wizard and swordsman Nakano (Mako). Nakano and MacLeod become friends, and the Scott learns many valuable lessons from the wise magician; however, when Nakamo's arch enemy Kane (Mario Van Peebles) -- an immortal who has pledged himself to evil -- finds the sorcerer's hideaway, he promptly chops off the magician's head. The attack causes Nakamo's cave to collapse with Kane trapped inside, and McLeod narrowly escapes. Moving into the 20th century, MacLeod is in New York City where he's become romantically involved with Alex Johnson (Deborah Unger), an archeologist who is planning a dig in Japan; however, the site she's excavating just so happens to be the cave where Kane remains trapped inside. Once the villain is freed, he sets out to find MacLeod and determine once and for all who is to be the final immortal. Highlander: The Final Dimension was trimmed of two sex scenes for its American theatrical release, though they were restored when the film was brought out on home video. Despite the suggestion of the title "The Final Dimension," a fourth Highlander film was released in 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Hotel Room is a made-for-cable anthology, featuring three separate stories that are all set in the same New York hotel room over different years. Set in 1992, the first, "Getting Rid of Robert," features three girlfriends who devise a plan to help Sasha dump her sleazy movie executive boyfriend. The second, set in 1969, is called "Tricks" and is about a dull, junkie prostitute Darlene, her client Moe and the sudden re-appearance of Moe's friend Lou. "Blackout," the last story, is set in 1936 and is about a young husband who is attempting to accept the madness of his gorgeous wife. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

A literary drama offering the parallel tales of two wounded souls, director Mehdi Norowzian's tale of redemption and the struggle to find one's place in life finds an ex-convict's correspondence with a young boy offering hope for the future despite the fact that the boy has yet to find his own place in the world. Believing that her husband has been unfaithful, Mary Bloom (Elisabeth Shue) embarks on an affair with a young handyman (Justin Chambers) that results in her pregnancy. Racked with guilt when her husband dies in a car accident shortly thereafter, Mary begins to hate her son, Leo (Davis Sweat), leaving the youngster hungering for affection. Assigned correspondence with a convict for a class project, the withdrawn Leo begins to form a close bond with Stephen (Joseph Fiennes), who increasingly relies on his communication with Leo as a form of cathartic repentance. When Stephen is released from jail, he gets a job at a diner where concerned co-workers Vic (Sam Shepard) and Caroline (Deborah Unger) attempt to help him establish himself on the outside. Simultaneously brutalized by local drunk Horace (Dennis Hopper), Stephen decides to leave the diner and search for the boy whose letters carried him through his darkest days. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Bette Gordon, who made her directorial debut in 1983 with Variety, returned 15 years later with this adaptation of Scott Bradfield's novel The History of Luminous Motion about an alcoholic mother. "Only two things mattered to me -- being with my mom and being in motion," says ten-year-old Phillip (Eric Lloyd), who teaches himself physics and biology as he's driven about by his mother Margaret (Deborah Kara Unger). After a car crash, they settle down with Hackensack hardware store owner Pedro (Terry Kinney). Phillip receives letters and phone calls from his dad (Jamey Sheridan). Eventually, mother and son leave Pedro to live on Staten Island -- where the boy meets some strange teens (James Berland, Paz De La Huerta), Pedro appears as a ghostly figure, and Phillip's father turns up. Shown at the 1998 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Writer/directors Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson make their feature debut with the paranoid thriller One Point O (1.0). Jeremy Sisto plays a computer programmer named Simon J. who gets used as a test subject. His corporate employers are secretly conducting a experiment on him in order to test out a new advertising scheme. Simon receives empty boxes at his apartment, grows suspicious of everyone else, and develops a strange desire for milk. Also starring Deborah Unger, Lance Henriksen, and Udo Kier. One Point O premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Seven years after seeing his original vision butchered under studio interference as well as his star's, director Brian Helgeland finally was given the chance to piece together his director's cut under the name Payback: Straight Up. Along with reinstating the original third Act, this version represents a return to the gritty world of '70s filmmaking that was the groundwork of the production up until Paramount got cold feet and ordered extensive reshoots. The story centers on Porter (Mel Gibson), a thief that is pulled into a heist by his old friend, Val (Brian De Palma regular Gregg Henry), who plans a double cross with Porter's wife, Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger) after showing her a photo of her husband in the arms of another girl (Maria Bello). As they're stealing $130,000 in laundered drug money from Chinese Triads, Lynn shoots Porter in the back and speeds away with Val and money in tow. What they didn't know is that Porter would come back looking for his cut, which has been used to pay off Val's mob debts so he could return to "The Syndicate." Helgeland, the screenwriter for L.A. Confidential and Mystic River, made his directing debut with this adaptation of the novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake writing under the pseudonym, Richard Stark. The same novel served as the basis for John Boorman's Point Blank starring Lee Marvin. This version excises Kris Kristofferson's performance entirely and features a new score by Scott Stambler. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Following up on his critically successful debut, Sunday (1997), which won top prizes at the Sundance Film Festival, Jonathan Nossiter directs this romantic drama about a man obsessed with coincidence, serendipity, and the preternatural. Alec Skarsgard (Stellan Skarsgard) is a Stockholm-born American who lives in Athens and works as a commodities trader. He takes great pride in his ability to perceive patterns and trends in the daily undulations of the market and thereby turn a huge profit. In his private life, he also obsesses over random incidents and occurrences, looking for a deeper meaning in the chaos of everyday life. Though he loves his longtime wife Marjorie (Charlotte Rampling) and their two teenaged children, he finds that he cannot resist the seductive wiles of his co-worker Katherine (Deborah Kara Unger). He soon breaks the illicit affair off in an effort to save the marriage. Yet when he accidentally bumps into Katherine on a family ski trip, believing it fateful coincidence, he leaves with his co-worker and files for divorce. Later, Katherine reveals that she concocted their fortuitous meeting. Aghast, Alec promptly spurns her and returns to his soon-to-be ex-wife. Since she has already taken up with Greek intellectual Andreas (Dimitris Katalifos), Marjorie is less than enthusiastic about reconciling. Meanwhile, Katherine follows Alec and informs him that she is pregnant. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A lawman fed up with the corruption in Apartheid-era South Africa takes to robbing banks in this gritty crime drama from writer/director Bronwen Hughes. The title Stander refers to Andre Stander (Thomas Jane), an ambitious second-generation policeman whose strategies and experience make him the perfect candidate for commander. But when the privileged Stander is chosen to direct the police force against a brutal, majority-led uprising in Soweto, he becomes so disgusted with his actions that he decides to undermine his own authority as an officer. His means for doing so is to moonlight as a bank robber, partly out of disgust for the force and partly as an adrenalin-fueled act of deception. After pulling more than two dozen heists, Stander is caught -- but it isn't long before he breaks out of jail, and fortified by two hardened-criminal pals, Lee (Dexter Fletcher) and Allan (David Patrick O'Hara), he resumes his anti-authoritarian crime sprees. Stander premiered at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

The fortunes of a family of Hungarian Jews are followed over the course of nearly 150 years in this epic historical drama, with leading man Ralph Fiennes playing three different roles. The story begins in the late 18th century, as Aaron and Josefa Sonnenschein (the name means "Sunshine" in German) die in an explosion while making an herb tonic for sale in their village. Their son Emmanuel (David de Keyser), the only survivor of the tragedy, travels to Budapest, carrying the recipe for the medicine with him. He's able to parlay the formula into a successful business, and Emmanuel and his wife Rose (Miriam Margolyes) raise two sons, Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes), who becomes a successful lawyer, and hot-tempered Gustave (James Frain). The Sonnenscheins also make room in their home for Valerie (Jennifer Ehle), but Emmanuel and Rose become furious when Valerie becomes romantically involved with Ignatz. Eventually, Valerie and Ignatz raise two children, Istvan (Mark Strong) and Adam (Ralph Fiennes), and the family changes its name to Sors in hopes of avoiding the anti-Semitism sweeping Europe. In time, Adam goes so far as to convert to Catholicism, and he marries another Catholic, Hannah (Molly Parker). He soon begins an affair with his brother's wife, Greta (Rachel Weisz), who is unable to persuade Adam to leave as the Nazis rise to power. Adam and Hannah have only one son, Ivan, who is fated to watch his father die in a concentration camp; as Ivan grows to adulthood (now played by Ralph Fiennes), he swears revenge on the forces of fascism and embraces Communism. Ivan throws in his lot with Communist leader Andor Knorr (William Hurt), but a liaison with the wife of a party official (Deborah Kara Unger) leads Ivan to tragic consequences and a jail term. In time, Valarie and Gustave are reunited at the family's estate as the only two members of the Sonnenschein clan who survive to witness the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Hungarian director Istvan Szabo co-wrote Sunshine's original screenplay in collaboration with American playwright Israel Horovitz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide