Helena Bonham Carter

Tim Burton takes a stab at Lewis Carroll's timeless tale of a young girl (Mia Wasikowska) lost within a fantasyland with this 3-D production of Alice in Wonderland. The Lion King's Linda Woolverton provides the script, with Hollywood heavyweights Richard Zanuck and Joe Roth heading up the production team. Burton veteran collaborator Johnny Depp co-stars as The Mad Hatter in the Walt Disney Productions picture. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

The fourth installment of the Terminator series follows an adult John Connor (played by Christian Bale) as he attempts to organize a human resistance force which could prove to be humankind's last true hope for survival in the war against their intelligent robot overlords. Aussie Sam Worthington portrays Marcus, an early version of the Terminator robot, with Anton Yelchin filling Michael Biehn's shoes as a young Kyle Reese in what is planned to be a new trilogy from director McG (Charlie's Angels). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Young wizard-in-training Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) returns to Hogwarts for his fifth year of studies, only to find that the magical community seems to be in a curious state of denial about his recent encounter with the sinister Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in the fifth installment of the popular fantasy film series based on the best-selling books by author J.K. Rowling. Rumor has it that the dreaded Lord Voldemort has returned, but Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy) isn't so sure what to make of all the hearsay currently floating around the campus of Hogwarts. Suspecting that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) may be fueling the rumors regarding Voldemort's return in order to undermine his authority and lay claim to his job, Fudge entrusts newly arrived Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) with the task of tracking Dumbledore and keeping a protective watch over the nervous student body. The young wizards of Hogwarts will need something much more effective than Umbridge's Ministry-approved course in defensive magic if they are to truly succeed in the extraordinary battle that lies ahead, however, and when the administration fails to provide the students with the tools that they will need to defend Hogwarts against the fearsome powers of the Dark Arts, Hermione (Emma Watson), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Harry take it upon themselves to recruit a small group of students to form "Dumbledore's Army" in preparation for the ultimate supernatural showdown. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Tim Burton returns to the dark but fanciful animated style of The Nightmare Before Christmas with this stop-motion black comedy. Victor (voice of Johnny Depp) lives in a small European village in the 19th century, where he is pledged to marry Victoria (voice of Emily Watson), a partnership arranged by their parents. The two only meet the day before their scheduled nuptials, and Victor performs disastrously in the wedding rehearsal. Later that evening, while he is walking through the woods and hopelessly practicing his vows, he puts Victoria's wedding band on what looks like a branch. Victor quickly discovers this was a big mistake; as it happens, he has put the ring on the skeletal finger of the enchanted Corpse Bride (voice of Helena Bonham Carter), who then whisks him off to a dark and mysterious netherworld where they are now married. Victor is frightened in the land of the dead, and even realizes that he has fallen in love with his true fiancée Victoria, so he searches for a way back to his own world. Directed by Tim Burton in collaboration with animator Mike Johnson, Corpse Bride features a stellar voice cast, including Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Joanna Lumley, and Danny Elfman (who also composed the film's musical score). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An encounter between two people with a shared past and conflicting futures is played out on a split-image screen in this offbeat drama. An unnamed man (Aaron Eckhart) and woman (Helena Bonham Carter) are enjoying drinks and cigarettes in a hotel room after attending a wedding reception. At first, the two seem to be playing a flirtatious game, as he cheerfully but confidently advances toward her, and she seems at once attracted and put off by his bravado. Their pas de deux is shot and edited in split screen, with his image appearing in one half of the divided frame and hers appearing in the other. As time wears on, the man and woman begin crossing their appointed boundaries, and in some sequences one half of the frame represents the present while the other shows us events in the past. We learn that the man and woman had a tempestuous affair when they were in their late teens, and both are now committed to other people -- she has a husband, while he has a steady girl. How will the experiences of their past affect their present, and are they willing to betray their lovers for an evening's pleasure? Conversations With Other Women was the first feature film from director Hans Canosa. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Tim Burton directs the fantasy drama Big Fish, based on the book Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Southern writer/illustrator Daniel Wallace. Billy Crudup plays William Bloom, a young man who never really knew his dying father, Edward (Albert Finney) outside of the tall tales he told about growing up, making his way, and meeting his mother (played as a young woman by Alison Lohman and in older age by Jessica Lange). During Edward's last days, William and his wife Josephine (Marion Cotillard) hold bedside vigil as the old man recollects elaborate memories of his youth (in which he is played by Ewan McGregor). Still doubting the the legends and folklore, William makes a journey to meet a mysterious woman (Helena Bonham Carter) from whom Edward had bought property. Steve Buscemi and Danny De Vito also star. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Young adolescent Sam Franks (Lindley Joyner) spends his summers away from school with his physician father (Peter Curtin), whose schedule barely allows for quality father-son time. Therefore, Sam idles away most of his time with neighbor Maurie Lewis (Frank Gallacher) and Maurie's handicapped daughter Silvy (Brooke Harman), who also happens to be Sam's best friend. One night following a dance, Sam and Silvy kiss for the first time, and go down to the nearby river. As the two are lazily floating in the river and watching the night sky, Silvy disappears underwater and her body is never found. Several years afterwards, an adult Sam (Guy Pearce) -- who has gone on to become a psychiatry instructor -- journeys back to the same town for the funeral of his recently deceased father. While en route, Sam encounters Ruby (Helena Bonham Carter), a mysterious young woman he is forced to rescue from the same river that Silvy had disappeared in. After bringing Ruby to his father's house to calm her down after the incident, Sam begins to feel a strangely familiar comfortableness with her and the two begin to visit all of Sam's and Silvy's old stomping grounds. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

As America geared itself for another possible armed conflict in Iraq, the HBO cable service offered a dramatization of events surrounding the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Originally telecast on December 8, 2002, Live From Baghdad recounted the efforts by the CNN network to be first on the scene when hostilities broke out in the Gulf in late 1990. Inaugurating round-the-clock coverage of the warfare with the invasion of Kuwait, dauntless CNN producers Robert Wiener (Michael Keaton) and Ingrid Formanek (Helena Bonham Carter), aided and abetted by on-the-scene reporters Bernard Shaw (Robert Wisdom), Peter Arnett (Bruce McGill), and John Holliman (John Carroll Lynch), among many others, represented the only American news service on the scene during the first night of bombing on January 16, 1991. Not only does Live From Baghdad celebrate the heroism (and meticulous fairness) of the CNN crew, but it also vividly demonstrates how a tiny but tenacious basic cable channel managed to out-scoop the Big Three networks, thereby becoming one of the most powerful and influential journalistic forces in the world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this darkly comic film noir from writer/director David Atkins, Steve Martin revisits dentistry -- an occupation he'd explored 15 years prior, in the camp musical Little Shop of Horrors. Novocaine casts Martin as a much more mild-mannered D.D.S., Dr. Frank Sangster. Engaged to a prim and delicate hygienist, Jean (Laura Dern), Sangster leads a placid, upper-middle class existence, save for the occasional visit from his deadbeat artist brother Harlan (Elias Koteas). But Sangster finds his life turned inside out from the moment the alluring Susan (Helena Bonham Carter) plops down in his reclining vinyl chair: Complaining about her molars, she's really more interested in the refrigerator of narcotics the good dentist keeps on hand for his patients in pain. Once they manage to get Sangster's guard down, Susan and her brother (Scott Caan) rob him blind -- and worse yet, frame him for the theft. When a dead body turns up in Sangster's sleek suburban home, he finds that clearing his name will be a difficult proposition indeed. Novocaine marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Atkins, who first made his mark with the script for Emir Kusturica's oddball cult favorite Arizona Dream (1993). ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

In this darkly comic drama, Edward Norton stars as a depressed young man (named in the credits only as "Narrator") who has become a small cog in the world of big business. He doesn't like his work and gets no sense of reward from it, attempting instead to drown his sorrows by putting together the "perfect" apartment. He can't sleep and feels alienated from the world at large; he's become so desperate to relate to others that he's taken to visiting support groups for patients with terminal diseases so that he'll have people to talk to. One day on a business flight, he discovers Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charming iconoclast who sells soap. Tyler doesn't put much stock in the materialistic world, and he believes that one can learn a great deal through pain, misfortune, and chaos. Tyler cheerfully challenges his new friend to a fight. Our Narrator finds that bare-knuckle brawling makes him feel more alive than he has in years, and soon the two become friends and roommates, meeting informally to fight once a week. As more men join in, the "fight club" becomes an underground sensation, even though it's a closely guarded secret among the participants. (First rule: Don't talk about fight club. Second rule: Don't talk about fight club.) But as our Narrator and Tyler bond through violence, a strange situation becomes more complicated when Tyler becomes involved with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), whom our Narrator became infatuated with when they were both crashing the support-group circuit. Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club was directed by David Fincher, who previously directed Pitt in the thriller Seven. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham Carter star in this satiric comedy about an advertising man who one day decides he's wasting his life and wants to devote himself to the higher calling of poetry, much to the puzzlement of those around him, while trying to maintain a relationship with a beautiful woman who works in his old office. Based on the novel Keep The Aspidistra Flying by {%George Orwell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Continuing cinema's fascination with bringing the stories of handicaps and the mentally challenged to the big screen (Rain Man, My Left Foot, Shine, etc.), here comes a low-budget film about the unlikely love story of people brought together by fate, as well as 120 hours of community service. As a frustrated artist who can't build himself a flying machine, Richard (Kenneth Branagh) eventually finds himself in trouble with the law. As punishment for his eccentric behavior, he accepts community service in the company of Jane (Helena Bonham Carter), a strong-willed woman suffering from the neuromuscular disorder called ALS (otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease). As the two learn from each other, Jane turns to Richard with the biggest favor of all, helping her lose her virginity. What ensues is a romance/friendship that changes their lives forever. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide

Based on the 1902 Henry James novel of the same name, The Wings of the Dove is set in 1910. After the death of her mother, Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter) has become a ward of her wealthy Aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling), who is paying her dissipated father (Michael Gambon) to stay out of Kate's life. Maude wants Kate not to repeat Kate's mother's mistake and marry someone who is a commoner, and Maude arranges a meeting between Kate and Lord Mark (Alex Jennings), a high-class gentleman who can escort her to the right places. But Kate is more interested in Merton Densher (Linus Roache), a penniless journalist. A beautiful but terminally ill American heiress, Millie Theale (Alison Elliott), arrives on the scene and befriends Kate. Kate notices Millie's obvious affection for the handsome Merton, and she arranges an elaborate scheme to hook up the two of them so that Merton can collect Millie's money after her death. But because of her own jealousy, Kate repeatedly sabotages her own arrangement. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide