Alberta Watson Movies

The home-schooled son of loving, marijuana-growing hippies discovers the twisted values of the suburban status quo in this comedy featuring Rosanna Arquette and Rachel Blanchard. Quinn Dawson (Staven Yaffee) may be your average teenager, though his parents are far from your typical, white-picket fence homemakers. They've recently relocated to the suburbs, where sheltered Quinn meets the girl of his dreams. Trouble is, the object of Quinn's obsession has enrolled in the local high school, where she's sure to fall for the star football player - or anyone else whose parents aren't committed criminals. Later, as Quinn begins to embrace his own independence and explore the world his parents so despise, he comes to realize they may be the sanest people in the entire town. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Indie director Michael Mabbott follows his debut effort, The Life and Times of Guy Terrifico, with a sophomore feature, the quirky underdog comedy-drama Citizen Duane. Douglas Smith plays Duane Balfour, one of the sons in a family known for fighting impossible battles against tremendous odds. When Duane loses his run for student council president, he vows to take on an even loftier mission: "Operation Infinite Justice," carried out against his sworn enemy, Chad Milton. Chad is the grandson of the local town bigwig, whose family extends its influence to every corner of the community. Duane's teacher, Miss Houston (Vivica A. Fox) discourages him, but he refuses to back down, and - in a last-ditch attempt to rid the town of the dark shadow that the Miltons cast over it - decides to run for mayor himself, backed by an eccentric relative, Uncle Bingo - a man notorious for once putting all of his money on a horse called 'Glue Factory.' First timers Jonathan Sobol and Robert Leskie penned the script; the picture co-stars Alberta Watson, Devon Bostick and Jane McGregor. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

For its quiet, low-key story, A Lobster Tale travels into a sphere of domestic life rarely glimpsed in contemporary cinema - that of small-town Americana. Colm Meaney stars as Cody Brewer, a Maine lobsterman who sinks into an economic mire when faced with a terrible catch day after day, week after week. His waitress wife also struggles to stay afloat, and his son must fend off against a bully on a regular basis. Then, into this cradle of banal American beauty, an incredible event occurs: a strange, otherworldly moss turns up in one of Cody's nets - a moss with the ability to perform miracles. Though initially its presence causes problems and strain for the Brewer clan, it ultimately demonstrates its ability to not only improve their lives, but the lives of nearly everyone in the hamlet. Alberta Watson (Irish Eyes) and Graham Greene (Northern Exposure) co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Season four of the wildly successful "real-time" adventure series 24 begins some 18 months at the end of season three. John Keeler (Geoff Pierson) has succeeded David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) as president of the United States, and the new secretary of defense is James Heller (William Devane) -- who is also the new boss of crack CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). One of Heller's first moves is to reunite Jack with his old nemesis Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson), now the head of the CTU. Unbeknownst to most of the principal characters, Jack is in love with Heller's daughter (and policy assistant), Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), this despite the fact that Audrey is still legally married to estranged husband, Paul (James Frain). Outside of Jack Bauer and President Keeler, the only series character from season three to return as a regular in season four is CTU tech analyst Chloe O'Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub); the rest of the cast is virtually brand-new. The "day" that comprises the fourth season begins, typically, with a nail-biting crisis, when James Heller and his daughter Audrey are captured by a terrorist group headed by Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo), who has already set a fiendish master plan in motion with a train bombing in the U.S. It soon develops that the abduction of Heller and Audrey is but a subterfuge to allow an enemy stealth bomber to blow up Air Force One and eliminate the president -- and ultimately to gain control of a nuclear warhead that will destroy a major U.S. city. Making matters worse, there is a turncoat in the ranks of the CTU -- and without giving the game away, it can be noted that CTU agent Sarah Gavin (Lana Parrilla) tumbles to the mole's identity before Jack Bauer does. As the tension mounts, Paul Raines is seriously wounded saving Jack during a covert mission, which "ices" Jack's relationship with Audrey; a shattering personal tragedy forces Erin Driscoll to resign from her post in mid-season; there is dissension in the terrorist ranks during a concerted effort to trigger nuclear meltdowns in six different cities; the seldom-used 25th Amendment is invoked to change presidents in midstream; and an old enemy of Jack's from the series' first two seasons appears virtually out of nowhere to make a terrible situation far worse than could ever be imagined. Clearly, the fourth season of 24 drew inspiration from the headlines of the day, notably the controversial treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The series also was attacked by certain special-interest groups for making several of the villains Arabs, or of Arab descent. And of course, there were those who carped that the series' notion of "real time" (each episode consisted of a single uninterrupted hour in the same day) resulted in some rather ludicrous lapses of logic. But 24 was as big a hit in the ratings throughout its fourth season as it had been all along. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gail Harvey's Some Things That Stay stars Katie Boland as a teenager whose adolescence is complicated by her bohemian family and their resistance to the cultural mores of Eisenhower-era America. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Wasting no time after shooting his 2003 Sundance Film Festival entry The Event, director Thom Fitzgerald returned to Romania, the country that served as the setting for his 2001 Canadian-TV film Wolf Girl, for this cerebral study of commerce, camaraderie, and degradation. The Wild Dogs explores the circumstantial relationship of Geordie (played by the director) and Victor (David Hayman), two men who meet on a plane to Bucharest. Each is in the country for different reasons: Victor is a British diplomat in the city, and he and his wife Natalie (Alberta Watson) and daughter Moll (Rachel Blanchard) are among Romania's privileged class; Geordie, on the other hand, is a Canadian porn photographer sent to the country to shoot underage "talent" for his employer's website. Repulsed by the job he's been sent to accomplish, Geordie is instead captivated by the teeming masses of orphans, disfigured beggars, and the other homeless that flood Bucharest's streets. Just as he makes it his goal to help a crippled young man nicknamed "Sour Grapes" (Visinel Burcea, the spiritually-empty Natalie focuses on the dejected orphan Dorutu (Mihai Calota. Shot on digital video, the low-budget The Wild Dogs premiered at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival just a few months before the premiere of The Event. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Toronto-based indie filmmaker Helen Lee spins this frothy romantic comedy about an ersatz glamour girl who unexpectedly gets what she wants. Concealing her working-class upbringing, young, ambitious Alessa Woo (Sook-Yin Lee) poses as a high-rolling Asian heiress, even though she lives in a decidedly low-end apartment and cannot even make the rent. Fortunately, the landlady's son, Steph, is sweet on her along with a bevy of other potential suitors, including Nathan (Don McKellar), a particularly dogged would-be boyfriend who has camped out on her doorstep. She rejects one and all because they do not meet up with her rather strict fiduciary standards. One day, talented native-Canadian artist Ben Crowchild (Adam Beach) moves into the adjacent apartment. Inevitably, the romantic sparks fly just as Alessa catches the eye of a fantastically wealthy bachelor. Will Alessa choose love over money? This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Adapted from the hit off-Broadway musical of the same name, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the tale of an "internationally ignored" rock & roll singer who hails from Communist Berlin and who dreams of becoming an American sensation. Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell), born a boy named Hansel, is raised by a single mother (Alberta Watson) who wishes to see her son do better than his poverty-stricken family. Some years later, Hansel is attracted to a good-looking American G.I., who promises a better life overseas for young Hansel, under one condition: that he undergo a sex-change operation to become a fully functional female whom he can then marry. The operation is seriously botched, leaving the now-renamed Hedwig with an "angry inch" only to be stranded in a dingy Kansas trailer park on the day the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down. Hedwig then supports herself through a series of ill-fated lounge gigs and side jobs, meeting up with 16-year-old Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt), a religious type who befriends her and later steals her songs and becomes the rock star Hedwig always dreamed of being. Undeterred, Hedwig continues to perform in the shadow of Tommy's sold-out stadium tour, attempting to make herself whole in spirit, if not physically. The film features several songs by composer Stephen Trask, who also appears as a member of Hedwig's disinterested rock band; Miriam Shor portrays Hedwig's newfound love and backup singer. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi

On a remote island in Nova Scotia, teenaged Claire (Julia Brendler) slowly befriends Celia (Lynn Redgrave), an eccentric novelist who is working on a manuscript. The manuscript, which is set a half-century ago, tells the story of Silly (Kirsten Dunst), a young woman who tried to leave the island with the son (Trent Ford) of a WWII naval officer. Deeply cuts between past and present, contrasting the lives of the characters in the manuscript with those of Claire and Celia. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

In this offbeat thriller, Halley Fischer (Katja Riemann) is a schoolteacher at an elementary school in Winnipeg where children have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Francis (Zachary Bennett) is a single father and classical pianist who supplements his income playing in cocktail lounges. Francis and Halley meet when his daughter is enrolled in her class, and Halley finds herself strongly attracted to the musician, even after learning of his unusual sexual tastes. But the more Halley finds out about Francis, the more she begins to wonder about both him and his highly domineering mother (Elizabeth Shepherd). Meanwhile, a cop (Graham Greene) starts hanging around the neighborhood, looking for clues regarding the missing children. Desire marked the first role in English for noted German actress Katja Riemann. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Season one of La Femme Nikita ended on a cliffhanger of sorts, as heroine Nikita (Peta Wilson), who has been forced on threat of death to join the covert anti-terrorist organization Section One, was given the opportunity to escape her penury by her fellow agent, and lover, Michael Samuelle (Roy Dupuis). Season two begins with a "free" Nikita on the run from Section One, working incognito as a waitress -- but not for long. Captured by the sinister "Freedom League," Nikita is used as bait to draw Michael into a trap...and without giving anything else away, it can be noted that they both manage to wriggle out of this predicament and survive for the balance of the season. Back in the clutches of Section One, Nikita ruefully resumes her espionage career, performing acts ranging from sabotage to abduction for the "good of the service." It is increasingly clear that Section One head man "Operations" (Eugene Robert Glazer) considers his agents totally expendable, and is even willing to kill people like Nikita and Michael himself in order to successfully pull off a delicate mission. Somehow, Nikita survives attacks from both within and without Section One, and is promoted to team leader, an honor which understandably doesn't impress her too much since she is now an even bigger target for extermination than before. The second season ends with a two-part cliffhanger, in which Nikita must choose between saving Michael's life or preventing the disgruntled creator of Section One from destroying the organization and everyone in it! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi