Dianne Wiest Movies

Psychotherapy sessions are provocatively examined as Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) delves into the minds of his patients in this adaptation of a highly acclaimed Israeli series. Scheduled appointments include Mondays with Laura (Melissa George), an attractive anesthesiologist who wonders if her fiancé is the answer to happiness or if it lies in the arms of other men. Navy pilot Alex (Blair Underwood) relates his experiences in Iraq on Tuesdays but combats the analyst every step of the way. Midweek visits become complicated for teen Sophie (Mia Wasikowska) when Paul hesitates to sign an insurance document after a biking accident ruins her chances of joining the U.S. Olympic gymnastic team. Quarrelsome couple Amy and Jake (Embeth Davidtz, Josh Charles) seek help dealing with Amy's pregnancy but find that it is their compatibility that may be fruitless. Though the respected therapist offers them all insight, his perspective appears changed when summing up the week on Fridays with his own counselor, Gina (Dianne Wiest). Their professional history creates an open door to challenging each other's viewpoints. Paul's problems with his wife, Kate (Michelle Forbes), and children don't make things easier. But it's the doctors' opposing opinions that create the most friction, leading to a dissection of inner troubles that would otherwise never rise to the surface. ~ All Movie Guide

A grief counselor (Anne Hathaway) begins to suspect foul play when the six airplane crash survivors she is tending to mysteriously begin to disappear and the truth behind the tragedy grows ever more clouded in Nine Lives director Rodrigo García's conspiratorial supernatural thriller. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Actor Justin Theroux (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Mulholland Dr.) steps behind the camera for his directorial debut with this irreverent romantic comedy. Billy Crudup is Henry, a cynical children's book writer who holds little more than disdain for his pint-sized target audience. Artist Rudy (Tom Wilkinson) is both Henry's illustrator and the only friend in his miserable life. But when Rudy's health fails, Henry unwittingly finds himself paired with a new illustrator, played by Mandy Moore, who proves to be the oil to his water. Dedication also stars Mia Farrow and Bob Balaban. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

For this follow-up to their mega-hit Ice Age, directors Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge team with the screenwriting duo behind Parenthood and City Slickers, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Robots stars Ewan McGregor as the voice of Rodney Copperbottom, an idealistic robot who wants to convince his electronic brethren to come together and work toward making the world a better place. As the story unfolds, Rodney faces opposition from an evil corporation headed by Big Weld (Mel Brooks) and finds some unlikely allies in the form of a ragtag group of misfit robots called the Rusties and voiced by the likes of Drew Carey and Amanda Bynes. Stanley Tucci and Dianne Wiest provide the voices of Rodney's parents, and Halle Berry portrays his love interest, Cappy. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Of all of the ways humankind can destroy the planet, none can hold a candle to the awe-inspiring and earth-shattering power of Mother Nature. As chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, Andy Goodman (Brian Dennehy) has seen his share of storms. Now, just days shy of his eagerly anticipated retirement, Goodman is disturbed to discover three separate storm fronts approaching Chicago: a cluster of tornados from the west, a warm storm front from the south, and an Arctic system from the north. As Goodman enlists the aid of his longtime storm-chasing friend "Tornado Tommy" (Randy Quaid) in tracking the storms, ambitious Chicago television reporter Amy Harkin (Nancy McKeon) is busy researching the mysterious drought and record heat wave that has plagued the city for nearly six weeks. Though the citizens of Chicago are warned to reduce their energy consumption by secretary of energy Shirley Abbott (Dianne Wiest) the Windy City is thrust into darkness when severe thunderstorms destroy the city's main power-generating plant. With no means to warn the outside world of the dangers fast approaching, Harkin and Midwest Electric chief of operations Mitch Benson (Thomas Gibson) must race against time to get the word out to citizens and emergency workers before the snowballing blackout causes a complete collapse of the entire North American power grid. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

With the departure of series regular Angie Harmon at the close of season eleven (it was explained that her character, Assistant DA Abbie Carmichael, had accepted a job with the U.S. Attorney's Federal Major Crimes Task Force), season twelve of Law & Order was ushered in with a new face in the DA's office. Elisabeth Rohm was added to the cast as ADA Serena Southerlyn, who had requested the appointment because she wanted to tackle grittier cases than the "white-collar crimes" which had been her forte. The scriptwriters wasted little time in providing Serena with a baptism by fire: in the episode "DR 1-102," she courageously defused a dangerous hostage situation -- only to face the loss of her license to practice law because she failed to follow accepted legal procedure. The rest of the cast remained the same as in season eleven, though it was already established that Dianne Wiest's character, interim DA Nora Lewin, would be written out as soon as a permanent district attorney could be elected. (It was not that Wiest was unhappy with her role, nor that the producers were dissatisfied with the character; she just didn't want to be artistically confined to series television.) Likewise maintaining the Law & Order status quo was the series' predilection for stories based on current headlines, beginning with the season opener "Who Let the Dogs Out?," which was transparently inspired by a real-life California case involving a killer pit bull. The arrests of actor Robert Blake and rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs and the disappearance of congressional intern Chandra Levy, likewise provided grist for the series' story mill. In addition, the terrible events of September 11 loomed large over the proceedings, notably in the season-closing episode "Patriot." Finally, by 2001, Law & Order had become something of franchise. The series' first spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, was entering its second successful season. Both this show and its parent series were joined in the fall of 2001 by Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which chronicled crime and punishment from the perpetrators' point-of-view. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season ten of Law & Order had ended on a cliffhanger of sorts, with an international trial involving the son of a prominent diplomat casting serious doubt upon the reelection of DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill). In the first episode of the series' 11th season, it was learned that Schiff had, indeed, left office -- not due to a lack of voter turnout, but because he had been appointed by the U.S. government to supervise an upcoming Holocaust memorial in Holland. Until Schiff's replacement could be elected, it was necessary to appoint an interim DA, former law school ethics professor Nora Lewin -- played by Oscar-winning actress Dianne Wiest, whose character's predetermined "temporary" status reflected Wiest's reluctance to tie herself down to a long-running weekly series. Seemingly softer and less curmudgeonly than Schiff, Lewin nonetheless possessed what Executive Producer Dick Wolf described as a "steely reserve," which surfaced whenever it was necessary to the story. Otherwise, the cast members from season ten were carried over into season 11, though it was fairly common knowledge that actress Angie Harmon, cast as ADA Abbie Carmichael, would be departing the series to seek out different projects once her contract was up. Harmon's predecessor, Carey Lowell, made another return appearance as former ADA Jamie Ross, again acting as a defense attorney in opposition to her former colleagues. In addition, acerbic writer Fran Lebowitz made the first of several cameo appearances as Arraignment Judge Goldberg. Among the hot-button issues touched upon during the series' 11th season were the potential dangers of prison budget cutbacks, TV "reality" shows, the loopholes inherent in Israel's "Law of Return" for Jewish citizens, the gay adoption controversy, and, perhaps inevitably, the hotly contested 2000 presidential election. One episode, "Sunday in the Park With Jorge," was attacked by a number of ethnic special-interest groups because it depicted a Central Park "wilding" incident during an Hispanic Pride Festival. Although producer Wolf would not categorically apologize for the story's content, citing the real-life incident on which it was based, he agreed to remove the offending episode from Law & Order's syndicated rerun package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actor Martin Sheen hosts this PBS program that looks at some of the special contributions made over the years to the nation's White House in Washington D.C. Avery Brooks, Blythe Danner, Campbell Scott, Sam Waterston, and Dianne Wiest are among those who read what former Presidents, First Ladies, and others have written about the time they spent in this magnificent place. Additional commentary focuses on the architectural changes made since the White House was first built. ~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide

Griffin Dunne directed this romantic fantasy adapted from the 1995 Alice Hoffman novel about the Owens family of witches, regarded as outcasts in the town where they live. Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and her sister Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) tried to pass on practical magic skills to their nieces, subdued Sally (Sandra Bullock) and fiery Gillian (Nicole Kidman), brought up by the two aunts after their parents died. The aunts concoct spells for the lonely and the lovelorn, but the family's use of witchcraft unfortunately invokes a curse that spells doom to the family's menfolk. Denying her powers, Sally attempted to lead a life minus magic. Her marriage to fish merchant Michael (Mark Feuerstein) brought two daughters -- and Michael's death. Moving into the aunt's seaside mansion, the widowed Sally warns the aunts not to influence her daughters. Sally intervenes when Gillian suffers at the hands of her abusive Bulgarian boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Visnic), and Arizona detective Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn), investigating Jimmy's disappearance, turns up in town, eyeing Gillian and Sally as the leading suspects. Filmed in Washington (San Juan Island, Whidby Island, Coupeville, Friday Harbor). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting brings together a disparate group of people struggling with addiction to drugs and liquor in this film based on Gary Lennon's play "Blackout." Jim (Richard Lewis) is in a bad mood as he sits in on an AA meeting in the basement of a church in New York City; he's prodded into speaking in front of the group for the first time in seven months, and he confesses that he desperately wants to get drunk. Three years before, Jim gave up a decade of dependence on booze and heroin for the sake of his wife, who has just died unexpectedly of an aneurysm, and before long, Jim runs out in search of a bottle. Meanwhile, the other members of the group share their own stories about their problems with substance abuse, including Rachel (Dianne Wiest), a physician who tries to uses her job to fill the void in her life left by the departure of her husband and son; Joseph (Howard Rollins), whose drunk driving put his five-year-old son in the hospital; Debbie (Parker Posey), a young woman who wishes she could have been Janis Joplin; Shelly (Amanda Plummer), whose force of will is being tested by an upcoming visit from her mother; Becky (Faye Dunnaway), a divorcee who is not sure how she'll handle losing custody of her child; Brenda (Lisa Gay Hamilton), an HIV-positive former junkie who was stealing syringes from her diabetic mother; and Louis (Spalding Gray), who is actually looking for the choir practice at the church; he then goes into a rhapsodic ode to the pleasures of beer which suggests that he has his own problems with the bottle. Drunks was the first feature film for director/producer Peter Cohn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Mike Nichols teams up with his former partner/screenwriter Elaine May for the first time in many years and for the first time together in films to create this sophisticated, remake of the phenomenally popular French musical farce La Cage aux Folles that stars Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Diane Wiest as two dramatically disparate couples who manage to reconcile their vast differences for the sake of their children who are getting married. Williams plays Armand Goldman, the owner of a popular South Beach drag club known for putting on elaborate showcases starring his long-time lover/wife Albert (Lane) who appears as "Starina." Lately poor flamboyant, flighty Albert has been in crisis over the inexorable onset of middle age. He has been moody, paranoid and unbearably. When he gets too inconsolably distraught, handsome but clumsy houseboy Agador quietly slips Albert "Pirin" tablets (which he explains to Armand are simply Aspirin tablets with the "as" scraped off). Still though Albert can be a royal pain, Armand dearly loves him and the two live happily in their splendiferous apartment above the club. One day Armand's son Val (the result of Armand's single foray into straight sex) comes visiting with joyous news: he has found his dreamgirl and is getting married. The only trouble is, Barbara Keeley's father is the blustery ultra-religious right-wing Senator Keeley (Hackman), the founder of the Coalition for Moral Order. Senator Keeley and his colleagues are not as upright as they seem and when his closest associate is found dead beside a black, underage prostitute, Keeley finds his house surrounded by ravenous newshounds, hungry for dirt. Knowing that they are poised to ruin him, Keeley and his proper but slightly addled-wife (Wiest) decide that a big, elaborate, church wedding will be just the ticket to save his reputation. Barbara has neglected to tell them that Val's parents are gay, preferring to claim that they are members of the South Beach social elite. In a panic, she panics and calls Val who breaks the bad news to Armand and begs him to make the apartment less flamboyant and worst of all to hide Albert (who functioned as Val's mother while the youth grew up) during the visit. Armand is angry, but loving his son, finally, reluctantly agrees, knowing that he will deeply wound his companion. Unfortunately, Albert finds out and as a compromise tries to learn how to be macho so he can pretend to be Val's uncle, he is too much the Great Dame to ever pass as one of the guys and so is banned from the party. Armand then locates Catherine and asks her to masquerade as his wife. She agrees to show up later that evening. Meanwhile their friends busily redecorate the apartment until it looks as if it were done in "Early Inquisition." During the fateful dinner party, Catherine is late and Albert gets uproarious revenge. Achingly comic chaos ensues as Armand tries to hold the increasingly tenuous evening together while outside the newshounds bay and threaten to make even more trouble for Senator Keely. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bullets Over Broadway is a Woody Allen romp that, as the title suggests, combines gangsters with show business at the height of the Roaring Twenties. David Shayne (John Cusack) is a straight-arrow playwright who plans to stand firm against compromising his work, but quickly abandons that stance when his producer (Jack Warden) finds a backer to mount his show on Broadway. There's just one catch, however: the backer is a mobster (Joe Viterelli) who sees Shayne's play as a vehicle for his dizzy, talent-free girlfriend, Olive (Jennifer Tilly). Shayne also has to deal with the demands of veteran theatre diva Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest) and is shocked to discover that Olive's hitman bodyguard, Cheech (Chazz Palminteri), is probably a better playwright than he is, as he secretly revises Shayne's work when he sits in on rehearsals. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide