Tom Wilkinson Movies
A popular British character actor, Tom Wilkinson specializes in playing men suffering from some sort of emotional repression and/or pretensions of societal grandeur.Active in film and television since the mid-'70s, Wilkinson became familiar to an international audience in 1997 with his role as of one of six unemployed workers who strip for cash in Peter Cattaneo's enormously successful comedy The Full Monty. That same year, he was featured in Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda, and as the rabidly unpleasant father of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's young lover in Wilde. Wilkinson was also shown to memorable effect as a theater financier with acting aspirations in Shakespeare in Love (1998); also in 1998, he acted in one of his few leading roles in The Governess, portraying a 19th century photographer with an eye for the film's title character (Minnie Driver).
Though he would appear in such popular mainstream films as Rush Hour (1998) and The Patriot (2000) over the next few years, it was his role in director Todd Field's emotionally intense In the Bedroom that earned Wilkinson (as well as co-star Marisa Tomei) an Oscar nod. After that success, his career began to really take off, and in just the next few years, he would appear in over a dozen films in roles of varying size. In 2003, he starred in HBO movie Normal as a married, middle-aged man who decides to start living his life as a woman and eventually have a sex-change operation. Acting alongside Jessica Lange, Wilkinson earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his brave and moving performance. In addition, he would also play a menacing, licentious patron of the arts in Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) and an experimental doctor erasing his patient's memories in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), written by Charlie Kaufman and starring Jim Carrey.
Now an established star thanks to his impressive body of work, Wilkinson was called upon to appear in a number of high profile Hollywood hits, and could always be counted on to deliver in spades. Still, Wilkinson had the talent and foresight to always offset each blockbuster with at least one low-key, character-driven drama, and for every scenery-chewing Batman Begins villain, a serious-minded Separate Lies lawyer or Ripley Under Ground Scotland Yard detective would be quick to follow. After doing battle with Beelzebub in 2005's frightening, fact-based horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Wilkinson would once again shift gears with impressive grace to portray the patriarch of a Texas family whose attempts to maintain order over his wildly dysfunctional family lead to a wild night on the town that ultimately helps him to restore his perspective in Night of the White Pants. Later that same year Wilkinson would pull back a bit for a supporting role in The Last Kiss - a romantic comedy drama starring Scrubs' Zach Braff and directed by Tony Goldwyn.
2007 brough WIlkinson yet another role that earned him uniformly strong reviews. His mentally unhinged lawyer in Michael Clayton garnered him a slew of year end accolades including Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he became part of the Woddy Allen family with a starring role in Cassandra's Dream. In 2008 he appeared as Ben Franklin in the award-winning HBO miniseries John Adams, as well as Valkyrie and RocknRolla. He reteamed with Michael Clayton mastermind Tony Gilroy for 2009's Duplicity, playing the CEO of a multinational corporation, and appeared in The Ghost Writer for director Roman Polanski the next year. In 2012 he was part for the all-star British ensemble put together for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
A priest is torn between church dogma and his personal beliefs in this British drama. Father Greg (Linus Roache) is a Catholic priest who tends to a parish in Liverpool. Like his superior, Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson), Father Greg is not dealing well with his vow of celibacy. While Matthew has been discreetly having an affair with his housekeeper, Greg is homosexual, and he occasionally slips out to gay clubs for anonymous encounters with strangers. One night, Father Greg meets a man named Graham (Robert Carlyle) at the bar; when he bumps into him on the street a few days later, he realizes that he's falling in love with him. As Father Greg struggles with his sexual and spiritual identity, he hears a confession from 14-year-old Lisa Unsworth (Christine Tremarco), who tells him that her father has been molesting her. Mr. Unsworth (Robert Pugh) confirms his daughter's allegation during confession, and he tells the priest that he will not stop his incestuous behavior. Should Father Greg violate the seal of the confessional to save Lisa from further abuse? Priest, which opened in America on Good Friday, generated considerable controversy, both with Catholic organizations (who denounced the picture) and the MPAA (the film had to be re-edited to gain an R rating for U.S. release). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson, (more)
- 1994
- R
This romantic comedy concerns Kate Swallow (Carole Bouquet), who works in a French department store to help support her husband Alec (Jonathan Pryce), an egocentric novelist who insists on peace and quiet when he writes. Kate has literary aspirations herself, but Alec complains that the clacking of the keys on her laptop is too much of a distraction for him (he prefers to write longhand). Alec's editor Vanni Corso (Christopher Walken) has high hopes for his next book, which needs to sell well if his company is to pull itself out of the red. While Vanni is interested in Alec's novel, he also becomes interested in Alec's wife, and Kate becomes quite taken with Vanni as well. In time she leaves Alex to pursue a relationship with Vanni and work on her own book. Kate's novel turns out to do quite well indeed, but there's trouble in paradise when Vanni tells her he's not so sure her second novel is going to go anywhere. Business Affair was loosely based on the real-life literary and romantic travails of author Barbara Skelton. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carole Bouquet, Christopher Walken, (more)
- 1994
A young Irish lad bears witness to a miracle in this touching dramatic comedy set in a wee Irish village during 1954. Barry, a choirboy, is strongly influenced by Father McAteer. Barry finds an IRA fugitive in a barn and mistakes him for Barabbas. Father McAteer believes a miracle has occurred after Barry claims to have heard the Virgin speaking to him in the church. The naive Father believes Barry because he used language a 10 year old would not have known. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ciaran Fitzgerald, Tom Wilkinson, (more)
Charles Dickens' 1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit was given one of its few TV presentations in this six-part British adaptation, which originally aired on BBC2 from November 7 to December 12, 1994. The youngest son of a mercenary London family, Martin Chuzzlewit was sent to America to learn the rudiments of the business world. Upon discovering that his new employer was even more odious and greedy than his relatives, Martin became determined not to be corrupted as well. Paul Scofield was cast as the older Martin, with Ben Walden as his younger self. Presented in one 80-minute and five 60-minute installments, Martin Chuzzlewit was rebroadcast in America as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre anthology in 1995. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, (more)
- 1991
- R
Christopher Morahan directed this nail-biting suspense melodrama that takes a cynical look at the medical profession. Matthew Harris (Paul McGann) is an unhappy intern at a London hospital who envies the staff doctors and their calling. When a physician who resembles Matthew is killed in an auto accident, Matthew decides to assume his identity so that he can attend an interview the dead man had scheduled for a post at a Bristol hospital. Matthew gets the job and is now Dr. Simon Hennessey, working in the hospital emergency room. He is assisted by friendly nurse Christine Taylor (Amanda Donohue), who ends up falling in love with him. But Matthew makes a fatal mistake and a patient dies. At the ensuing inquest, Christine takes the blame for the accident. Matthew, emboldened by the results of the inquest, decides to apply for a better job at a hospital in Salisbury. But an acquaintance from his past appears and Matthew has to kill him in order to continue with his deception. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul McGann, Amanda Donohoe, (more)
- 1985
Part of the British mystery series based on the books by Agatha Christie, Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye was first aired in 1985. The body of wealthy tyrant Rex Fortescue (Timothy West) is found and presumably poisoned. After his wife turns up dead, the maid Gladys Martin (Annette Badland) takes it upon herself to ask her old teacher Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson) for help. When Gladys is also killed, Miss Marple starts to piece together the clues in the form of a morbid nursery rhyme. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joan Hickson
In a novel and intriguing approach to storytelling, director David Hare has created an engaging mystery and human drama that ostensibly focuses on an innocent dinner party but is really about something else. Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave) is an old-maid schoolmarm who has lived in Wetherby, a small town in northeastern Yorkshire, all of her life. She is still haunted by memories of a passionate love affair with a young man who was later murdered while on military duty in Malaysia nearly 35 years ago in the '50s. One evening, Jean invites a group of friends over for dinner; the group is comprised of two couples, one of which spends the time sniping at each other. A young man, John Morgan (Tim McInnerny) is also in the dinner party. Jean thinks he was brought along by one of the couples; the couples, in turn, believe he was invited by Jean -- in short, he is a total stranger that everyone assumes is a friend of someone there. As the evening progresses, political topics of the moment are brought up and chewed over; Margaret Thatcher, Richard Nixon, and other notables of the era are discussed, and various comments are made on the laziness of today's youth. The dinner party ends, and the next day John Morgan comes back to visit Jean. While she is in the midst of preparing tea for them both, he takes out a gun and kills himself. The shock waves from his senseless act later reverberate among the dinner-party guests, as the police investigator tries to piece together the man's background and the dinner party itself. Questions are raised about his motives, and viewers see the dinner party again, moment by moment, in an entirely new light. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Holm, (more)
- 1984
In this suspenseful thriller, David Parker (Bryan Brown) is a married businessman with three children, a mistress in Germany, and a brother dealing drugs -- a combination of relationships that will eventually prove fatal to several people. After David leaves his London home and family behind for a short business-trip to Munich, he is held captive for more than a week by ten men and one woman, their identities disguised by masks. David starts to suspect Jillian, his mistress (Hannelore Elsner) is involved because when he goes to the police with his story once he is released, he discovers he was never reported missing. Why did Jillian remain silent about his disappearance for eleven days? And there were no ransom demands. After awhile the police inspector assigned to David's case (Kurt Raab) and David's wife (Cherie Lunghi) begin to doubt the kidnapping itself. At that point, David launches into a full-scale investigation on his own that sets into motion a series of killings and a strong suspicion of drug-world involvement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Cherie Lunghi, (more)
- 1984
This enjoyable romantic comedy-drama is about Stephan (Michael Maloney), an aspiring sci-fi writer who teaches English to a class of often amusing foreigners. On a field trip with his class one day Stephan goes by the house of his hero, Evan Gorley-Peters (Robert Urquhart), a celebrated sci-fi writer. Intrigued by the sight of the writer's attractive daughter Natasha (Suzanne Burden) out horseback riding, Stephan finagles a way to meet her and get invited to lunch with her and her father. As events unfold, Natasha starts to fall for the charming English teacher, but the big question is whether he is using her to get to her father, or not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Suzanne Burden, Robert Urquhart, (more)
- 1976
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1976 Polish Film Festival, this drama from director Andrzej Wajda was based on the short story The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad. The film tells the story of a young man who tries his best to helm a foundering boat bound for Singapore. Not only is the boat itself in rough shape, but many of the passengers are suffering from a highly contagious disease. A 28-year-old Tom Wilkinson of The Full Monty and In the Bedroom appears in his first onscreen role. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
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