James Fox Movies

A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India". Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles. Feeling comfortable with Adela, Aziz invites her to accompany him on a visit to the Marabar caves. Adela has previously exhibited bizarre, almost mystical behavior during other ventures into the Indian wilderness: this time, she emerges from the caves showing signs of injury and ill usage. To Aziz' horror, he is accused by Adela of raping her. Typically, the British ruling class rallies to Adela's defense, virtually convicting Aziz before the trial ever begins. Though he is eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence (in fact, director Lean never shows us what really happened), Aziz is ruined in the eyes of both the British and his own people-as is Adela. Woven into these proceedings is a subplot involving Adela's elderly travelling companion Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), who through a series of plot twists too complex to describe here becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards, scoring wins in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre). A theatrical version of A Passage to India, written by Santha Rama Rau, was previously adapted for television by the BBC in the mid-1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Fox stars as real-life British turncoat Anthony Blunt in A Question of Attribution. A highly respected art expert (he was Queen Elizabeth's personal art advisor), Blunt was also intimately involved in the Burgess-Maclean-Philby spy scandal of the 1950s. According to this 1992 adaptation of Alan Bennett's play, Blunt tipped his hand while restoring one of his precious Titians. John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) directed this razor-sharp psychological melodrama. Originally produced for British television, the 90-minute A Question of Attribution premiered in the US on October 4, 1992, as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young boy comes to fear that his blind mother may become the next victim of a serial killer in this complex psychological thriller. Unfolding at first as a traditional suspense tale, the film follows the terrified boy's attempts to determine the killer's identity, a task his policeman father has failed to achieve. Things take a more provocative and puzzling turn when the boy's penchant for fantasy is revealed, forcing the audience to question whether what has been shown has been real or merely a product of the boy's imagination. As a result, much of the anxiety in Afraid of the Dark emerges not from the violent shocks, but from the uncertain reality and the tantalizing, disturbing hints of the child's psychology. This purposeful ambiguity may strike some viewers as confusing and alienating, despite the film's assured performances and striking imagery. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

This biographical film -- a bit long for most viewers, even in its cut version -- is made especially for ballet aficionados. Focusing on the short life of the remarkable Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1882?-1931), it features several dance sequences and provides a backdrop of the historical events in the Soviet Union and Europe during her life. Pavlova (Galina Belyayeva, better as a dancer than an actress) was born in Saint Petersburg and her interest in the ballet began early. As a little girl (Lina Boultakova), Pavlova would watch the ballet students in training, and she eventually entered the Imperial Ballet company, quickly rising to the position of prima ballerina. Before long, she perfected a style especially evident in her dancing of Giselle and Swan Lake. In her brief tenure at the Ballets Russes established in Paris in 1909 by the famed Russian expatriate impresario Sergei Diaghilev, Pavlova was inspired by dancers like Vaslav Nijinsky and obtained further training under a master, traveling extensively with the company. But the famous ballerina was not without personal problems, and at one point had to take a two-year advance on her salary in order to pay off her husband's debts so he would not go to jail. There are several intriguing aspects of this biography that would recommend it to general viewers: varied locations from Mexico to Cuba to Europe and the USA, good ballet performances, some noted bit players (Martin Scorcese as Gatti Cassaza) and a critically recognized Michael Powell, the director of Red Shoes in his last professional role, as an editor. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This is a modern-dress rendition of Shakespeare's famous "comedy," a semi-serious drama with a story featuring mistaken identities and confused declarations of love. Though it screens far more of the classic play's dialogue than the 1936 version featuring Laurence Olivier, some reviewers asserted that the movie's anachronistic modern settings and costumes made the play's references to ancient forms of clothing and customs confusing to those unfamiliar with the play, and irritating to those who are. Other viewers may find the amount of elaborate verbiage Shakespeare used to convey even the simplest sentiment tiresome. Despite these drawbacks, connoisseurs may enjoy the interpretations of these well-known roles by some of the better performers gracing the British stage in the 1990s, including Emma Croft, James Fox, Cyril Cusack and Celia Bannerman. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Living on the island of Tasmania off the coast of Australia in the 1950s, it's hard to be a teenager, knowing that momentous and exciting changes are happening on the mainland. This story is based on an autobiographical novel by C.J. Koch, and explores the relationships of a group of young people whose ruling ambition in life is to get to the mainland, and in particular to Melbourne, where things are livelier. Indeed, once they get there, they find that things are very much livelier than they had expected, and they are soon in over their heads. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In Catfish In Black Bean Sauce, Paul Winfield and Mary Alice play an African-American couple who in the 1970's adopted two Vietnamese children, a brother and sister. 20 years on, the two kids have grown to adulthood; Dwayne (Chi Muoi Lo) has absorbed a great deal of black culture from his adopted parents and is engaged to an attractive African-American woman (Sanaa Lathan). His sister (Lauren Tom), however, feels more comfortable with Asian cultural paths and has married an older Asian man (Tzi Ma). The siblings have recently come in contact with their birth mother (Kieu Chinh), and are awaiting her first visit to the United States, which causes no small amount of personal, cultural and familial clashes. Catfish In Black Bean Sauce is the feature debut from writer/director Chi Muoi Lo, who also plays Dwane; it was a prize winner at the 1999 WorldFest/Houston Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A courageous group of soldiers plot their escape from the well-fortified Colditz compound in this World War II adventure drama starring Jason Priestly, Damian Lewis, and Sophia Myles. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Old Smokey develops a bad temper in this volcanic disaster spectacle. Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) is a volcano expert whose interest became more than academic after he lost the woman he loved in a volcanic emergency. When he is sent to investigate unusual seismic activity in the quiet Pacific Northwest community of Dante's Peak, he discovers people boiled to death in the local hot spring and plant and animal life dying or displaying unusual illnesses near the city's supposedly dormant volcano. Harry becomes convinced that a major volcanic catastrophe is in the cards. Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), the town's mayor, is a single mother who also runs the local cafe, and now that Dante's Peak has been named one of the most desirable small towns in America, tourists have been flocking to the diner and other local businesses. While concerned with the safety of her community, Rachel takes a cynical view of Harry's warnings about the volcano; she has no desire to alarm either the town's residents or the wealthy visitors lining the city's pockets. Nevertheless, Harry tries to convince Rachel of the potential danger, as they begin to develop feelings for each other that are not strictly professional. The summer of 1997 was a big season for killer volcanoes at the movies, as Dante's Peak and Volcano opened within a few months of each other. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This HBO docudrama tells the real-life story of Dr. Gerald Bull (Frank Langella), a genius weapons designer whose services were used by the CIA for some highly suspect operations. After these operations were exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge of them and Bull was put in prison; following his release, he began to work with Saddam Hussein to build an extremely dangerous supergun that threatened the security of Israel. Doomsday Gun also stars Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Rupert Graves, and Francesca Annis. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

In this caper comedy, Duffy (James Coburn) is a shaggy bohemian living in Tangiers who is approached for a less-than-legal business proposition by two half-brothers, carefree Stephane Calvert (James Fox) and stuffy businessman Antony Calvert (John Alderton). Though Stephane and Antony had different mothers, they share the same father, and they both hate him; Charles Calvert (James Mason) is a mean-spirited multi-millionaire who shows his sons little affection and isn't very interested in cutting them in for the family fortune. Charles plans to transport several million dollars in banknotes by ship from Tangiers to Marseilles, and the brothers want Duffy to help them liberate the money from the ship. While the Calvert Brothers are persuasive, Stephane's beautiful girlfriend Segolene (Suzannah York) is even more so, and Duffy finds that he not only wants to steal the cash from Charles, but the girl away from Stephane. Duffy was scripted by Donald Cammell, who gained a cult reputation for his first directorial effort, the Mick Jagger vehicle Performance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The two-part British miniseries Fall From Grace was set in the fifth year of WWII. To mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the invasion of France, Col. Sir Henry Ridley (James Fox) leaves an elaborate trail of false clues, not least of which is the fabrication of an entire "battle front." Swept up in the intrigue is novice British spy Lady Deirdre Seabright (Patsy Kensit), who slowly and painfully came to the realization that she would be expendable once Ridley's plan reached full fruition. Posting a total running time of 180 minutes, Fall From Grace was originally telecast in England in 1994 and in the United States not long after. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide