Susan Browning Movies
A remake of a 1954 Billy Wilder romance, this updated version of the play Sabrina Fair was directed by Sydney Pollack. Julia Ormond stars as Sabrina Fairchild, the daughter of a kindly chauffeur (John Wood) at the Long Island estate of the upper-crust Larrabee family. Sabrina has grown up enchanted from afar with the Larrabees' sparkling world of privilege and wealth, but she's especially enamored of younger Larrabee brother David (Greg Kinnear), a charming womanizer. After the once-plain Sabrina returns from a sojourn in Paris transformed into a remarkably poised and attractive young woman, she at long last catches David's eye. In a calculated effort to manipulate David away from her and into a more financially advantageous marriage, older brother Linus (Harrison Ford) pretends to woo Sabrina himself, but finds himself unintentionally falling in love. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, (more)
- 1993
- PG
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In the sequel to the hit comedy Sister Act, Whoopie Goldberg reprises her role of Deloris Van Cartier, a Las Vegas entertainer who hid out with in a convent of nuns to avoid a nasty bunch of gangsters. In Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Deloris is persuaded to return to the convent by the Mother Superior (Maggie Smith), because her help is needed in teaching their choral students at St. Francis High in San Francisco. However, St. Francis is in a crisis, since the administrator running the school (James Coburn) is threatening to shut the place down. If the gospel choir wins first place in a singing contest in Los Angeles, St. Francis will be saved from the priest's plans. Though the plot is rather thin and derivative, Sister Act 2 is lighthearted fun, thanks to good musical numbers and winning performances from the cast. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, (more)
A sleeper hit that received a lukewarm reception from critics but was a success with audiences, Sister Act (1992) was star Whoopi Golberg's first bona fide smash after her Oscar victory for Ghost (1990). Goldberg stars as Deloris Van Cartier, a Reno lounge singer who accidentally witnesses a brutal murder carried out by her gangster boyfriend Vince (Harvey Keitel). Under the protection of a detective (Bill Nunn) who's trying to bring down Vince's criminal operation, Deloris is placed in protective custody at a San Francisco convent. Masquerading as a nun renamed Sister Mary Clarence, Deloris shakes up the established order of the sisters' lives, particularly enlivening their choral efforts. Although running constantly afoul of the Mother Superior (Maggie Smith), the new, jazzed-up musical act becomes a huge hit in the community, even drawing the attention of the Pope, but also alerting Vince to Deloris' whereabouts. Although credited to the pseudonymous Joseph Howard, Sister Act was actually written by Paul Rudnick and Carrie Fisher. The film was followed by a sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Maggie Smith, (more)
- 1991
When young Nicky Guzman (Enrique Monez) is accused of killing a drug dealer, public sympathy is very much on his side. This makes it difficult for the D.A.'s office to mount a successful case against Guzman. But things really get beyond the control of assistant D.A.'s Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) when Guzman engages the services of Chet Burton (J.D. Cannon), a flamboyant Texas defense lawyer with a long and unbroken string of courtroom victories. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Adapting the themes of the 1948 film Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House, this comedy stars Tom Hanks as Walter Fielding, who with his love Anna (Shelley Long) decides to buy a suburban New York home for next-to-nothing. Both Anna and Walter are willing to fix what ails the house and since they are both successful professionals, that should not be too difficult. Unfortunately, what ails the house might be terminal as the rest of the film chronicles the battle between the couple and the disintegrating structure. Construction workers come in to make matters either worse or better -- or both. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Long, Tom Hanks, (more)
The 1982 film version of the John Irving novel The World According to Garp attempts to captures the quirky spirit while condensing the Irving original. Robin Williams plays the title character, the son of unmarried, unorthodox feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close, in her film debut). Every effort made by Jenny to broaden Garp's outlook on life -- she even arranges for him to spend the night with a hooker (Swoosie Kurtz) -- crams more fears and phobias into his psyche. Aspiring to become a novelist, Garp succeeds in this goal at the same time that his mother publishes her first feminist manifesto. Though successful and happily married to college sweetheart Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Garp remains envious of his fearless mother, who has taken in the radical "Ellen Jamesians," a group named after a young woman who had her tongue cut out by a rapist. Mutilation, in fact, becomes something of a leitmotif in Garp's life, climaxing (in every sense of the word) in an auto accident brought about by Helen's tryst with Michael Milton (Mark Soper). There is, of course, much more to the story than this: standing out amongst the dozens of offbeat supporting characters is John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon, a transexual ex-football jock. John Irving appears as a referee during a college wrestling match, while director George Roy Hill plays the pilot whose low-flying plane crashes into Garp's new home. The World According to Garp didn't attract as large an audience as other, more conventional Robin Williams vehicles, though Close and Lithgow would both be nominated for Best Supporting Actor statues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, (more)
- 1977
The Quinns follows the exploits of four generations of an Irish-American family. Much of the screen time is spent on domestic problems regarding growing pains, romance, and the generation gap. Amidst these personal travails, director Dan Petrie inserts several moderately exciting fire sequences involving the firefighting members of the Quinn family, intercut with stock shots of actual conflagrations. The Quinns was well cast and attractively assembled but failed to sell as a series. Perhaps the "firehouse" concept had already been played to death by the popular series Emergency, while the "extended family" notion had been exhausted by such series as The Waltons and Eight is Enough. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
