Gillies MacKinnon Movies

Director Gillies MacKinnin and screenwriter Adrian Hodges team to adapt Victorian author H.G. Wells' intimate drama about a man who has forsaken his dreams to lead a life of suffocating mediocrity. Alfred Polly (Lee Evans) was once a man with truly extraordinary dreams, but unfortunately Alfred has chosen to walk the comfortable path of convention. Now saddled with a nagging wife (Anne-Marie Duff) and a failing business, Alfred becomes consumed by his own desperation. But no one who strives for a life of simple contentment will ever achieve anything truly extraordinary, and only when Alfred decides to take violent action will he finally realize what it takes for a gutless milquetoast to embrace his inner hero. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Andie MacDowell, Olivia Williams, and Stephen Rae star in this bittersweet tale of two grieving women connected by an accidental phone call. Connecticut mother Marilyn Vine (MacDowell) has always lived a charmed life, so when her adolescent son Dale suddenly dies while celebrating his fifteenth birthday the tragedy of her loss is almost too powerful to bear. 3000 miles away in Dublin, Ireland, Ria Lynch (Olivia Williams) finds her marriage to longtime husband Danny (Iain Glen) coming to an unexpected in when Danny reveals that he is divorcing her to set up home with his pregnant mistress Bernadette (Heike Makatsch). When fate delivers the telephone call that connects these two women, both at a crucial turning point in their lives, Marilyn and Ria both agree to a two-month house exchange that could provide them with the space and down time to move beyond the pain that threatens to consume them. As both women grow increasingly accustomed to their new environments, the kindness of strangers and opportunity for reflection provides them both with the courage to face their changed lives with a newfound sense of hope. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Scottish filmmaker Gillies MacKinnon directs the revenge thriller The Escapist. Escaped convict Ricky Barnes (Andy Serkis, Gollom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) breaks into the house of commercial pilot Denis (Jonny Lee Miller) and kills his pregnant wife, Valerie (Paloma Baeza). The baby survives but Denis is too distraught to care for it, so relative Christine (Jodhi May) steps in to take over the parenting duties. Denis then stages an elaborate plan of revenge by faking his own death and turning into a criminal. After being caught and convicted, he makes several failed attempts at escaping prison in an effort to mimic his enemy, Ricky. Denis is taken to increasingly higher security prisons until he is at the same one as Ricky, leading to a violent conclusion. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A group of trailblazing female musicians try to take another shot at success in this musical comedy-drama produced for the premium cable network HBO. In the 1940s, the Blonde Bombshells were the finest all-female jazz band in the U.K., playing hot swing music that helped raise England's spirits during the dark days of WWII. Fifty years later, Elizabeth (Judi Dench), one of the band's sax players, is trying to decide what to do with herself after the death of her husband. Pulling her axe out of mothballs, Elizabeth starts playing again, and after meeting Patrick (Ian Holm), the group's former manager (and drummer-in-drag), they decide to put the group back together for a reunion tour. But they soon discover that putting the band back on the road after over fifty years is no easy task. The Last of the Blonde Bombshells also stars Leslie Caron, Olympia Dukakis, and jazz vocalist Cleo Laine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Gillies MacKinnon directed this $5.6 million production with a screenplay by his brother, Billy MacKinnon. The film adapts the 1992 autobiographical novel by Esther Freud (Sigmund Freud's granddaughter) about hippie misadventures in North Africa in 1972, as described by a five-year-old girl. Disenchanted with the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia (Kate Winslet) heads for Morocco with her children, six-year-old Lucy (Carrie Mullan) and precocious eight-year-old Bea (Bella Riza). Living at a low-rent Marrakesh hotel, the trio survives on the sale of hand-sewn dolls and a few checks from the girls' father, a London poet who also has a child by another woman. After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and con man Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), sexual gears are set in motion, and he moves in, serving as a surrogate father. Julia's friend Eva (Sira Stampe) urges Julia to study in Algiers with a revered Sufi master at a school of "the annihilation of the ego," and in another sequence European dandy Santoni invites Julia and the girls to his villa. As finances dwindle, Julia's philosophy is "God will provide," although usually it's Bilal who provides. This film was shot October-November 1997 in Morocco, where Winslet caught a stomach bug. Back in London, she went directly into the hospital and thus missed Titanic's London premiere. The score blends North African music with British-American pop hits of the '60s. The film's title derives from a word game played by the girls. Shown at the 1998 Dinard Festival of British Cinema and the 1998 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Set in Ireland, this beautifully rendered drama offers a fascinating portrait of a nomadic peddler who travels about the countryside selling housewares from his van. Trojan Eddie's unusual moniker comes from the logo upon his van. He works for John Power, the owner of several such traveling vans. Eddie, who is married with two children (and a mistress), wants to own his own business but lacks the means. He has just spent time in prison on robbery charges and now works as a partner with Dermot, Power's nephew. Power (the story's protagonist) attempts to deal with his overriding passion for the glorious traveler Kathleen. Trouble comes when Dermot tries to steal Kathleen from his uncle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Steve Martin produced, wrote, and starred in this modernized adaptation of the George Eliot novel Silas Marner. Martin is miserly small-town hermit Michael McCann, who hoards his wealth in the form of a rare coin collection. When his coins are stolen, McCann is ruined, but then he discovers an abandoned baby girl on his doorstep. Although he doesn't know it, the girl, whom McCann names Mathilda, is the illegitimate daughter of a prominent local politician, John Newland (Gabriel Byrne). Raising Mathilda has a profound effect on McCann, who emerges from his self-imposed exile and becomes an excellent, creative father. Mathilda grows up to be an intelligent, attractive girl, friendly with Newland and his wife (Laura Linney). When the Newlands learn that they cannot have children, John confesses his secret and embarks on a custody battle with McCann to regain guardianship of his daughter. The location of McCann's long-lost coins has a powerful impact on the proceedings, however. A rather dour and downbeat film, A Simple Twist of Fate lacked the charm and whimsy of Martin's earlier literary adaptation, Roxanne, and did not enjoy that film's box office success. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Gillies MacKinnon directed this charming Irish romance, taking place in a small Irish village in 1957, just before the first television set makes an appearance in this conservative hamlet. There is a scandal in the village concerning the beautiful and independent Tara Maguire (Robin Wright) -- Tara is pregnant and refuses to identify the father. She goes into labor during Sunday Mass, which raises the ire of the parish priest (Alan Devlin), who thinks God will bring bad times down on the village for Tara's effrontery. The priest feels Tara should marry the local town constable, Sgt. Hagerty (Albert Finney), a dyspeptic reformed alcoholic who is in love with Tara. But she doesn't love Hagerty. This becomes particularly clear when a traveling band of actors known as the Playboys come into town. One of the players in the troupe, Tom Casey (Aidan Quinn), is caught by Tara stealing one of her chickens. But it is love at first sight, although it takes a while for their attraction to take root beyond some electric glances. Hagerty sees where the relationship is going and he is determined to undermine the burgeoning affair. Tara is wary and doesn't want to be dependent upon any man, even to the point of smuggling supplies to the Irish Republican Army. When Hagerty hears someone in the village is colluding with the IRA, he suspects Tom and throws him in jail. But Hagerty is a walking time bomb and finally his rage erupts with violent force. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide