John Madden Movies
Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, in 1949, director John Madden (not to be confused with the American sports commentator of the same name) enjoyed a successful career in television and theater before moving into feature films. Madden's resumé as a stage director includes prestigious work in both Britain and the United States. He directed Caritas Christi at the National Theater and helmed Broadway productions of Beyond Therapy, Wings, and Grownups; he also staged the last at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Grownups was also Madden's entry into filmmaking, when he directed an adaptation for the Showtime cable network. Following that, he directed several films for British television, as well as episodes of Inspector Morse and Prime Suspect. He made his feature film debut with Ethan Frome in 1993. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director in 1998, for Shakespeare in Love. A minor misstep with 2001's overly-saccharine Captain Corelli's Mandarin was followed four years later by the decidedly better-received Proof, and in 2006 the period-piece specialist would try his hand at contemporary action with the Elmore Leonard adaptation Killshot. ~ All Movie Guide
Prime Suspect 4 and Inspector Morse director John Madden comes back to the world of crime after a brief foray into romance with Shakespeare in Love and Captain Corelli's Mandolin with this adaptation of pulp icon Elmore Leonard's novel concerning a real estate agent and her husband (Thomas Jane) who become the targets of two relentless mafia hitmen. When real estate agent Carmen Colson (Diane Lane) catches a glimpse of a hitman named the Blackbird (Mickey Rourke) as he carries out a job, a subsequent request for her to testify against the aging gun for hire soon lands both Carmen and her husband, Wayne (Thomas Jane), in the Witness Protection Program. Blackbird isn't a man who likes to leave loose ends when it comes to his work, though, and now as the seasoned assassin and his psychotic partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempt to catch the couple in their crosshairs, Carmen and Wayne are going to need much more than a few federal agents to make it out of increasingly deadly situation alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, (more)
- 2009
Helen Mirren stars as an ex-Mossad agent forced to track down a Nazi war criminal before her retirement in the English-language redo of Assaf Bernstein's 2007 Israeli thriller, Ha-Hov. John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) directs from a script by Stardust screenwriters Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, with Sam Worthington handling co-starring duties for the Miramax release. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Mirren
A woman struggles to come to terms with the potentially dangerous legacy of her late father in this drama based on the award-winning stage play by David Auburn. Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a woman in her late twenties who is strongly devoted to her father, Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant and well-known mathematician. While Robert's skill in the world of numbers still appears to be strong, his grip on reality begins to slip away, and as Robert descends into madness, Catherine begins to wonder if she may have inherited her father's mental illness along with his mathematical genius. After Robert's passing, Catherine is confronted by Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), a gifted but zealous student of Robert's who wants to look through the late man's notes in hopes of finding his last great work. While Catherine is hesitant to look too deeply into her father's work for fear of what it might suggest about her own future, she allows Hal to do so, and when one notebook reveals a mathematical proof of potentially historic proportions, it sets off shock waves in more ways than one. Proof also stars Hope Davis as Catherine's well-meaning but shallow sister, who doubts Catherine's ability to take care of herself. Paltrow had previously played Catherine to stellar reviews during the original play's run in London's West End. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, (more)
Louis de Bernières' best-selling novel of love during wartime is brought to the screen in this story that blends comedy, action, and romance. In 1940, war rages throughout Europe, but the fighting has yet to arrive on the Greek island of Cephallonia, where life continues to follow its own slow, deliberate path until word arrives that Italian troops have invaded neighboring Albania. A wave of anti-Axis patriotism sweeps the island, and Mandras (Christian Bale), a local fisherman, is one of a handful of men who volunteer for the army, leaving behind his aging mother (Irene Papas) and the woman he loves, Pelagia (Penélope Cruz), the daughter of the island's physician, Dr. Iannis (John Hurt). The timing of Mandras and his compatriots proves less than fortuitous, as Italian troops invade Greece in their absence, but the remaining leaders of the island issue an ultimatum -- the people of Cephallonia will surrender, but only to a ranking German officer. Since none of the available German officers can speak a word of Greek, an Italian soldier fluent in the language, Capt. Antonio Corelli (Nicholas Cage), is sent in to serve as translator. Corelli stays on with the Greek occupation forces, and he soon finds himself falling in love with beautiful Pelagia, who believes that Mandras was killed in the fighting in Albania. But as romance slowly blooms between the Italian soldier and the Greek girl, Mandras and a handful of surviving soldiers have joined a guerilla resistance faction, and they join up with Allied forces in a bid to retake Greece; soon, Pelagia must choose between the two men she loves, as the Greeks battle both the Italian occupation troops and German soldiers who have been sent in to replace them. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was directed by John Madden; the project originally began shooting with Roger Michell, but Michell was forced to resign from the film after he suffered a heart attack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, (more)
William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is on a cold streak. Not only is he writing for Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), owner of "The Rose," a theatre whose doors are about to be closed by sadistic creditors, but he's got a nasty case of writer's block. Shakespeare hasn't written a hit in years. In fact, he hasn't written much of anything recently. Thus, the Bard finds himself in quite a bind when Henslowe, desperate to stave off another round of hot-coals-to-feet application, stakes The Rose's solvency on Shakespeare's new comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." The problem is, "Romeo" is safely "locked away" in Shakespeare's head, which is to say that not a word of it is written. Meanwhile, the lovely Lady Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) is an ardent theatre-goer -- scandalous for a woman of her breeding -- who especially admires Shakespeare's plays and, not incidentally, Bill himself. Alas, she's about to be sold as property into a loveless marriage by her mercenary father and shipped off to a Virginia tobacco plantation. But not before dressing up as a young man and winning the part of Romeo in the embryonic play. Shakespeare soon discovers the deception and goes along with it, using the blossoming love affair to ignite his muse. As William and Viola's romance grows in intensity and spirals towards its inevitable culmination, so, too, does the farcical comedy about Romeo and pirates transform into the timeless tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet. ~ Merle Bertrand, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, (more)
The ruler of England discovers the value of common friendship in this historical drama. After the death of her husband Prince Albert, Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) is despondent, and she remains in mourning for two years after Albert's passing. When one of her servants suggests that a daily ride on horseback might be a tonic for the Queen's health and spirits, a Scotsman named John Brown (Billy Connolly) is hired as her guide and groom. At first, the Queen shows no interest in riding, though Brown readies a horse for her each day; finally, after several days, Mr. Brown speaks frankly to the Queen, announcing, "Honest to God, I never thought I'd see you in such a state!" While her court is shocked, the Queen is refreshed that someone would speak to her so directly. Soon the Queen is riding with Mr. Brown every morning, and she discovers him to be a friend and confidante who will speak to her as a person and not as a potentate. However, many are shocked by their relationship, believing that the commoner Mr. Brown is using his friendship for political advantage -- or worse, that he's become her lover. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, (more)
For the fourth installment of the BBC crime series Prime Suspect, the producers experimented with the show's format. Instead of following police detective Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) through a single murder investigation over the course of four hours, Prime Suspect 4 includes three 90-minute, stand-alone mysteries. In "The Lost Child," Tennison investigates the disappearance of a child whose mother is unwittingly dating a convicted sex offender. In "Inner Circles," she traces the connection between the residents of a brutal housing development and the well-heeled denizens of an exclusive country club whose manager is brutally murdered. And "The Scent of Darkness" returns to the serial-killer investigation that made Tennison's career (in Prime Suspect 1) as additional murders with the same modus operandi bring up the possibility that she apprehended the wrong man. In addition to its new format, Prime Suspect 4 also depicts, in "The Lost Child," the first non-murder investigation of Tennison's career. Prime Suspect 4 originally aired April 30, May 7, and May 15, 1995, in the United Kingdom. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Mirren, Beatie Edney, (more)
- 1994
- R
Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) wrote this ambitious epic that attempts to examine the communist witch hunts of the 1950s, racial prejudice, abuse of governmental powers, guilt, and suicide. The film begins in 1952 as an eager young FBI recruit, Kevin Walker (Matt Dillon), finds himself assigned to root out communist subversives in San Francisco's Chinese community. Unable to find evidence of communist influence anywhere, Kevin is pressured by the FBI office to get indictments anyway. As a result, Kevin drags innocent Chinese laundry man and labor organizer Chen Jung Song (Tzi Ma) into court on trumped up charges and Song is sent to prison. The film then shifts to 1962, and in the intervening years, Kevin's guilt at what he has done has grown into an obsession. But when Song is newly released from prison, he finds himself once again tracked by Kevin. Song, emotionally unable to deal with his new freedom, kills himself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Kevin, shattered, now decides to look after and protect Song's daughter, Marilyn (Joan Chen). Gradually, from his role as Marilyn's protector, Kevin's feelings of concern turn into love. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Dillon, Joan Chen, (more)
- 1993
In this made-for-British-TV mystery, Inspector Morse and his sidekick Lewis fly Down Under to locate a key witness against a gang of burglars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Thaw, Kevin Whately, (more)
Ethan Frome is an adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1911 novella . Set in Massachusetts in the late-19th century, the film relates the sad story of reclusive farmer Ethan Frome (Liam Neeson). Considering himself too homely for romance, he enters into a loveless marriage with the wealthy but spiteful Zeena (Joan Allen). Things become nearly unendurable when Zeena becomes an invalid, imperiously demanding her husband's attentions day and night. Ethan seeks solace in an affair with Zeena's pretty cousin Mattie Silver (Patricia Arquette), who has arrived to act as housekeeper. Produced on behalf of PBS' American Playhouse, Ethan Frome was released theatrically in late 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Patricia Arquette, (more)
- 1991
Created by Lynda La Plante, the sporadically broadcast British TV series Prime Suspect succeeded in bestowing international stardom upon actress Helen Mirren. Set in London, the series dealt with female homicide detective Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren), who did her best to do her job in the face of sexual prejudice on the job and political corruption from the higher-ups. Virtually every time that Tennison investigated a murder, the trail of clues led to a compromising situation for a prominent civic leader, who invariably pulled strings to get the heroine off his scent. Not unexpectedly, Tennison was plagued with feelings of doubt and inadequacy, especially whenever her instincts proved (initially) to be wrong. Even so, by the time the series had run its course, Tennison had been promoted to superintendent. Making its British debut on April 7, 1991, Prime Suspect was broadcast for six seasons, each season progressively retitled as Prime Suspect 2, Prime Suspect 3, and so forth. In America, the property was seen over the PBS network and the A&E cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Mirren, John Benfield, (more)
John Madden's sweeping drama After the War tells the tale of a quarter-century relationship between two men who share a similar wartime experience and a similar religious background. Michael Jordan grew up in a well-heeled British family, while Joe Hirsch spent much of his childhood on the run from the Nazis. The two become friends when they are both enrolled at the same school in 1942. They survive anti-Semitic taunts together. Joe grows into a powerful media figure, while Michael becomes a respected man of the arts. The film charts a quarter-century of their history together, detailing a relationship that is equally affectionate and hostile. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susannah York, Denis Quilley, (more)
- 1986
Originally broadcast on British television in 1986, the series The Return of Sherlock Holmes is directed by filmmaker John Madden and stars Jeremy Brett as the titular detective. In this adventure, "The Priory School," Holmes discovers a missing teacher while investigating the kidnapping of Lord Arthur Saltire (Nissar Moti), the son of the Duke of Holdernesse (Alan Howard). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Brett, David Burke, (more)
- 1986
Adapted from the play by Jules Feiffer, Grown Ups was produced for cable television. A pre-talkshow Charles Grodin plays the Feifferesque central character, a writer facing a mid-life crisis. He turns to his family for support, but, to put it mildly, they're no help at all. Feiffer is a writer of monologues rather than plays, and the verbose nature of this taped drama bears this out: characters talk at each other incessantly, but never to each other. Still, Grodin and his co-stars Jean Stapleton, Martin Balsam and Marilu Henner hold up quite well under the circumstances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
