Pat Metheny Movies

Pat Metheny has maintained a reputation as one of the most distinctive and innovative guitarists in jazz since the mid-'70s, and this performance video finds Metheny and his band in superb form during a 2002 tour of Japan. Pat Metheny: Speak of Now - Live In Concert, which also features longtime bandmates Lyle Mays (keyboards) and Steve Rodby (bass), alongside more recent additions Antonio Sanchez (drums), Richard Bona, and Cuong Vu (multi-instrumentalists), includes the songs "Go Get It," "The Gathering Sky," "Are You Going With Me?" "Song For Bilbao," "Insensatez (How Insensitive)," and more. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this contemporary drama, Sigourney Weaver plays a woman out of her element and at the end of her rope. Alice Goodwin is a wife and mother who finds that the pressures of her life are starting to become more than she can bear. Alice works part-time as a school nurse while her husband Howard (David Strathairn) runs the family farm; they both look after their two daughters. Alice, who wasn't raised in farm country, still feels like an outsider, and she embraces a cynical, sarcastic humor as a defense mechanism. Alice's only real friends in town are Dan and Theresa Collins (Ron Lea and Julianne Moore), who live nearby and often babysit Alice's kids; Alice does the same for the Collins children as well. One day, while watching Theresa's two-year-old daughter Lizzie, Alice has to step away for a few minutes, and she returns to discover Lizzie has fallen into a pond near the house; the child falls into a coma and dies several days later. Lizzie's death puts a permanent wedge between Alice and Theresa, and most people in the community believe Alice is to blame for the girl's death. Any support she might have had is driven away when Robbie (Marc Donato), a boy who lives nearby, claims Alice molested him. Alice is sent to jail while awaiting trial, and Howard (who can't afford her $100,000 bail) must watch over their daughters and keep house by himself as he tries to keep the farm afloat. As Alice falls into a deep depression behind bars, Howard and Theresa begin edging into a romance. Based on the best-selling novel by Jane Hamilton, A Map of the World was adapted for the screen by Peter Hedges and Polly Platt and director Scott Elliott. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This romantic Italian drama tells the offbeat love story of a somewhat senile but still feisty elderly American lady who escapes from the nursing home where her children put her and a world-weary private investigator who finds her on the road. The American, Martha, has lived in Tuscany for most of her adult life and still speaks no Italian. She moved there after she inherited a house from her grandfather. Having been divorced at a young age, she raised her children in the house. After they grew up, she became increasingly obsessed with the place. This coupled with her sudden memory lapses convinced her children that she would be better off in a home. The gumshoe she meets is 25 years younger. A specialist in investigating infidelity, he meets her while trailing a pair of illicit lovers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This program features noted jazz guitarist Pat Metheny performing live in Japan with a small group of seven musicians. The group is captured here performing many of the fusion classics that made Metheny a legend, including such songs as "Stranger in Town," "Scrap Metal," and "First Circle." ~ Rob Ferrier, Rovi

Referring to the fear of spiders, Arachnophobia features a particularly deadly species of spider that manages to make its way from the Venezuelan rain forest to a small California town, thanks to the many oversights of entomologist Julian Sands. Yuppie doctor Jeff Daniels, fed up with the dangers inherent in big-city living, has resettled in this town on the assumption that nothing untoward could ever happen here to himself and his family. Before long, however, Daniels is trying to make sense of a series of sudden deaths-and to figure out why each of the corpses has been drained of blood. The audience, of course, knows that the culprits are those pesky South American spiders, which grow larger with each kill. To make matters worse, Jeff Daniels suffers from a profound case of arachnophobia. John Goodman supports the cast as a slovenly exterminator, and Frank Marshall, longtime producer of Steven Spielberg's films, makes his directorial debut in Arachnophobia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Directed by Jan Egleson, Big Time follows a frustrated model (Mia Sara) through the ups and downs of the hectic and drug-addled late '80s fashion scene. The made-for-television feature also stars Ron Silver, Dennis Boutsikaris, and Adrian Pasdar, and is based on a play written by Keith Reddin. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

This made-for-television drama is about Nicki Davis (Tracy Pollan) -- an 18-year-old from a wealthy family who hangs out with a drug-dealing boyfriend -- and Tim Donovan (John Savage), the dedicated probation officer trying to get Nicki to come to grips with the reality of what she is doing. Nicki's predilection for the demimonde becomes a challenge that Tim cannot drop, and while it leads him into the drug world and an unwanted confrontation with Tracy's father -- who feels his daughter's life is no one else's business -- Tim does not give up. Tracy's boyfriend is arrested, and as her world starts to crumble a little, Tim begins to discover why she has chosen her particular path. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This gripping, emotional story of a roving photographer's transformation from a neutral artist with a camera to an involved human rights activist with a camera begins in Chad, travels to Nicaragua in the early 1980s, and ends when the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza takes off for the palm trees and beaches of Florida. Nick Nolte brilliantly interprets his role as the photographer Russell Price, and Joanna Cassidy is Claire, the radio journalist he meets while in Chad, along with her lover, Time Magazine reporter Alex (Gene Hackman), who ends up opting for a plush job as a TV anchorman and a quiet life on Long Island. When Alex leaves, Claire heads off to the next hot spot, Nicaragua, and Russell decides to tag along -- not because he is that interested in Nicaragua, but because he is interested in Claire. Once in the war-torn, Central American country, it does not take Russell long to see the vast difference between the corrupt, U.S.-backed dictatorship and the struggling guerrilla forces who have been fighting for a decade already. As his eyes are opened, he and Claire decide to go along with the rebels and film their fighting behind the lines. During one battle, the much-venerated rebel leader is shot dead, and Russell reluctantly agrees to fake a photo of the man as though he were still living, so as not to demoralize the army that looks up to him for leadership. The photo appears in the news around the world and causes such a furor that Alex shows up to demand an interview with the leader for national American television. It is on the way to this supposed interview that Alex leaves the car for a moment and is senselessly shot and killed by a government soldier, the whole episode filmed for the world by Russell's camera. This outrage (which actually occurred when journalist Bill Stewart was inhumanly shot by a Somoza soldier in full view of the video camera) soon makes global news and helps to hasten the overthrow of the corrupt dictatorship. Meanwhile, Russell has new issues to consider once his camera has become an "active" and not a "passive" observer of political unrest. René Enriquéz who plays the dictator Somoza in this film is a native Nicaraguan, related to a newspaper reporter killed by Somoza's government. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Problems and issues in all branches of science are considered in this three-hour documentary by director Michael Jackson. Filmed in more than a hundred locations and with a cast of over two hundred scientists, the documentary is kept under control by dividing it into nine different subtitled segments that each handle a separate subject. These include themes like "adaptation" and "investigation," as well as "prediction," that are sure to be of interest as the scientists discuss their methodology as well as results. In fact, the scientists themselves are entertaining. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Jazz fusion guitarist Pat Metheny teams up with The Metropole Orkest and maestro Jim McNeely for this 10-selection live concert, mounted and performed in 2003. Selections include: "First Circle," "Always and Forever," "Into the Dream," "Minnano" and more. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi