Vic Sarin Movies

A young boy struggles to find love and acceptance with his new family in this drama from director Vic Sarin. Tomas (John Bell) is an eight-year-old orphan living in a home for children without parents on an island off the Irish coastline. Tomas has become a target for bullies and knows little peace at the orphanage, so he's overjoyed when he's adopted by Marie O'Donnell (Connie Neilsen), a lovely and caring woman who takes the boy under her wing. However, while Marie shows Tomas plenty of kindness, the same cannot be said for her husband Alec (Aidan Quinn), who doesn't hide his disappointment with his frail new son. As Tomas tries to understand Alec and live up to his expectations, he finds a baby seal on the beach, and begins caring for the abandoned animal, showing it the compassion he's longed for in his own life. A Shine Of Rainbows was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Where does legitimate concern end and paranoia begin? A man finds himself walking that fine line in this tense independent drama. Terry Allen (Peter Krause) is an accountant who lives a seemingly ordinary life until he loses his job. Unable to buy the new house he was hoping to get for his fiancée, Marla (Kari Matchett), Terry spends most of time in his apartment, looking for job leads, sending out resumés, and feeling increasingly powerless. As Terry watches more and more stories about the war on terror on cable news channels, he begins developing an intense suspicion of his new neighbor Gabe Hassan (Khaled Abol Naga), an Arab exchange student. Terry notices Gabe keeps late hours, takes out his trash in the middle of the night, and has a lot of visitors of Middle Eastern descent dropping by his flat, and slowly Terry becomes convinced Gabe is involved in terrorist activities. Terry visits Tom Hillary (Richard Schiff), an FBI agent, and tells him about Gabe and his habits; Tom doesn't pay much attention to what Terry has to say, and convinced danger lurks, he decides to take the law into his own hands. Civic Duty received its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A small-town Canadian waitress pining for the attention of the former high-school football star finds her affections returned from the least likely of places in this entry into the 2005 Vancouver Film Festival from director Vic Sarin. To say that Eve Stuckley (Marla Sokoloff) has a low self-opinion would be an understatement. Though she may not necessarily be Cosmo material, the lovelorn waitress with dreams of being accepted to a New York City art school and a slight case of body dysmorphic disorder just can't seem to catch the eye of town hunk Jeff Sweeney (Barry Watson) -- even though Jeff is best friends with Eve's older brother, Chuck (Jonathan Cherry). When mysterious beauty Linda (Monika Schnarre) breezes into town on business, heads immediately turn and she is soon fending off the advances of both Jeff and Chuck. Despite the attentions lavished on her by the handsome duo, Linda is instead attracted to a lonely waitress whose true beauty has gone sadly unrecognized. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Canadian defense attorney Gina Antonelli (Lolita Davidovitch) takes on her most unusual case--and her biggest professional challenge--when she agree to defend Pauloosie (Paul Gordon), a 19-year-old Inuit living in a remote Arctic village. Accused of sexual assault of a minor, Pauloosie has by the standards of his people alrady done penance for his crime (which in his eyes was not a crime), pleading unconditional guilt and offering a gift of atonement to the girl's family. But ambitious prosecutor Daniel Metz (Henry Czerny) intends to make an example of Pauloosie by demanding the maximum sentence under Canadian law, a move that has divided the region's political interests straight down the middle. It is up to Gina to burrow through a maddening maze of cultural conflicts and arrive at a legal decision that will satisfy both the government and the natives--and also will assure the fairest amount of justice for the stoic Pauloosie. Produced for Canadian television in 1994, Trial at Fortitude Bay first aired in the US over the Lifetime cable network on March 15, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Upon learning that her wealthy father has suffered a severe stroke, an independent, willful and successful Wall Street accountant leaves her high-powered job and heads down to her family's Texas ranch in hopes of guaranteeing her inheritance. While back home, the woman feels a strange stirring in her heart and begins remembering how much she once loved the land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Made for television, Not Our Son is the tragically true story of the "Seattle Specter", who at one time was designated the worst serial arsonist in US history. Over an astonishingly short period, the "Specter" was responsible for over 100 fires--one of them resulting in the deaths of several senior-home residents. What no one knew, until it was nearly too late, was that the elusive firebug was a profoundly troubled teenager named Paul Kenneth Keller (played, in a masterpiece of contra-casting, by Neil Patrick Harris). Ultimately, it was up to Paul's family to determine his fate--a decision that forced them to choose between love and duty, and to suffer the pangs of ceaseless guilt in the process. Inspired by an article in The Reader's Digest, Not Our Son first aired March 3, 1995 (it has originally been slated for January 31 that same year). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this seldom seen, largely uneventful Canadian drama, a young American draft dodger spends the summer of 1969 as a counselor at a children's summer camp in Ontario. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Margot Kidder and Annie Potts star in this distaff buddy picture concerning two friends undergoing a series of misadventures in their love lives. Potts plays Bonnie Howard, the wife of Stanley (Robert Carradine), an immature child/man who irresponsibly spends most of his time racing cars and getting drunk. Bonnie also happens to be pregnant, but the father of her unborn child does not happen to be Stanley. Rather than hit Stanley in the face with that fact, she decides to leave him. As she heads for town to obtain an abortion, she runs into the foul-mouthed man-hunter Rita Harris (Margot Kidder in a blonde wig and tight pants). The two characters get involved in a number of vignettes, with the humor arising from the contrast between the streetwise Rita and the relatively innocent Bonnie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide