David Shire Movies

The documentary Lights! Action! Music! consists primarily of interviews with composers, directors, and actors who explain the many challenges involved in writing original music for motion pictures. Among the many famous names who appear on camera or whose work is used during the film are Francis Ford Coppola, Carter Burwell, Rachel Portman, and Spike Lee. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A young woman struggles to find herself despite the often oppressive influence of her family in this independent comedy drama. Sarabeth Cohen (Marla Sokoloff) has recently graduated from art school, and is determined to strike out on her own and establish herself as a painter. Her first bold step toward independence is moving away from home and getting a job in Manhattan, which doesn't do much to please her mother, Ruthie (Tovah Feldshuh), or her father, Isaac (Ronald Guttman), who don't make a secret of the fact they don't care for her artwork or her ambitions. Sarabeth's first steps toward her own life aren't very impressive -- short on money, she ends up moving in with her sister Raquel (Idina Menzel) and her sister's well-meaning but clueless husband, Howie (Jayce Bartok), and discovers her bedroom is a walk-in closet. Sarabeth also finds she isn't cut out to be a waitress, which makes the constant comparisons to her other sister, Becky (Liz Stauber), a hard-working medical student who is hiding her lesbianism from the family, all the more painful. And as Sarabeth struggles to find her place in the Big Apple, her boyfriend, Simon (Rob McEhenney), begins moving away from his own creative ambitions toward an easier life as a businessmen. The Tollbooth was the first feature film from writer and director Debra Kirschner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A relationship between two brothers literally becomes a matter of life and death in this drama from writer, director and actor Edward Burns. Francis Sullivan (Burns) was a street-wise thug with ties to the Irish mob until his younger brother Sean (Elijah Wood) was killed on Ash Wednesday in 1980 while trying to protect Francis from gangsters who were out to kill him. Three years later, Francis is a law-abiding man who is trying to stay on the straight and narrow and keep his eye on Grace (Rosario Dawson), Sean's widow. However, rumors have begun to circulate that Sean's death was just a ruse fabricated by Francis and a sympathetic priest, Father Mahoney (James Handy), to get mobster Moran (Oliver Platt) off Sean's back. Some people have spotted someone who looks a lot like Sean wandering around the neighborhood, and Moran, who doesn't forget a grudge, begins scouring the neighborhood in search of Sean, while Francis has worries of his own about Sean, since his relationship with Grace has started to move beyond simple family friendship. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This follow-up to the acclaimed made-for-TV movies Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark finds Sarah (Glenn Close) and her husband Jacob (Christopher Walken) dealing with the trials of life on their Kansas farm in 1918. Jacob must contend with the unexpected arrival of John (Jack Palance), his father, who left him and his mother behind many years ago, while Sarah is worried about her eldest daughter Anna (Lexi Randall), who has left home to help treat the victims of the influenza epidemic. Anna, meanwhile, has worries of her own, as her boyfriend has just shipped out to fight in WWI. Based on the novel by Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End was produced as part of the award-winning anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This updated remake of the 1958 sci-fi cult classic I Married a Monster from Outer Space closely adheres to the same basic plotline as the original. On the eve of his wedding to Kelly Drummond (Susan Walters), good ol' boy Nick Farrell (Richard Burgi) wanders into the woods, where he is promptly abducted by aliens. Despite this ordeal, Nick shows up at the church on time and the wedding proceeds. But Kelly cannot help but notice that there is something "different" about her husband. Whereas previously all Nick cared about was drinking and carousing with his buddies, now he is serious, well-spoken, and curiously insistent that he and Kelly begin making babies as soon as possible. When all of Nick's drinking companions undergo similar character transformations, it becomes obvious to Kelly that the man she married isn't the man she intended to marry, but instead the "host" for an impending invasion from beyond.. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1974, Cicely Tyson and director John Korty (The Ewok Adventure) worked together on the acclaimed The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (winner of nine Emmys), and they reteamed for this updating of Charles Dickens' 1843 classic, A Christmas Carol. When miserly banker Ebenita Scrooge (Tyson) is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past (Michael J. Reynolds), visions prompt her to reflect on her life. An earlier female Scrooge was played by Susan Lucci in 1995, and a Mrs. Scrooge with Sally Kellerman is also in development. The TV movie Ms. Scrooge premiered December 10, 1997 on the USA Network. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Glenn Close won the "Outstanding Lead Actress" Emmy for her performance in this made-for-television drama about the rights of homosexuals in the military. Close stars as Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, an Army medical officer with an eye on a promotion who is suddenly tossed into discharge proceedings after admitting to being homosexual. The film shows how she fought the system with the help her family and the support of gay rights activists. Judy Davis stars as her lover and also won the Emmy for "Outstanding Supporting Actress." Barbra Streisand was among the executive producers and the film was nominated for several Emmy and Golden Globe awards. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

This family-oriented holiday drama takes place in Alabama in 1957 and centers upon the heartwarming relationship between a lonely white boy and his black nanny. When she returns South to be with her family for Christmas, her young charge follows her, creating all kinds of complications. Singer Natalie Cole makes her feature-film debut as the nanny. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Made for cable television, this frothy western spoof chronicles the exploits of a citified optometrist who exchanges his well-ordered Big Apple life for a wild and woollier version in Tombstone, Arizona. Once there, he is thrilled to meet his hero Wyatt Earp. Unfortunately, the heroic Earp he admired in the many dime-store novels he read is totally different from the real McCoy who turns out to be myopic and continually skunk drunk. Still with the optometrist's help, the sheriff is able to clean up the town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

As indicated by its title, this made-for-TV weeper was inspired by one of author Danielle Steel's innumerable best-sellers. The beautiful and talented Adrian (Polly Draper) is a writer for one of America's most popular TV soap operas. She is also pregnant, and when she refuses to abort her baby, Adrian's selfish husband (Kevin Kilner) deserts her. It falls to one of the soap opera's producers, the recently divorced Bill (John Ritter), to convince Adrian to give romance a second chance -- and, incidentally, to give her baby a new last name. Described at the time of its release as "a yuppie love story," Danielle Steel's 'Heartbeat' was originally telecast by NBC on February 3, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on an autobiography by Betty Rollin, this is a heart-tugger which finds a woman with cancer seeking the assistance of her daughter in fulfilling her last wish--a wish to die with dignity. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

When a poor waitress shoots her abusive husband, she is forced to battle the courts for custody of her children while waiting for a verdict on her trial for murder of her husband. Based on a true story, it does a credible job in the depiction of the abusive relationship but some of the impact is diminished when the film moralizes that the husband's latent homosexuality was the cause or as culpable as the physical abuse he inflicted upon his wife. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide