Patricia Arquette Movies

Actress Patricia Arquette is the granddaughter of Cliff Arquette, the daughter of character actor Lewis Arquette, and the sister of actors Rosanna Arquette, David Arquette and Alexis Arquette. Inaugurating her own film career in the mid-'80s, the actress came into her own with a gallery of fine portrayals in the '90s. In 1993 alone, she was seen as the hero's cousin/inamorata in Ethan Frome; the strung-out heroine in the stylishly violent road movie True Romance; and the hero's lesbian sister in Inside Monkey Zetterland. Arquette closed out 1994 on a fine note with her sympathetic portrayal of Kathy O'Hara, the second wife of Hollywood's "world's worst director," in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.

The following year included a starring role in John Boorman's Beyond Rangoon and a marriage to actor Nicolas Cage. In 1996, Arquette had lead roles in a number of films, most notably David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster, in which she played Ben Stiller's put-upon wife. She then switched gears with starring roles in David Lynch's Lost Highway and the thriller Nightwatch. She tried her hand at a Western in 1998, playing the object of Woody Harrelson's and Billy Crudup's desires in Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country. Despite an interesting premise and excellent cast, the film flopped, but Arquette continued to work steadily the following year, with lead roles in the black comedy Goodbye Lover; Stigmata, in which she starred opposite Gabriel Byrne as the unwitting target of a supernatural phenomenon; and Martin Scorsese's Bringing out the Dead, a film starring Arquette's then-husband Cage as a burnt-out paramedic.

Following the weightiness of the creepy Stigmata and the disturbing Bringing Out the Dead, Arquette took things in a decidedly lighter direction with her next two projects. In 2000, she played Adam Sandler's love-interest in the comedy Little Nicky, while the following year found her opposite Tim Robbins in the off-the-wall Human Nature. Written by Being John Malkovich scribe Charlie Kaufman, Human Nature was the feature debut from acclaimed music-video director Michel Gondry and featured Arquette as a woman cursed with a coat of fur covering her body.

As the decade progressed, audiences could see Arquette in projects ranging from the star-studded documentary Searching for Debra Winger to the sleeper family film Holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
2008  
 
Add Medium: Season 04 to QueueAdd Medium: Season 04 to top of Queue
Allison Dubois (Patricia Arquette) is a strong-willed, devoted young wife and mother who has gradually come to grips with her extraordinary abilities, which include talking to dead people, seeing the future in her dreams, and reading people's thoughts. In the 16 episodes of Season 4 (2008-9), Allison and her family's world is turned upside down after her abilities are publicly exposed, resulting in sweeping changes both professionally and personally. For the past three seasons, Allison has served as a part-time consultant to the district attorney's office in Phoenix, Arizona, using her psychic abilities to solve violent and horrifying crimes that have mystified authorities, including her former boss, D.A. Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval). Jake Weber stars as Allison's exceptionally supportive husband, Joe, an aerospace engineer, also left looking for work after recent traumatic events. Sofia Vassilieva and Maria Lark star as Ariel and Bridget, the two eldest Dubois children, who both share their mother's psychic gift to varying degrees. David Cubitt stars as Detective Lee Scanlon, and Madison Carabello plays the Dubois' youngest daughter, Marie. Academy Award-winning screen legend Anjelica Huston guest-stars this season as Cynthia Keener, an investigator for a national firm called Ameritips who strikes an unusual professional arrangement with Allison for the use of her crime-solving abilities.

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteMiguel Sandoval, (more)
2006  
R  
Add Fast Food Nation to QueueAdd Fast Food Nation to top of Queue
Inspired by author Eric Schlosser's New York Times best-seller of the same name, director Richard Linklater's ensemble drama examines the health issues and social consequences of America's love affair with fast food and features an all-star cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, and Luis Guzman. Mickey's is the most popular fast-food chain in America, and The Big One is the top-selling burger that put them on the map. When the higher-ups at Mickey's corporate offices learn that the frozen meat patties used to make the wildly popular burger have somehow been tainted with contaminated meat, they send marketing executive Don Henderson (Kinnear) on an urgent mission to ensure quality control and find out precisely how their product became compromised. It's a long way from the Southern California boardroom to the immigrant slaughterhouses, though, and the further Henderson works his way through the bustling feedlots and toward the ubiquitous restaurant sites that have become a staple of modern culture, the more he begins to realize just how dangerous convenience can become when it leads to blissfully ignorant complacency. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteBobby Cannavale, (more)
2005  
 
Add Medium: Season 01 to QueueAdd Medium: Season 01 to top of Queue
From Emmy Award-winning executive producer, creator, and director Glenn Gordon Caron, comes the hit Paramount Network Television drama series MEDIUM, inspired by the life story of Allison Dubois. Emmy Winner Patricia Arquette stars as Allison, a woman who can communicate with the dead, but for most of her life viewed this gift as a curse. Allison finally submits to her calling when she realizes she can do more good as a medium then a lawyer.

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteMiguel Sandoval, (more)
2005  
 
Add Medium: Season 02 to QueueAdd Medium: Season 02 to top of Queue
From Emmy Award-winning executive producer, creator and director Glenn Gordon Caron ("Moonlighting") comes "Medium," a chilling drama series inspired by the real-life story of research medium Allison DuBois. Emmy winner Patricia Arquette ("Stigmata," "Flirting with Disaster") stars as a young wife and mother who, since childhood, has been struggling to make sense of her dreams and visions of dead people. Arquette received the Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category after the telecast of the initial 16 episodes of the critically acclaimed series. Allison DuBois (Arquette) is a strong-willed young mother of three, a devoted wife and law student who begins to suspect that she can talk to dead people, see the future in her dreams and read people's thoughts. Fearing for her mental health, she turns for support to her husband Joe (Jake Weber, "U-571"), an aerospace engineer, who slowly comes to believe that what his wife is telling him just might be true. The real challenge is convincing her boss, D.A. Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) -- and the other doubters in the criminal justice system -- that her psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving violent and horrifying crimes whose mysteries often reside with those who live beyond the grave.

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteMiguel Sandoval, (more)
2005  
 
Add Special Thanks to Roy London to QueueAdd Special Thanks to Roy London to top of Queue
Documentarist Christopher Monger's Special Thanks to Roy London profiles famed acting coach London (1943-93), a man with resounding professional success (including a litany of former pupils who graduated to A-list Hollywood triumph) but a rocky and notoriously complicated personal life. In this program, Monger examines London through the eyes of many of the said pupils, including Jeff Goldblum, Hank Azaria, Garry Shandling, Geena Davis and Patrick Swayze. The title, of course, refers to the "special thanks" mention to fall in the end credits of many a feature film. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

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2003  
PG  
Add Holes to QueueAdd Holes to top of Queue
A boy being punished for a crime he didn't commit learns there's more going on at a juvenile correctional facility than meets the eye in this comedy drama. Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) is a teenager who has been told all his life that the men in the Yelnats family are cursed, thanks to a false promise his great, great grandfather made to a fortune teller. Given his frequent bad luck, and that which follows his father (Henry Winkler), Stanley has no trouble believing this. Stanley's bad luck hits a new low when a pair of sneakers literally falls out of the sky on him -- and turn out to be stolen. A judge sentences Stanley to a stay at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile correctional facility stuck in the middle of the desert, where he finds himself sharing a tent with a gang of misfits, including ringleader X-Ray (Brenden Jefferson), pushy Squid (Jake M. Smith), small but wiry Zero (Khleo Thomas), tough and stinky Armpit (Byron Cotton), paranoid ZigZag (Max Kasch), and thief-in-training Magnet (Miguel Castro). The Warden of Camp Green Lake (Sigourney Weaver) has her own ideas about rehabilitation, which consist of having the boys spend their days digging holes five feet deep under the desert sun. While well-mannered counselor Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson) tries to help the boys however he can, Mr. Sir (Jon Voight), The Warden's right hand man, is a heartless creep who enjoys making Stanley and his friends suffer. Before long, Stanley wonders if there's a good reason why the Warden seems so curious about what (if anything) the boys find during their digging, and in time he suspects there's something they haven't been told which might be connected to the Yelnats family curse. Holes was based on the award-winning book for young people by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the film's screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Sigourney WeaverJon Voight, (more)
2003  
R  
Add Tiptoes to QueueAdd Tiptoes to top of Queue
Matthew Bright directs the romantic comedy Tiptoes, written by Bill Weiner. Rolfe (Gary Oldman) is a dwarf, but his brother Steven (Matthew McConaughey) is not. When Steven's wife, Carol (Kate Beckinsale), gets pregnant, she worries about the baby being born a dwarf. She also ends up falling for Rolfe, much to her surprise. Also starring Peter Dinklage and Patricia Arquette. After appearing at film festivals in Europe, Tiptoes made its U.S. premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Gary OldmanKate Beckinsale, (more)
2002  
 
Add The Badge to QueueAdd The Badge to top of Queue
A good-old-boy small-town sheriff in a New Orleans parish happens upon a murder case that threatens to end his career in Behind the Badge, the embattled second feature of writer/director Robby Henson (Pharaoh's Army). Billy Bob Thornton stars as Darl, a divorced lawman first spotted sleeping in his truck outside his favorite bar. Darl gets a call about a truck accident, and happily hands out shoes from the ditched tractor-trailer to win over the locals for his re-election. But then the body of a beautiful woman is found in the mud near the wrecked truck. The "woman" turns out to be a transsexual with a .22 slug in her back. Prejudice reigns in the small community, and no one seems to be taking the murder too seriously. Local politicians, including a powerful judge (William Devane), are focused on the upcoming election, and are also angling to build a casino in town, and so they want to keep the sordid murder quiet. The victim's wife, Scarlet (Patricia Arquette), a New Orleans stripper, shows up. Despite Darl's own prejudices, he finds himself attracted to Scarlet, and starts to look into the case. Soon he learns that his investigation and his big mouth have cost him his slot on the ticket. When he presses on, he finds himself jailed on a trumped-up statutory rape charge. Struggling with his own family history of disgrace, Darl considers making a deal with the local bigwigs in order to keep his job. But when he learns that Scarlet is in danger, he's forced into action. Sela Ward and Jena Malone also star. Behind the Badge was heading for theatrical distribution before production company Propaganda Films went bankrupt. The film was unable to find a new distributor and premiered on Starz cable on September 7, 2002. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Billy Bob Thornton
2002  
R  
Add Searching for Debra Winger to QueueAdd Searching for Debra Winger to top of Queue
Directed by actress Rosanna Arquette, this candid documentary is not only about the iconoclastic and somewhat reclusive film star Debra Winger (who does not even appear onscreen until an hour into the film), but also about the trials and tribulations of actresses in Hollywood who have reached "that certain age." In the course of her "search," Arquette interviews several of her colleagues, among them Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Lane, Teri Garr, Holly Hunter, Vanessa Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, Meg Ryan, and Sharon Stone, all of whom have their own personal horror stories about insensitive producers and casting directors who tend to think of over-40 (and sometimes over-30) actresses as being suitable only for mother, "other woman," and "hero's girlfriend" roles -- when they bother to cast these actresses at all. The women also discuss the difficulties in balancing a successful career and a private life. Test-marketed on the film festival circuit throughout 2002, Searching for Debra Winger received its largest audience when it aired over the Showtime cable channel on August 18, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteRosanna Arquette, (more)
2001  
R  
Add Human Nature to QueueAdd Human Nature to top of Queue
Video director Michel Gondry and scriptwriter Charles Kaufman -- who shot to fame after penning Being John Malkovich -- collaborate on this bizarre fable about human behavior in and out of society. The film opens by quickly introducing the three leads -- Lila (Patricia Arquette) who is locked away in prison; Puff (Rhys Ifans) who is testifying before Congress; and Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) who is sitting in a glowing white afterlife waiting room with a bullet hole in his head. Rewinding to the beginning of the story, the film shows Lila as a girl about to enter womanhood. Unfortunately, puberty goes horribly awry and she starts to grow thick hair all over her body. After performing as Queen Kong in a circus freak show, she chucks it all and goes to live in the forest, where she becomes the best-selling author of a misanthropic hard-line ecological tome. At age 30, her itch for male companionship becomes overwhelming and she ventures back into the city. She is helped by electrolysis guru Louise (Rosie Perez), who not only makes Lila presentable to society, but introduces her to Nathan, a 35-year-old virgin who, as a scientist, has devoted his life to teaching table etiquette to lab mice. While showing Nathan the joys of the wild outdoors, Lila and her new beau discover an extremely hirsute feral man whom they dub Puff. Placing him a cage in his lab, Nathan sets out to teach Puff the ways of polite society while dreaming of fame and fortune. The first task is to curb Puff's enormous sexual appetite -- any time he catches sight of a female, Puff either tries to hump her or masturbates vigorously. Nathan yokes him with an electric collar that shocks him any time he acts unseemly. Unfortunately, the humans on the other side of the cage can't quite control their libidos either: Nathan succumbs to the incessant double entendres of his saucy French assistant Gabrielle (Miranda Otto) while Lila finds an animalistic lust for Nathan's science experiment. This film was screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Tim RobbinsPatricia Arquette, (more)
2000  
PG13  
Add Little Nicky to QueueAdd Little Nicky to top of Queue
The youngest child of the family often has the most problems -- so why should things be different for the Prince of Darkness and his offspring? Satan (Harvey Keitel) is considering retirement, and is pondering which of his sons should take over the family business -- ambitious Adrian (Rhys Ifans), strapping Cassius (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), or Nicky (Adam Sandler), an accident-prone demon who prefers to stay in his room playing his favorite heavy metal tunes. When Satan decides to stay on for another 10,000 years, Adrian is outraged, and leaves Hell to go to New York, where he and Cassius attempt to round up enough souls to vote Satan out of power. Satan, understandably upset, sends Nicky to bring Adrian and Cassius back home, but Nicky finds life on Earth is more complicated than he expected. Things don't get any easier when he develops a crush on Valerie (Patricia Arquette), a good-hearted mortal woman. Little Nicky also features Michael McKean as a city official trying to put Nicky behind bars, Kevin Nealon as Hell's gatekeeper, Rodney Dangerfield as Satan's father, Robert Smigel as the voice of Beefy -- a talking dog who is Nicky's guide on earth, Allen Covert as Todd -- Nicky's new roommate, and Peter Dante and Jonathan Loughran as a pair of metalheads who dig Satan. Jon Lovitz and Reese Witherspoon play cameo roles, and Regis Philbin and Ozzy Osbourne appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Adam SandlerPatricia Arquette, (more)
1999  
R  
Add Stigmata to QueueAdd Stigmata to top of Queue
Stigmata is a supernatural suspense story about good, evil, and faith. Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is a hair stylist in her mid-20s who has no strong religious convictions until odd things start happening to her after she's given a rosary by her mother: she begins speaking with another person's voice; unknown and unseen forces start to attack her; and she develops stigmata, bleeding wounds that spontaneously appear on her wrists, feet, and side, as Christ was wounded at Calvary. Some people believe that a holy miracle has been visited on Frankie, though no one can say why. A Cardinal from the Vatican (Jonathan Pryce) sends a priest, Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne), to investigate Frankie and her condition; after getting a first-hand look, Father Andrew finds himself less concerned with whether Frankie's wounds are a legitimate miracle and more concerned with saving her life. Billy Corgan, leader of the rock group The Smashing Pumpkins, composed the score for Stigmata in collaboration with keyboardist Mike Garson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteGabriel Byrne, (more)
1999  
R  
Add Goodbye Lover to QueueAdd Goodbye Lover to top of Queue
A darkly comic whodunit about greed, deceit, and romantic deception, Goodbye Lover stars Patricia Arquette as Sandra, a seemingly moral and obsessively cheerful woman who sells real estate and is fascinated by the movie The Sound Of Music. But Sandra has a secret; while she's married to Jake (Dermot Mulroney), an ad executive who is having problems with both his career and his drinking, she's having an affair with his brother, Ben (Don Johnson), a successful public relations man. Ben, on the other hand, is already dallying with Peggy (Mary-Louise Parker), a woman on his staff who is beautiful but insecure, though she has a darker side few people know about. When Ben decides to break it off with Sandra so he can pursue his relationship with Peggy, Sandra is furious, and, knowing Jake would be just as angry, tells him about their affair. A vengeful Jake confronts Ben, which leads to a knock-down, drag-out fight -- and Ben's death, as he falls from a window. Ben leaves behind a hefty insurance settlement, and soon the surviving characters are scrambling over the money. Enter Police Detective Rita Pompano (Ellen DeGeneres), who has seen too much in her time on the force to not develop a deep cynicism about the people she protects -- or to not be tempted to get in on the payday herself. Goodbye Lover was directed by Roland Joffé, in something of a departure from his best-known work in high-minded dramas such as The Killing Fields and The Mission. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteDermot Mulroney, (more)
1999  
R  
Add Bringing Out the Dead to QueueAdd Bringing Out the Dead to top of Queue
This tense urban drama stars Nicolas Cage as Frank Pierce, a paramedic on the brink of physical and emotional collapse. Frank has worked for years in one of New York's most brutal neighborhoods, and the pressure of his job has taken its toll; plagued with self-doubt, he is haunted by the spirits of the people he couldn't save, and while he desperately wants to quit his job, outside forces won't let him walk away. Bringing Out the Dead brought director Martin Scorsese back to the streets of contemporary New York, one of his favorite locations, after three films set elsewhere: Kundun, Casino, and The Age of Innocence. The film also reunited Scorsese with screenwriter Paul Schrader, who scripted Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ. The supporting cast includes Patricia Arquette as the daughter of a heart attack victim that Frank has fallen in love with, and John Goodman and Ving Rhames as two of Frank's fellow drivers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Nicolas CagePatricia Arquette, (more)
1998  
R  
Add Nightwatch to QueueAdd Nightwatch to top of Queue
Like The Vanishing (1988 and 1993), Nightwatch is an English-language version of a foreign-made film with the original director hired to remake his own movie. Ole Bornedal was the writer-director of the suspenseful 1994 thriller, Nattevagten, which had no U.S. release immediately on the heels of its success in Denmark. For the second time around, Bornedal directed, but Steven Soderbergh wrote a new script based on Bornedal's original film. Both were produced by Michael Obel. Nattevagten was Bornedal's directorial debut, and reviews praised the film for the claustrophobic atmospherics and suspense generated from the very first establishing scene. For the 1998 English-language remake, the artistic elements of the original gave way to name actors, slicker production values, and the more conventional grindhouse genre approach, opening with a brutal prostitute murder in a pre-credit sequence. University student Martin (Ewan McGregor) ignores warnings to take a city-morgue night watchman job for extra cash. Odd happenings at the morgue are linked to a serial killer, and Inspector Thomas Cray (Nick Nolte) investigates. Soon Martin's girlfriend Katherine (Patricia Arquette) learns that Martin has become a key suspect. However, some might suspect Martin's edgy friend James (Josh Brolin). Brad Dourif fills the role of a doctor, and young Alix Koromzay portrays vulnerable teen hooker Joyce. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Ewan McGregorNick Nolte, (more)
1998  
R  
Add The Hi-Lo Country to QueueAdd The Hi-Lo Country to top of Queue
Cowboys live again in this 20th century Western about two World War II veterans living on the lush, open New Mexico countryside. Based on the classic American novel by Max Evans about those struggling to continue living the Old West lifestyle in the early Cold War days, the film stars Woody Harrelson and Billy Crudup as two lifelong friends who fall for the same woman. Returning from war is Peter (Crudup), a cattleman who just wants a simple life on the farm, and Big Boy Matson (Harrelson), a big-drinking hellraiser always looking for a fight. Enter married Mona (Patricia Arquette), who turns both their heads and forces these two cowboys to put their friendship to the ultimate test. The film, like Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, is about freedom in wide-open spaces, so British director Stephen Frears is really out of his element in tackling this type of material. But he focuses the film on the relationships rather than the action, asking questions like "Is the girl more important than their friendship?" In the end, this film is more love story than Western. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Woody Harrelson
1997  
R  
Add Lost Highway to QueueAdd Lost Highway to top of Queue
Five years after the critical and commercial disappointment of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, director David Lynch returned to the big screen with this cryptic thriller about confused identities and erotic obsession. Fred (Bill Pullman) is an avant-garde jazz saxophonist who shares a luxurious but fashionably barren house with his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette). Fred suspects that Renee may be unfaithful to him, but realizes he has bigger things to worry about when a series of videotapes appear at his door that prove someone is watching his home from the outside and inside. When Renee is found murdered, Fred finds himself behind bars, but one morning Fred is no longer in his cell. He has seemingly been transformed into Pete Drayton (Balthazar Getty), a young auto mechanic who foolishly allowed himself to get involved with the wife of gangster Dick Laurent (Robert Loggia), a luscious blonde named Alice who looks exactly like Renee. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Bill PullmanPatricia Arquette, (more)
1996  
PG  
Add Infinity to QueueAdd Infinity to top of Queue
Actor Matthew Broderick made his directorial debut with this romantic drama based on the life of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Richard Feynman. Feynman (Broderick) grew up in New York, where, early on, he began to display a remarkably keen intelligence and a fascination with science encouraged by his parents. While in high school, Richard meets a beautiful girl named Arline Greenbaum (Patricia Arquette), and they quickly fall in love. Richard and Arline intend to marry someday, but they decide it would be prudent to wait until after they finish college -- they have no money, and Richard intends to attend Princeton after finishing his undergraduate work at M.I.T. However, these plans are changed when Arline discovers that she has tuberculosis, which was a very severe illness in the '30s; treatments were not always effective and victims were generally sent to sanitariums, where they could be quarantined from the rest of the population. With Arline's health in question, Richard agrees to marry her immediately. He's also offered a position in Los Alamos, NM, working on a top-secret project for the government. Richard tries to help Arline through her illness as he begins to develop ethical qualms about his new assignment, which is to help design and construct an atomic bomb. Infinity also stars Peter Riegert and Dori Brenner as Feynman's parents. Broderick's mother, Patricia Broderick, wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Matthew BroderickPatricia Arquette, (more)
1996  
R  
Add Flirting With Disaster to QueueAdd Flirting With Disaster to top of Queue
In this satirical comedy, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) has a beautiful wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), and a four-month old son, and on the surface his life is good. But something's been troubling him: Mel knows he was adopted, and he can't resolve his issues with the mother who gave him away years ago, much to the annoyance of his adoptive parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore). Mel decides it's time he met his birth parents and resolved his feelings once and for all, and Tina (Tea Leoni), a psychology student, has offered to tag along to capture the event on video for a research project. But after a few minutes with Mel's "real" mother, they discover that a mistake has been made and they've been directed to the wrong person. A second meeting, this time with Mel's supposed dad, also turns out to be a mistake, and it's quite some time before Mel, Nancy, and Tina are finally face to face with Mel's biological parents -- a pair of burned-out hippies (played by Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin) who support themselves by dealing blotter acid daubed onto pictures of Ronald Reagan. It doesn't help that Mel finds himself attracted to the very leggy Tina, or that Nancy's head is turned by a bisexual ATF agent (Josh Brolin). Writer/director David O. Russell previously made a splash with his independent debut feature, 1994's Spanking the Monkey. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Ben StillerPatricia Arquette, (more)
1996  
R  
Add The Secret Agent to QueueAdd The Secret Agent to top of Queue
In this adaptation of the novel by Joseph Conrad, Mr. Verloc (Bob Hoskins) runs a shabby corner shop in London that serves as a front for his more profitable sideline, selling pornography. However, selling sex photos is not Verloc's main order of business; he is a member of an anarchist organization, and he holds meetings in his apartment where he and his fellows plot the violent overthrow of the government. Verloc does not actually share the beliefs of his fellows -- he is in fact a double agent working with the Russians to sabotage the actions of revolutionary exiles while passing information about the anarchists along to Police Inspector Heat (Jim Broadbent). Verloc is married to Winnie (Patricia Arquette), a pretty but dour young woman who doesn't care for her husband and has married only in hopes that she would be able to afford a decent home for her brother Stevie (Christian Bale), who is mentally retarded. Inspector Heat informs Verloc that the anarchists must commit some sort of major violent action soon if the police are ever going to put any of them behind bars, so Verloc persuades the Professor (Robin Williams) to help him plant some bombs, which leads to tragedy for everyone involved. Robin Williams appears unbilled in The Secret Agent; in some listings, his role is credited to George Spelvin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Bob HoskinsPatricia Arquette, (more)
1995  
R  
Add Beyond Rangoon to QueueAdd Beyond Rangoon to top of Queue
In a role originally intended for Meg Ryan, Patricia Arquette plays Dr. Laura Bowman in director John Boorman's film of an American abroad in a strange country. It's 1988 and Laura is desperate to flee the United States and the memory of her husband and son's murders. Accompanied by her sister, Andy (Frances McDormand), she heads for Burma just as the peaceful protests against the country's military government take a more violent turn. Andy and the rest of their party flee in a hurry, but Laura is forced to stay behind when she loses her passport. A former professor (Aung Ko) offers her guidance to the border of Thailand, where they both hope to make their escape. Boorman's scenes of action and violence are well-staged, but Arquette is not big enough to carry the film and her plight seems inconsequential next to that of the Burmese as the military begins its ruthless crackdown. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Patricia ArquetteFrances McDormand, (more)
1994  
 
Mare Winningham stars as a sister determined to find out the truth in this fact-based made-for-television drama. Patricia Arquette stars as an FBI informant who has a secret affair with a married agent (Stephen Webber). When her older sister Dana (Winningham) admonishes her to be careful, she refuses to heed the warning and plunges deeper into the relationship, which unfortunately has deadly consequences. TV-movie veteran Winningham is good as always and Arquette and Webber are a believable duo. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Mare WinninghamSteven Weber, (more)

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