Gina Bellman Movies

Oscar winning actor Timothy Hutton stars in this darkly comic drama about a group of criminals who have a thoroughly modern take on the concept of social justice. Led by Nate Ford (Hutton), who has experience as an insurance investigator, the team extort money from targets who really deserve it - people who have harmed others themselves. But robbing the innocent is a very different thing from robbing the guilty in the minds of these warped Robin Hoods, and with a team comprised of a mastermind, a cat burglar, a con-woman, a hacker, and a veteran thief, they're prepared to exert their moral philosophy on the cretins of the world - and make a good living while they do it. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Ordered by his boss to take a long overdue vacation, a mild mannered Englishmen and terminal workaholic takes his family to Florida on a camping trip that immediately devolves into a disaster of grotesque proportions. Eric Bury has been working so hard that he's forgotten what it means to have a family. His teenage children can't stand him, and his wife is more sexually frustrated than ever before. When Eric's boss orders him to take a temporary leave, he decides that a connecting with nature might be just the thing to bring his family back together. Their destination: "Adventure Wonderland" - a derelict campground in Florida. Will the Burys be able to maintain their composure as their getaway becomes more bizarre and debauched with each passing day? When his wife decides to fulfill a lifelong fantasy involving a pair of motorcycle riding dwarves, Eric decides that it's high time to stop the madness before they all do something they'll really regret. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

By the time the hit Britcom Coupling reached its fourth season in 2004, change was afoot. Newly moved from BBC2 to BBC3, the show also faced its first significant casting change: Richard Coyle abruptly left the series, effectively removing spastic man-child Jeff from the tight, six-member ensemble that had been together for 22 episodes. Though disappointed, series creator Steven Moffat whipped up a replacement in the form of Oliver (Richard Mylan), a comic-shop employee with adolescent hang-ups and dating woes similar to Jeff's. Initially introduced as a peripheral character, Oliver soon blossomed into a love interest for kooky Jane (Gina Bellman). Meanwhile, Patrick (Ben Miles) and Sally (Kate Isitt) settled into their tentative romance, while Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander) dealt with their impending parenthood. Even as the show maintained the more mature tone of the previous season, some longtime viewers complained bitterly about Jeff's absence -- and about the obvious similarities between him and Oliver. Jeff did, however, make a memorable appearance in the season finale, though not in the form his ardent fans might have expected. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Four people bare both their bodies and their souls in this dark and emotional drama. Paul (Paolo Seganti) and Amanda (Gina Bellman) are a married couple who, after less than a year together, feel that their relationship is falling apart. Their friends Danny (Ben Daniels) and Kim (Kristen McMenamy) are not demonstrably happier together, though they indulge in a wide variety of sexual experimentation to blot out their ennui. One evening, the two couples get together, and over the course of a few hours they discuss their romantic disappointments, their sexual needs and longings, and the lingering dissatisfaction they feel with their lives. Married/Unmarried was the first directorial project for British playwright Noli, who adapted his screenplay from a pair of his own plays. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Although Americans know Coupling primarily in the form of NBC's failed U.S. remake, the original British series has been a hit since it first aired on BBC2 in May 2000. Written by Steven Moffat and produced by his wife, Sue Vertue, the raunchy comedy follows the sexual and romantic exploits of six young professionals in London as they hang out in a pub, hunt for conquests, and reluctantly settle down with one another. Despite the three-guys, three-girls setup, any similarities to the hit U.S. sitcom Friends are superficial. Coupling is far more concerned with frank sex talk and romantic Darwinism than sentimentality and soap opera plotlines. Early episodes focused almost entirely on conceptual "knob gags" -- long setups and payoffs of an unfailingly vulgar nature. From sex toys to lesbian chic to one character's closet full of homemade porn, Moffat's scripts take R-rated dialogue as a given. As the series has progressed, however, its characters have essayed more mature relationships while remaining fixated on the intricacies of sex.

The relationship between flustered everyman Steve (Jack Davenport) and his icy blond girlfriend, Susan (Sarah Alexander), provides the show's nominal through-line, even as the more extreme characters earn more of the laughs. Patrick (Ben Miles), a Tory womanizer, represents one male extreme. The other comes in the form of Jeff (Richard Coyle), a juvenile sex addict afflicted by both performance anxiety and verbal diarrhea. As for the ladies, Jane (Gina Bellman) is the over-confident, deliberately kooky man-trap, while Sally (Kate Isitt) is the self-help addict obsessed with halting the aging process. Although each character starts out as little more than a collection of tics, time has deepened the emotional resonance of the entire cast.

After three seasons on BBC2, Coupling underwent some changes in its fourth season. Richard Coyle abruptly quit, leaving Moffat to replace Jeff with Oliver (Richard Mylan), a similarly bumbling man-boy. The show also moved over to BBC3. In America, the series first aired on PBS before migrating to the BBC America cable network. Despite their various levels of television experience, most cast members were relative unknowns when the series began. Only Jack Davenport, with the BBC hit This Life and the film The Talented Mr. Ripley under his belt, had much of a profile; he has since appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

The first season of BBC2's Coupling remains unfailingly prurient throughout its six episodes. Entire plotlines revolve around, say, the size of one character's endowment or another character's alleged bisexuality. But the raunchiness functions as more of a backdrop than anything else. The real key to the show's humor lies in its elaborately conceived comic set pieces, which, sexually charged as they are, draw their laughs from classic slapstick and witty dialogue rather than truly explicit content. The first episode, of course, is devoted to introducing the ensemble: Jack Davenport as everyman Steve, Ben Miles as womanizing Patrick, Richard Coyle as sex-starved Jeff, Sarah Alexander as witty Susan, Kate Isitt as insecure Sally, and Gina Bellman as ditzy Jane. With Steve and Susan's nascent relationship providing the focus, Jeff and Sally serve as the main couple's respective best friends; Patrick and Jane, though initially introduced as Steve and Susan's ex-lovers, soon bond with the others into a tight little circle of friends. As the series limns the peculiarities and downright absurdities of each character, creator/writer Steven Moffat establishes his auteurist voice: occasionally scrambled chronology that exacts maximum humor from every situation, running gags that take their time getting to the payoff, and the depiction of the same events from both sides of the Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus divide. By the end of the season, the ensemble may not have gained much psychological or emotional depth, but the dynamics between the characters have been firmly established -- as have the show's stylistic hallmarks. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

In this suspenseful action thriller a hitman's botched assignment leads to a death warrant upon his head. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A Jewish Londoner embarks on a journey to find himself after learning some shocking news about his past in this eccentric British comedy. As the film begins, Leon (Mark Frankel) is already in a time of transition, having quit his job for moral reasons and assumed a position in his mother's catering firm. His life is thrown into even more disarray when a bizarre coincidence reveals the truth behind his birth: not only was his birth the result of artificial insemination, but a lab mix-up means that his real, biological father is a complete stranger. The confused Leon sets out to find his "real" dad, and unexpectedly discovers that he is descended from a family of Yorkshire pig farmers. Co-directors Vadim Jean and Gary Sinyor move their story in fits and starts, allowing room for countless digressions, from a torrid affair with a outrageous artist (Maryam d'Abo) to the accidental breeding of a rather unique pig. While the film proves uneven, fans of the quirkier varieties of British comedy should find Leon the Pig Farmer's off-beat tone and taste for surrealistic details suitably entertaining. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

In this intricately layered, dark story, a woman whose guardian sexually abused her tells her story. It seems that her guardian also used her life as the basis for a series of stories about a woman known as Blackeyes. The real-life woman and the fictional woman each tell their stories, while attempting to cope with their lives in the present. Eventually, both commit suicide, but not before the real-life woman has taken revenge on the man who warped (and stole) her life. This story was brought to the screen by the prolific (and ailing) director Dennis Potter who was responsible for such stunning works as The Singing Detective. There is no evidence that Blackeyes has ever received a U.S. screening. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Director Bruce Beresford has safely stayed within the domain of the Bible and not strayed into patches of Hollywood fiction in this routine version of the story of David (Richard Gere). For that reason, anyone unfamiliar with Biblical history might be puzzled by the episodic presentation of David's life. In the opening scenes, Samuel condemns Saul and anoints the young David as his heir, and in fairly quick succession David slays Goliath, incurs Saul's jealous wrath, leaves, and, much later, comes back to rule after Saul has died. Once David is on the throne, Bathsheba and then Absalom enter into the picture. Interspersed are brutal scenes of fighting, but not much in the way of motivation for David's complex behavior. Gaps in the narration or unclear motivation may be the result of trying to cover too many events in a 114-minute running time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi