Nicola Usborne Movies

A disastrous trip to London proves to have a silver lining for a middle-aged American jingle writer in this romantic slice-of-life drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Harvey (Hoffman) is about to lose his unfulfilling dead-end job writing jingles when he boards a plane to attend his daughter's wedding in London. He hasn't turned out a memorable tune in some time, and should Harvey fail to come up with something catchy during his trip overseas, he knows that his boss (Richard Schiff) is ready and willing to let him go. Upon arriving in London, Harvey is devastated to learn that his daughter (Liane Balaban) has opted to have her stepfather (James Brolin) walk her down the aisle instead of him. And things are about to get worse, too. Harvey realizes that he won't be able to suppress his sadness through the whole reception, and makes a quick getaway in hopes of catching a plane back home. Perhaps if he can attend an important meeting on Monday morning, his boss will have some sympathy and grant him a momentary reprieve. No such luck, however, because when Harvey misses the flight and calls his boss to explain, he is fired over the phone. Later, at the airport bar, Harvey is drowning his sorrows when he strikes up a conversation with no-nonsense Office of National Statistics employee Kate (Thompson). Kate doesn't have much of a social life; most of her time outside of work is spent suffocating under the love of her smothering mother (Eileen Atkins). She's just gotten through a humiliating string of blind dates, and something about Harvey's situation and demeanor strikes a sympathetic chord in the lonely civil servant. Likewise, Kate's intelligence and compassion prove unexpectedly invigorating to Harvey. Both Harvey and Kate had always assumed that love had passed them by -- could this middle-aged romance be the glimmer of a new beginning? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A lovelorn matchmaker tries to set up two people about to be married -- but not to each other -- in this independent romantic comedy. George (Tunde Adebimpe) is a Nigerian expatriate living in upstate New York, where he has pledged to marry a woman in a marriage arranged for him in childhood, though he's not especially enthusiastic about the idea. George goes to Buffalo to pick up his fiancée as she arrives in America, only to discover she's already moved on to Niagara Falls, where the wedding will be held in three days. On his way back home, an annoyed and downcast George meets Gerard (Hippolyte Girardot), a man from France who is wallowing in sorrow after being dumped by his girlfriend, and Alicia (Natalia Verbeke), a light-hearted Latin-American woman who is due to marry her fiancé Nathan (James Wilby) in less than a week. Alicia finds George amusing but thinks he needs to loosen up a bit, so she invites him to a party; George brings Gerard along, feeling he needs some cheering up, and Gerard notices an obvious attraction between Alicia and George. Gerard fancies himself an authority on matters of the heart, and is certain George and Alicia would rather be with each other than with the people they're engaged to marry, so joining George, Alicia, and Nathan for a trip to visit Alicia's parents en route to Niagara Falls, he hatches a plan to break Alicia and Nathan apart -- and bring Alicia and George together. Jump Tomorrow was shown in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide