Annette Bening twists like a mink on a leash through Stephen Frears's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel. This may be the perfect trope for the moral hysteria that coils around a mother, her son, and his girlfriend in this slender but highly pleasurable neo-noir. Small in effect and local in scope, the film is about small-fry, attractive, bloodless con artists who view the world as neatly split between ropers and suckers, grifters and squares. "Grifter's got an irresistible urge to beat a guy that's wise," an old-timer tells Roy (John Cusack). And yet the three characters here--played by Angelica Huston, Cusack, and Bening--only beat the innocent: Lilly (Huston) gigs at the track for a mobster named Bobo, putting wads of cash on long-shot horses to even out the odds. Roy, her son,... Learn More
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Annette Bening's outstanding performance is the best reason to see Being Julia, a highly melodramatic adaptation of the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. With a prestigious pedigree (director Istvan Szabo and screenwriter Ronald Harwood share impressive theatrical backgrounds) and a stellar cast including Jeremy Irons, Bruce Greenwood, and Juliet Stevenson, the film's backstage and onstage theatrics take place in pre-World War II London, when the venerable actress Julia (Bening) fends off middle-age by romancing a stage-struck young American (Shaun Evans) in a calculated attempt to retain some youthful vitality while airing her own dirty laundry onstage in a glorious act of divine diva behavior. Treating life and theater as one big play in which she's the perpetual... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Michael Gambon - Annette Bening - Jeremy Irons Director(s): István Szabó DVD Release Date: Released the 22 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A fictional dramatization of the anti-Communist witch-hunts that plagued the U.S. during the late 1940s and early '50s, Guilty by Suspicion examines one of the most shameful periods of American history. After producing such prominent films as Rocky and Raging Bull, Irwin Winkler made his directorial debut with this 1991 drama, basing his screenplay on the harsh reality of the blacklisting era. Set during 1951, when the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) held hearings to target alleged Communist affiliations within the Hollywood filmmaking community, the film stars Robert De Niro as a prominent director who is urged to "name names" to appease the committee. Rather than betray one of his closest friends, he refuses to "cooperate" with the committee and is... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Robert De Niro - Annette Bening Director(s): Irwin Winkler DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Anyone who has seen and loved Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves should feel right at home in his off-beat psychological thriller In Dreams. A sexy, very adult take on "Little Red Riding Hood," Wolves unreeled as a series of surreal "fairy tales" interwoven within the heated dreams of a young girl verging on womanhood. Wolves' patron saints were Freud and Jung (as sifted through Jordan's wickedly fertile imagination), and the duo are very much aboard for In Dreams as well. Here's a movie that takes place entirely in dreamtime, where the dark, violent fantasies of Claire Cooper (Annette Bening)--wife, mother, and illustrator of children's books--play out unpoliced by superego, conscience, or society. On the face of it, Claire's a clairvoyant... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Annette Bening - Robert Downey Jr. Director(s): Neil Jordan DVD Release Date: Released the 06 January 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Get shot in the head and become a better person. This 1991 Mike Nichols (Wolf) film stars Harrison Ford as a big-shot cold-hearted lawyer who gets a bullet in his brain during a holdup. The film de-emphasizes the traumas of recovery to focus on the title character's personality change after the fact. The canny Ford gets to work from his full, familiar palette of arrogance to boyishness, and even builds Henry from top to bottom after the wounded fellow awakens with no memory. But this is a slow and unremarkable film from Nichols, its sentimentality eclipsing all else, most of all profound insight. --Tom KeoghMore Info About This DVD Actor(s): Harrison Ford - Annette Bening Director(s): Mike Nichols DVD Release Date: Released the 09 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Annette Bening twists like a mink on a leash through Stephen Frears's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel. This may be the perfect trope for the moral hysteria that coils around a mother, her son, and his girlfriend in this slender but highly pleasurable neo-noir. Small in effect and local in scope, the film is about small-fry, attractive, bloodless con artists who view the world as neatly split between ropers and suckers, grifters and squares. "Grifter's got an irresistible urge to beat a guy that's wise," an old-timer tells Roy (John Cusack). And yet the three characters here--played by Angelica Huston, Cusack, and Bening--only beat the innocent: Lilly (Huston) gigs at the track for a mobster named Bobo, putting wads of cash on long-shot horses to even out the odds. Roy, her son,... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Anjelica Huston - John Cusack - Annette Bening Director(s): Stephen Frears DVD Release Date: Released the 24 September 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Talk about too little, too late. A year after Stephen Frears's marvelous Dangerous Liaisons, Milos Forman released this film, based on the same material: the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Shot at the same time but held so as not to compete, it suffered by comparison. The story--about a pair of aristocrats, former lovers, who wager that the man cannot seduce a particularly chaste woman--is still awash in lust and intrigue. But, while Forman's craft was exceptional, his cast couldn't match the power of its predecessor. In particular, Colin Firth, as the game-playing title character, lacked the snaky charm of John Malkovich, and Meg Tilly couldn't compare to the tragic beauty of Michelle Pfeiffer. Annette Bening, though born to play a vixen, seemed callow and insubstantial... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Colin Firth - Annette Bening Director(s): Milos Forman DVD Release Date: Released the 17 September 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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