Gilbert, Brian

Not Without My Daughter

An american woman trapped in islamic iran by her brutish husband must find a way to escape with her daughter as well. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 04/15/2008 Starring: Sally Field Sheila Rosenthal Run time: 116 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Brian Gilbert

The Arab anti-defamation leagues understandably had a field day with this one. Sally Field plays Betty Mahmoody, an American who marries an Iranian (Alfred Molina) and has a child. They go back to Iran for a visit and, to her horror, he tells her he's decided to stay there. If she wants to leave, she must leave her daughter behind. If she stays, Betty must live in a culture vastly different and, she believes, very dangerous. Part thriller, part culture clash, the film certainly takes advantage of Americans' perceptions of Iran after the unrest of the '70s and early '80s. Molina is truly despicable as the husband, while Field projects a lot of overheated anguish as Betty tries to figure out a way to escape the country with her daughter. Overheated, in fact, is the word for the whole melodrama. --Marshall Fine

Wilde (Special Edition)

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/24/2008 Run time: 116 minutes Rating: R

Vice Versa

When a father switches minds with his son a grown man is forced to contend with grade school bullies and homework while a preteen boy is up against back-stabbing co-workers board meetings and a blossoming love affair in this acclaimed comedy. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 07/24/2007 Starring: Judge Reinhold Fred Savage Run time: 98 minutes Rating: Pg

It was one of those "something in the air" moments in Hollywood. In the space of a year, four different films came out on the same subject: A kid lands in an adult's body (and, often, vice versa--get it?). The best was Big, but this one was surprisingly amusing, thanks to a goofily adolescent performance by Judge Reinhold (as the kid in an adult's body) and a comically serious one by young Fred Savage, who can convey the sense of an grownup trapped in a kid's world. The plot is virtually identical to its competitors--overworked Dad has a big deadline and has to rely on the unreliable kid to come through for him, even as he gets a sense of what his son's life is like--but Reinhold and Savage charm their way through it. --Marshall Fine

The Gathering

When a young woman is hit by a car she begins to have strange visions of the local townspeople & their deaths. Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 05/08/2007 Starring: Christina Ricci Ioan Gruffudd Run time: 92 minutes Rating: R

Tom & Viv

The passionate, turbulent love story of the writer T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne and the terrible secret that divided them.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-MAY-2005
Media Type: DVD

Tom is T.S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe), the St. Louis-born poet who tried to turn himself into an Englishman. Viv is his wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Miranda Richardson). She's got money, which allows him to give up his job and focus on poetry. She urges him on, promotes him to the Bloomsbury group (which adopts him but looks down its nose at her), and begins to go slightly crazy. Is it Eliot's chilly demeanor (in a terrific repressed performance by Dafoe) that's driving her nuts, or something else? In fact, she suffers from misdiagnosed physical ailments, and a combination of drugs and alcohol send her around the bend. It's hard to get emotionally involved in Dafoe's Eliot or to really plug into this story, though Richardson's passion nearly pulls you in. --Marshall Fine

Vice Versa [Region 2]

It was one of those "something in the air" moments in Hollywood. In the space of a year, four different films came out on the same subject: A kid lands in an adult's body (and, often, vice versa--get it?). The best was Big, but this one was surprisingly amusing, thanks to a goofily adolescent performance by Judge Reinhold (as the kid in an adult's body) and a comically serious one by young Fred Savage, who can convey the sense of an grownup trapped in a kid's world. The plot is virtually identical to its competitors--overworked Dad has a big deadline and has to rely on the unreliable kid to come through for him, even as he gets a sense of what his son's life is like--but Reinhold and Savage charm their way through it. --Marshall Fine

Wilde [Region 2]

Wilde [Region 2]