Don McKay, a high school janitor who leaves his hometown after a tragedy, returns 25 years later to rekindle a romance with his old flame, who is dying, but this homecoming brings McKay more than he bargained for.
Laura's expecting. Her husband, Steven's a loving guy but has little time for her. Her mom lives thousands of miles away. Forced to give up on her dreams, she's always been a bit edgy. A ... See full summary »
Director:
Isaac Webb
Stars:
Elisabeth Shue,
Steven Mackintosh,
Kathleen Chalfant
In the harsh, wintry woods of rural Quebec, Bruce (Thomas Haden Church), a down-on-his-luck snowplow operator, accidentally kills a man during a drunken night joyride. Stricken with panic, ... See full summary »
Director:
Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Stars:
Thomas Haden Church,
Marc Labrèche,
Anie Pascale
A year after their pious dad's death, just graduated bright, erudite but distracted Matt Anderson, an angelic dreamer who talks with dad's ghost and phones with his confident God, moves in ... See full summary »
Director:
Jeffrey Bell
Stars:
William McNamara,
Elisabeth Shue,
Dylan Walsh
Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot, and her ... See full summary »
Christopher is an ambitious college freshman, striving to become a writer. Through a computer fault he's assigned the same room as Alex, a real party freak and... a girl! He's annoyed and ... See full summary »
Director:
Mel Damski
Stars:
Patrick Dempsey,
Helen Slater,
Dan Schneider
A bachelor becomes the unwilling guardian of his autistic, intellectually disabled sister; then an experimental treatment works a dramatic change in her brain and his attitude.
Director:
John Duigan
Stars:
Elisabeth Shue,
Aaron Eckhart,
Jill Hennessy
In 1971, in the small town of Shirley Falls, in Maine, the odd and lonely secretary Isabelle Goodrow raises her teenager daughter Amy alone. She has only two friends in her job among her ... See full summary »
In this irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama-teacher rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Director:
Andrew Fleming
Stars:
Steve Coogan,
Elisabeth Shue,
Catherine Keener
Don McKay is living a very lowly life as a janitor. Then he receives a letter from his high school girlfriend, Sonny, who announces that she is dying and that she needs him to come back home. But when Don arrives back in his hometown, he finds Sonny's doctor has a crush on her and has no intention of letting Don back into her life, and the rest of the town remembers the tragedy that drove Don away in the first place and they have no intention of letting Don come back, at least not without paying some dues.Written by
napierslogs
In the early portion of the movie, Don McKay is shown working as a janitor at a school called "Premat Prep", likely a playful reference to the film's Director of Photography, Phil Parmet. See more »
Goofs
When Don and Sonny drive home after the romantic dinner at the restaurant, the left head light of the pick-up truck is broken, but when they arrive home and park the vehicle both lights are working. See more »
Thomas Haden Church stars as the soft-spoken and slow-moving (but not necessarily slow-witted) titular character in this surprisingly entertaining black comedy.
Why do I say surprising? Oh, because it faded quickly into oblivion and has such a low score here at IMDb. And I admit that I at first had trouble getting into the film's weird (and I don't think always intentionally so) rhythm. Like a lot of black comedies, it takes time to establish its tone and cue you in on what you should and shouldn't be finding funny. Unfortunately, Church isn't up to the task of being our confident guide. His attempts to play Don McKay, a janitor who's summoned back to his hometown by a dying ex-girlfriend, as a shuffling and seemingly dim bulb come across instead as stiff and baffled. But the film is saved by playful performances by Elisabeth Shue, as this sordid crime film's femme fatale, and especially Melissa Leo, as a suspicious nurse who channels Judith Anderson from Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca." It's up to these two, who are clearly having a ball with their roles, to get the film and us firmly into the black comedy spirit, and once they do so, the film plays as a quirky and entertaining bit of fun.
Grade: B
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Thomas Haden Church stars as the soft-spoken and slow-moving (but not necessarily slow-witted) titular character in this surprisingly entertaining black comedy.
Why do I say surprising? Oh, because it faded quickly into oblivion and has such a low score here at IMDb. And I admit that I at first had trouble getting into the film's weird (and I don't think always intentionally so) rhythm. Like a lot of black comedies, it takes time to establish its tone and cue you in on what you should and shouldn't be finding funny. Unfortunately, Church isn't up to the task of being our confident guide. His attempts to play Don McKay, a janitor who's summoned back to his hometown by a dying ex-girlfriend, as a shuffling and seemingly dim bulb come across instead as stiff and baffled. But the film is saved by playful performances by Elisabeth Shue, as this sordid crime film's femme fatale, and especially Melissa Leo, as a suspicious nurse who channels Judith Anderson from Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca." It's up to these two, who are clearly having a ball with their roles, to get the film and us firmly into the black comedy spirit, and once they do so, the film plays as a quirky and entertaining bit of fun.
Grade: B