Reviews by audrey dobbs

this not rated tv docu-drama focuses on timothy hennis who is charged and found guilty of the rape and murder of a military wife and murder of two of her children. because justice is the last thing on the state's mind-in 1986-- timothy is ultimately forced to spend over 3-1/2 years on death row. his parents and their lawyers don't give up. after the supreme court grant a new trial--timothy was found not guilty after the jury's short deliberation./update--- 20 years later the military called tim back to military active duty so they could take him to court in the military and again charge him with the same crimes. i believe, according to the latest 2010 internet account, this matter is still not resolved. this film stars john corbett, hal holbrook and rue mcclanahan , tim irwin, and rick schroder it was made in 1996 and runs 3 hours

this movie was adapted from a book by dodie smith that i read about 1965. the movie has romola garai as cassandra mortmain--the family mortmain are challenged to maintain a proper household that includes father--james who writes, but has a tough time finding an isolated work place and often gets writers block. the other family members are rose byrne as rose and tara fitzgerald as topaz. the story which takes place in a crumbling castle in suffolk is filtered through the eyes of cassandra the younger of the two daughters. her older sister rose is hoping to soon find a proper man and her chance arrives with simon and neil cotton played by henry thomas and marc blucas. the cottons have plans to live in the castle. the remaining member of the mortmain family is topaz who is james' second wife-- i honestly don't remember a great number of details-- the cast is good and the family is poor-- i know a lot of interesting things occur.--the filmmakers certainly wouldn't bother with a book that age if it didn't seem a good story--rose byrne is up and coming now, as are romola garai and tara fitzgerald. BTW dodie smith also wrote 101 dalmations--if you watch this and enjoy it--let us all know -I intend to try and secure a copy on dvd-

this movie 'a scent of heather' is the most sexy movie i have ever enjoyed. this entry says that vanessa del rio is the star--but the girl on the poster is veronica hart--not vanessa del rio--the movie is about a young girl heather, who has spent several years in a convent raised by the sisters, and she knows nothing of men or sex. she is marrying a man who is quite willing to teach her anything she needs to know. after heather becomes lady if the house she has several erotic encounters which kept me wide awake for the whole movie. paul thomas as her new husband and robert kerman as tom-the chauffeur were memorable in their roles. i do not know about ratings, check before you watch---

this movie 'a scent of heather' is the most sexy movie i have ever enjoyed. this entry says that vanessa del rio is the star--but the girl on the poster is veronica hart--not vanessa del rio--the movie is about a young girl heather, who has spent several years in a convent raised by the sisters, and she knows nothing of men or sex. she is marrying a man who is quite willing to teach her anything she needs to know. after heather becomes lady if the house she has several erotic encounters which kept me wide awake for the whole movie. paul thomas as her new husband and robert kerman as tom-the chauffeur were memorable in their roles. i do not know about ratings, check before you watch---

Clive Owen fans unite-If you have not seen GREENFINGERS-- look for it right away---Clive plays colin briggs in a comedy that takes place when colin gets to take part in an experimental program to finish off his british prison sentence. all colin wants is peace and quiet in the pastoral setting. But, his wise elderly roommate fergus, played by David Kelly, introduces him to gardening--- After he discovers that he has a talent and passion for plants, he and his fellow gardeners, get the attention of celebrated gardener -georgina woodhouse--Helen Mirren---soon the unexpected gardeners are preparing to compete for England's highest flower show award. Then when colin meets georgina's beautiful daughter-primrose-he discovers another reason to fight for his freedom---a crazy little thing called LOVE. I love this and other movies like it. ' Waking ned devine'--also w/ david kelly is one of the others i highly recommend.

darkly funny--this one is a keeper--usa today---GOODBYE LOVER directed by roland joffe, is a glossy plunge into la la land glitz and murder. the building was very tall. the time it took to fall from it was very short. who drops from the high balcony? mystery combines with backstabbing humor--chic style melds with neo noir attitude and double cross turns to triple cross--- i don't want to reveal any of the surprises, just follow the trail of a beautiful sexual adenturer--patricia arquette--sandra dunsmore. stay on the case with ellen degeneres as sgt. rita pompano, a jaded wisecracking detective. and keep your eyes on the rest of a gifted ensemble--mary louise parker, don johnson and dermot mulroney. patricia arquette adds another to the list of amazing characters she has played. like alabama whitman in true romance, she isn't someone you want to meet everyday. you just never forget having met her.

a cauleen smith movie DRYLONGSO--Winner best picture--urbanworld film festival--nation sack filmworks presents--a snapshot of a young woman who feels deeply the value and vulnerability of everyone's life but her own. pica, our hero is a girl with a mission. armed with a polaroid camera and charming saavy, she sets out to document the existence of young black men in her neighborhood, she believes they are a vanishing breed--an endangered species soon to be extinct. her obsessive snapshots lead her to many excentric neighborhood characters who force her to recognize the value of her own life and work.---this is an official selection--sundance film festival-2000

INKHEART a movie created from the same titled young adult novel by cornelia funke--in the dvd extras--a favorite passage of the author that wasn't included in the movie is read aloud by 12-year- old eliza bennett who plays meggie in the film. ALTHOUGH significantly altered from the book, the adventure is still worth taking. THE MAGIC is muddled, but this fantasy tale conjures up intriguing characters, enchanting adventures and an infectious love of reading. BRENDAN FRASER stars as mo folchart who is keeping a secret from his daughter meggie and aunt elinor(helen mirren). mo is a SILVERTONGUE and when reading aloud from a book--now and then--a character escapes from the book to live and breathe in our world. the drawback to this occurence is that when a character pops out---a living person pops into the story taking its place. mo's wife RESA (sienna guillory) had disappeared into a book nine years before leaving a character--dustfinger (the fantastic paul bettany) in this world. the book, was of course INKHEART. mo had traveled across europe looking for another copy of inkheart. dustfinger had taken the original book when he set out to see this world. mo and meggie have again set out to look for books. it is mo's habit to visit bookshops while he searches. as a bookbinder, he repairs precious old books belonging to the shops he visits. they come upon dustfinger in their travels and he complicates the story in several ways. aunt elinor who has a housefull of books that she treasures more than her own life also appears and becomes a serious character. i will stop now and let you decide to watch inkheart or not. cornelia has written more about these characters in INKSPELL, so there could be a sequel.

1985's BLISS received the australian academy award for best picture--but the film has the capacity to provoke rapture or rage--or incredulity--for BLISS is a savage condemnation of western life, and it condemns in terms both wildly comic, and deeply repulsive. as the film opens, advertising executive harry joy (barry otto) suffers a heart attack at a dinner party and DIES. as paramedics struggle to revive him harry has a vision of THE AFTERLIFE. instead of receiving a consoling glimpse of heaven, harry arrives at the hospital convinced of the reality of hell. he expects, in fact, that he may be in hell. in the new 'reality' of his visions, his own IIMMORALITY and that of his family and friends is revealed in horrific visions. roaches crawl from a wound in harry's chest, his son dresses up as a nazi, his wife is unfaithful with harry's accountant--having sex on a table in his favorite restaurant. desperate for salvation, harry returns to his agency, and resigns from an account with clients who make cancer causing products. he starts a relationship with honey barbara, passionate nature lover, as well as neophyte hooker. harry becomes determined to live a 'clean' life, but in the advertising business where forces of evil and wholesale deception run rampant, harry must endure many more bizarre trials, before finding his own paradise.----part farce, part morality tale, BLISS is an unusually challenging film and one that defies easy classifications, or patent judgements. director ray lawrence has given us an agonizing and forceful vision of life in hell, and the personal compomises that send us there.

Young Philadelphia was orphaned when the ship went down that had carried her and her parents to a new life in Australia. She had relatives near Echuca where she lived until she came of age. She worked at a photographer's studio--hand tinting the old b/w photos. She met Brenton Edwards , a river boat captain, who was crazy for her,but ''delie'' as he called her was in no hurry for love. She had things to do before she would be tied down. She had developed her artistic painting talent and went to Sydney with Alistair Raeburn who helped her meet others of the artistic community. Time passed and Alistair was also mad about Philidelphia. She had to go back to Echuca because her aunt was sick unto death, and again she saw Brenton. After a time, they married and went on the little freight- carrying- river boat down to the Darling river in dry season. The river dropped so low that they were dry docked-or simply stuck on the river for several months. Delie was pregnant at this time. She met a woman who had lived long in this harsh land and lost every child she had birthed. As they finally got enough rain from the north to fill up the river, the woman came to them and gave delie all her tiny saved baby things. While they were still on the river but closer to home, the boat caught fire. It was lost and Brenton was badly injured. He lost hope in the long period when he became dependent on Philadelphia for their financial situation. Delie secretly was having their boat ''the Philadelphia'' rebuilt with her painting money. She also had been studying for her license to captain the boat so they could go back on the river. She had named their young son, Gordon, and he was about three by this time. Brenton was really hard to live with while he couldn't walk. He started excercising his legs without telling anyone, and one day he surprised everyone when he stepped out of his wheel chair and took his first tenative steps. Many other details are left out of this summary. I was tremendously fond of this mini-series and it remains my all-time favorite. I give it 5 stars All of the supporting cast were wonderful.John Russell Waters and Sigrid Thornton played Brenton and Philadelphia. They were both memorable in ALL THE RIVERS RUN.