Nicole Kidman: A Kind of Life
Page 26
Producers: Fernando Bovaira, Jose Luis Cuerda, Sunmin Park
Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Writer: Alejandro Amenabar
Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives in a darkened house with her two children, convinced that they will die if exposed to sunlight. Her husband has gone off to war and not returned, and her servants have disappeared without warning. Just getting by day-to-day is all she can manage. Luckily, three servants appear at her door one day and take over Grace’s household duties. Soon it becomes clear that Grace is in for the fight of her life, though what that fight is does not become clear until the final scenes.
Birthday Girl (2001)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Ben Chaplin
Vincent Cassel
Mathieu Kassovitz
Kate Lynn Evans
Stephen Mangan
Alexander Armstrong
Sally Phillips
Jo McInnes
Ben Miller
Producers: Eric Abraham, Steve Butterworth, Julie Goldstein, Colin Leventhal, Diana Phillips, Sydney Pollack, Paul Webster
Director: Jez Butterworth
Writers: Tom Butterworth, Jez Butterworth
Nicole Kidman plays a Russian main-order bride, Nadia, who travels to England to marry a mild-mannered bank teller named John (Ben Chaplin). He is distressed to learn that she speaks no English and he tries to send her back, only the Internet dating service that connected them will not return his telephone calls. He learns to make the most of it and things seem to be progressing well until Nadia’s cousin Alexei shows up with his friend Yuri. One thing leads to another, and before John knows what has happened he is robbing his own bank to keep Yuri from hurting Nadia. It is at that point that the story takes a wicked turn and heads into unforeseen territory.
The Hours (2002)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Julianne Moore
Meryl Streep
Eileen Atkins
Toni Collette
Claire Danes
Stephen Dillane
Producers: Robert Fox, Scott Rudin
Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: Michael Cunningham (novel), David Hare
Nicole Kidman plays lesbian writer Virginia Woolf in this film based on the Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, The Hours. It is about women living in different eras who are affected by the feminist’s writing. Julianne Moore plays a housewife who is influenced by Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Mery Streep plays a contemporary woman who throws a party for a friend who is dying of AIDS. Nicole changed her appearance drastically to play the role and preview audiences did not recognize her.
Dogville (2002)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Stellan Skarsgard
Siobhan fallon
Chloe Sevigny
Patrica Clarkson
Jeremy Davies
Philip Baker Hall
Paul Bettany
Lauren Bacall
Producer: Gillian Berrie, Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Lars Jonsson, Vibeke Windelov
Director: Lars von Trier
Writers: Lars von Trier
Grace (Nicole Kidman) is a woman who movies to a small town in the Rocky Mountains in the 1930s and finds herself treated as an outsider. Based on the song “Pirate Jenny” from The Threepenny Opera, in which a town is attacked by its enemies and leaves an unwanted woman as the only survivor, it deals with themes of violence and vengeance. It was filmed in Sweden entirely on sets.
The Human Stain (2003)
CAST
Anthony Hopkins
Nicole Kidman
Ed Harris
Producers: Ronald M. Bozman, Andre Lamal, Gary Lucchesi, Michael Ohoven, Tom Rosenberg, Scott Steindorff
Director: Robert Benton
Writer: Philip Roth (novel, Nicholas Meyer
Based on Philip Roth’s novel, The Human Stain is about a college professor, Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), whose life is shattered when it is disclosed that he had an affair with a young, female janitor, Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman). The film contains Nicole Kidman’s most explicit sex scenes since Eyes Wide Shut.
Cold Mountain (2003)
CAST
Jude Law
Nicole Kidman
Renee Zellweger
Natalie Portman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Giovanni Ribisi
Brendan Gleeson
Charlie Hunnam
Ray Winstone
Donald Sutherland
Jena Malone
Producers: Steve Andrews, Albert Berger, Tim Bricknell, William Horberg, Sydney Pollack, Iain Smith, Ron Yerxa
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writer: Charles Frazier (novel, Anthony Minghella)
Jule Law plays the role of Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier who makes a journey back to his mountain community to reunite with his pre-Civil War sweetheart, Ada (Nicole Kidman). It was filmed in Romania.
The Stepford Wives (2004)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Matthew Broderick
Bette Midler
Glenn Close
Faith Hill
Producers: Ronald Bozman, Leslie Converse, Donald De Line, Scott Rudin
Director: Frank Oz
Writer: Ira Levin (book), Paul Rudnick (screenplay)
A remake of the 1975 film starring Katherine Ross, The Stepford Wives is a satirical thriller about a group of married men in a small town named Stepford, Connecticut. What the men have in common are beautiful wives who cater to their every need. When the character played by Nicole Kidman arrives in time she is horrified by the women and concludes that they have been brainwashed by their husbands, perhaps with the help of environmental toxins.
Birth (2004)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Cameron Bright
Danny Huston
Lauren Bacall
Alison Elliott
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Writers: Jean-Claude Carriere, Milo Addica
A young widow played by Nicole Kidman gets on with her life after the death of her husband. She falls in love with someone new and not long after she is engaged to be married she meets a ten-year-old boy who informs her that he is the incarnation of her late husband.
Bewitched (2004)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Will Ferrell
Shirley MacLaine
Michael Cain
Jason Schwartzman
Kristin Chenoweth
Heather Burns
Jim Turner
Stephen Colbert
David Allan Grier
Director: Nora Ephron
Writers: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron, Sol Saks (television series)
A big-screen remake of the popular television series. With an impressive cast such as this and the legendary Nora Ephron calling the shots, you would think something magical would happen. Instead, moviegoers were offered the oddest leading man and leading woman pairing in movie history and a plot that did a good impression of a 1960s television script.
The Interpreter (2005)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Sean Penn
Catherine Keener
Jesper Christensen
Yvan Attal
Director: Sydney Pollack
Writers: Martin Stellman (story), Brian Ward (story)
When a U.N. interpreter played by Nicole Kidman overhears a conversation in a rare dialect that indicates that an African head of state may be killed, her life is thrown into chaos as she becomes a target of the killers. She is put under the protection of a federal agent who concludes that she may be one of the conspirators.
Fur (2004)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Robert Downey Jr.
Ty Burrell
Harris Yulin
Jane Alexander
Emmy Clarke
Genevieve M
cCartkhy
Boris McGiver
Director: Steven Shainberg
Writers: Patricia Bosworth (book), Erin Cressida Wilson (screenplay)
Based on a book about photographer Diane Arbus, played in this film by Nicole Kidman, the plot focuses on Arbus’s obsession with photographing everything freakish. She falls in love with the character played by Robert Downey Jr., a man with werewolf syndrome, a disease that has caused his entire body to be covered with human fur.
The Invasion (2007)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Daniel Craig
Jeremy Northam
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel,
Writers: David Kajganich (screenplay), Jack Finney (novel)
Nicole Kidman’s character, a Washington psychiatrist, uncovers evidence of an alien epidemic and learns that her son might be key to stopping it.
Margot at the Wedding (2007)
CAST
Zane Pais
Susan Blackwell
Nicole Kidman
Jack Black
Flora Cross
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Seth Barrish
Matthew Arkin
Brian Kelley
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writer: Noah Baumbach
Margot, played by Nicole Kidman, and her teenage son travel from Manhattan to her family’s Long Island home to engage in sibling dysfunction. Not much plot. Lots of family jealousies and backbiting.
The Golden Compass (2007)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Daniel Craig
Dakota Blue Richards
Ben Walker
Freddie Highmore
Ian McKellen
Eva Green
Director: Chris Weitz
Writer: Philip Pullman (novel), Chris Weitz (screenplay)
This is a fantasy in which an orphan, played by Dakota Blue Richards, overhears a conversation about a research project in the Arctic and a powerful dust with mystical powers, and then goes to the Arctic with the help of a golden compass. All about witches and goblins.
Australia (2008)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Hugh Jackman
Shea Adams
Jack Thompson
Bryan Brown
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Stuart Beattle, Baz Luhrmann
This is an epic adventure set in pre-World War II Australia about an English aristocrat, played by Nicole Kidman, who inherits a large ranch that is targeted for a takeover by an unsavory cattle baron. To fight them off, she partners with one of her cowboys (Hugh Jackman).
Nine (2009)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Daniel Day-Lewis
Marion Cotillard
Penelope Cruz
Judi Dench
Sophia Loren
Kate Hudson
Fergie Duhamel
Director: Rob Marshall
Writers: Michael Tolkin, Anthony Minghella
A famous filmmaker makes an effort to make sense of his personal and professional life as he engages in dramatic relationships with his wife, his agent, his muse, his mistress, and his mother.
Rabbit Hole (2010)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Aaron Eckhart
Dianne Wiest
Miles Teller
Sandra Oh
Mike Doyle
Ali Marsh
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Writers: David Lindsay-Abaire
A happily married couple suffer the loss of their young son in a car accident. The mother, played by Nicole Kidman, finds solace in a relationship with the teenage driver of the car that killed her son. The father cannot extricate himself from the past and seeks refuge in the company of outsiders.
Just Go With It (2011)
CAST
Adam Sandler
Jennifer Aniston
Brooklyn Decker
Nicole Kidman
Nick Swardson
Dave Matthews
Griffin Gluck
Director: Dennis Dugan
Writer: Allan Loeb, Timothy Dowling
A plastic surgeon played by Adam Sandler enlists the help of his assistant (Jennifer Aniston) to pose as his soon-to-be divorced wife in an attempt to cover up a lie he has told his girlfriend.
The Paperboy (2012)
CAST
Zac Efron
Matthew McConaughey
Nicole Kidman
John Cusack
David Oyelowa
Scott Glenn
Ned Bellamy
Nealia Gordon
Macy Gray
Director: Lee Daniels
Writers: Peter Dexter, Lee Daniels
Ward Jansen, played by Matthew McConaughey, is a newspaper reporter who returns home to investigate a murder case and takes on his younger brother Jack (Zac Efron) as his driver. Conflict arises when the love letter pen pal (Nicole Kidman) of the imprisoned convict stirs up the romantic feelings of young Jack and urinates on him in a controversial scene in the film to lessen the effect of a painful jellyfish attack. This is an anti-hero film about Southern gothic violence in which there are no likeable characters.
Stoker (2013)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Mia Wasikowska
David Alford
Matthew Goode
Peg Allen
Lauren E. Roman
Phyllis Somerville
Harmony Korine
Lucas Till
Director: Chan-wook Park
Writer: Wentworth Miller
India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) loses both her father and best friend Richard (Dermot Mulroney) in a car accident. As she deals with that loss, her Uncle Charlie comes to live with her and her emotionally challenged mother, played by Nicole Kidman. Soon it becomes obvious that Uncle Charlie has ulterior motives for moving into the home. Instead of being horrified or offended by her uncle, India is infatuated with him.
The Railway Man (2014)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Colin Firth
Hiroyuki Sanada
Stellan Skarsard
Jeremy Irvine
Sam ReidMarta Dusseldorp
Tom Hobbs
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky
Writers: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Andy Paterson
Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) was one of many Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during World War II. Years later, he meets a beautiful woman (Nicole Kidman) on a train and falls in love with her. Determined to help Eric rid himself of his demons she discovers that the Japanese officer who tortured him is still alive.