Joan Plowright

Twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.

A twelve-year-old boy escapes from a Bulgarian Communist concentration camp and sets out on a journey to reach Denmark. Twelve-year-old David escapes from a Communist concentration camp with little more than a compass, a sealed letter, a loaf of bread, and instructions to carry the letter to Copenhagen, Denmark. David is thrust into the free world for the first time as he travels across Europe. His spiritual voyage of discovery, where David slowly loses his instinctive mistrust of humanity and begins to smile, share, trust and ultimately, love, addresses the cruelties, politics, and suffering of warfare while celebrating the unbreakable spirit of a child. —Anonymous In 1952, twelve-year-old David (Ben Tibber), who was raised in the Communist Belene Prison Camp in Bulgaria, witnesses the death of his friend and protector Johannes (Jim Caviezel) and escapes from the concentration camp in the night. He is advised to mistrust everybody, and together with a piece of bread, a compass, a piece of soap, a jackknife, and a sealed envelope to be delivered in Denmark, he travels though Greece and Italy heading north. Along his journey, David discovers the beauty of the world and slowly he changes his behavior towards people. When he meets Sophie (Dame Joan Plowright), an old lady that lives in Switzerland and likes to paint as a hobby, she asks David to paint his face. Later she invites David to have lunch with her in her house, and David finally discloses his quest to her. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

An orphaned Italian boy is raised amongst a circle of British and American women living in Mussolini's Italy before and during World War II. In 1935 a group of elderly British women, whom the Italians have named the Scorpioni, have chosen Italy, specifically Florence, as a place to live to blend their proper British sensibilities with their love of Italian art and culture. One of those Scorpioni, Mary Walsh (Dame Joan Plowright), works as the English secretary for Paolo Innocente (Massimo Ghini), who, in part because of his own wife's adamant refusal, largely neglects his illegitimate adolescent son, Luca (Baird Wallace), despite Paolo's want for Luca to grow up to be a proper young man, much like the English. Luca has lived in an orphanage since his dressmaker mother's death, death a concept that Luca does not yet understand. As such, he often runs away looking for his mother. On a mutual agreement between Paolo and Mary, Mary becomes Luca's guardian, she who will receive help in raising Luca by her fellow Scorpioni and financial help from Paolo as needed. Associated with the Scorpioni is a brash younger nouveau riche Jewish-American woman named Elsa Morgenthal (Cher), who, because of her affection for Luca's mother to whom she owed money, sets up a trust for Luca's future. Amongst the Scorpioni, Lady Hester Random (Dame Maggie Smith), the widow of the former ambassador to Italy, in particular and Elsa do not get along because of their fundamental outward differences. The life for the Scorpioni changes with the on-set of World War II, more specifically when Italy declares war on Britain and France. Despite all of the Scorpioni taken into custody of sorts by the Italians, they are eventually housed in the comforts of a hotel. Lady Hester wrongly believes it is her association with Mussolini (Claudio Spadaro) that has gotten them into their comfortable surroundings, but which in reality was arranged and paid for by Elsa. Luca, who has just returned to Italy after attending school in Austria, helps Elsa with her efforts to assist those persecuted in Italy. Luca, now a teenager, has fallen in love with Elsa. As such, Luca is jealous of Elsa's professional and personal relationship with Italian lawyer Vittorio Fanfanni (Paolo Seganti). Elsa's own situation becomes more precarious with the United States' entrance into the war, the Nazis' increasing persecution of Jews, and Luca discovering that Fanfanni has ulterior motives in his relationship with Elsa. Through it all, Mary still tries to be the voice of what is right to Luca, who may be tainted by his own immature teenaged thoughts during these difficult times. —Huggo Semi-autobiographical tale from the early life of Writer and Director Franco Zeffirelli looks at the illegitimate son of an Italian businessman. The boy's mother has died, and he is raised by an Englishwoman in pre-World War II Fascist Italy. Living to each other in Florence, and presided over by an ambassador's widow, a group of Englishwomen live a sheltered existence which they believe is guaranteed personal protection in a tea reception given by Il Duce (Claudio Spadaro). However, as war breaks out, the women are interned. Occasionally in this English colony is a wealthy American, who visits amongst her travels and marriages to wealthy older men. She respects the "Scorpioni", as they are known, and secretly arranges for their stay in a hotel. The ambassador's widow finds her vulgar and tries to ignore her, but when the United States enters the war, the American too is taken into custody. Only then does she discover that her Italian lover has tricked her into signing over all of her money and modern art collection to him, and is now arranging her execution. This obliges all to join forces. Georgie (Lily Tomlin) is an American archaeologist working at a dig in the city. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net> Semi-autobiographical tale from the early life of Writer and Director Franco Zeffirelli. An illegitimate child is raised by an Englishwoman in pre-World War II Fascist Italy, part of an English community in Florence presided over by a diplomat's widow. Elsa Morganthal Strauss-Armistan (Cher) is a wealthy American collector of modern art who visits these "Scorpioni" on occasion. —Dehlia

Rafael Infante (Chayanne) comes to Houston from Cuba to work at John Burnett's (Kris Kristofferson's) dance studio. He meets Ruby Sinclair (Vanessa Williams), a cute dance instructor there. Chemistry? Will John know he's Rafael's dad? Young Cuban Rafael Infante (Chayanne) just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John Burnett (Kris Kristofferson) for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas, Nevada. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby Sinclair (Vanessa Williams) is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.

Dennis Mitchell (Mason Gamble) is a five-year-old boy who lives with his parents Henry (Robert Stanton) and Alice (Lea Thompson) and is the bane of next door neighbor George Wilson's (Walter Matthau) existence. One day, George pretends to be asleep to avoid Dennis, who mistakes this for illness and shoots an aspirin into his mouth with a slingshot. Dennis's parents Henry and Alice learn of the incident, and are both dismayed about it, but they can't immediately deal with it, as they both have to work, so they leave Dennis with his best friend Joey McDonald at the home of their impetuous classmate Margaret Wade, much to Dennis's dismay. Despite Dennis and Joey's dislike of Margaret, the three work together to fix up an abandoned tree-house in the woods. Because of his trouble-making but unintentional behavior, his parents often struggle to find suitable babysitters to deal with him. While vacuuming spilled paint in the garage, Dennis inadvertently shoots a glob of it onto George's barbecue grill. Tasting the paint, George suspects Dennis for the mischief. On one night, they manage to get one named Polly (Natasha Lyonne) and her boyfriend Mickey (Devin Ratray) to babysit him, but repeated doorbell pranks from Dennis push the two too far (not knowing he is behind this). Mickey tapes a thumbtack to the doorbell. George investigates the vacuum in the Mitchells' garage and accidentally shoots himself in the buttocks with a golf ball. Hoping to confront the Mitchells, George rings the doorbell, but pricks his thumb on the tack, and Polly and Mickey, mistaking him for the prankster, douse George with water and flour, much to the amusement of George's wife, Martha. While all of this and the rest of the events in town go on, a burglar named Switchblade Sam (Christopher Lloyd) arrives in town and begins robbing houses, as well as striking fear into the children that he meets. Dennis plays with George's dentures, loses the two front incisors, and replaces them with Chiclets before George has his picture taken for the local newspaper. Dennis' parents are both called away on business trips at the same time, and when everyone they know refuses to look after him, they turn to George and his wife Martha (Joan Plowright) to look after him. Martha loves Dennis and sees him as a surrogate grandson. George is further irritated by him spilling bath water on the bathroom floor, swapping chemicals, and bringing his pet dog, Ruff, into the house for a while. George, however, is infuriated that Dennis has replaced his nasal spray with mouthwash and the latter with toilet cleaner. In the attic, Dennis's carelessness causes George to slip on mothballs. All of this is happening around the time the Summer Floraganza, a long-awaited event, is scheduled to happen. As a longtime member of the local garden club, George is chosen to host it. He is excited to have this honor, as he has been growing and nurturing a rare plant for forty years. After growing for the said length of time, its flower finally blooms, only to die several seconds later. Alice gets stuck at the airport due to a storm, thus forcing Dennis to stay with the Wilsons for an extra night, which coincides with the unveiling of the plant and its blooming to the members of the garden club. While that is happening, he is sent away for causing trouble, namely overturning the dessert table when he pushed a black button, which he found out opened the garage door. When he hears Switchblade Sam robbing the house. He goes downstairs and finds George's gold coins missing. He runs outside to tell him just as the flower is beginning to bloom, which causes him and all the guests to miss its entire lifespan of the blooming flower. Not knowing about the robbery, George severely scolds Dennis, tells him that he has no use for him, and that he doesn't want to know or see him anymore. Shortly thereafter, Dennis gets on his bicycle (with a wagon attached) and rides off into the night, eventually bumping into Switchblade Sam in the woods. Sam then abducts him, intending to use the child as a hostage. Dennis' parents return home and learn of his departure, and they, the authorities, his friends Joey (Kellen Hathaway), Margaret (Amy Sakasitz) and all the neighborhood kids, and George search all night for him. George feels intense guilt and remorse after remembering all the things he said to him and having now discovered his house was burglarized and that Dennis actually had good intentions when he tried to tell him. Switchblade Sam prepares to leave town with Dennis as an unsuspecting hostage but grows annoyed with Dennis's constant talking. Showing Sam the proper way to tie him up, Dennis handcuffs Sam, loses the key, unintentionally bludgeons him multiple times, and sets him on fire. As Dennis discovers George's stolen coins and realizes that Switchblade Sam is a thief, Sam attempts to stab Dennis but is snared in a rope that is caught by a passing train and stabbed in the buttocks by his own knife, subduing him too much to do anything further. Dennis returns to George's house the next morning with Switchblade Sam in his wagon, having also recovered George's gold coins, and Sam is taken into police custody by a slightly amused sheriff Bennett (Paul Winfield) who had previously advised him to leave town. Switchblade Sam is arrested, and Dennis naively returns his knife. Sam attempts to stab Dennis again, but Chief Bennett accidentally closes the police car door on his hand, causing him to drop his knife into the storm drain and wince in pain before being driven away, with all the neighborhood children taunting him. Dennis and George make up, and the Mitchells and Wilsons become friends on better terms. Alice mentions that she will not be traveling for work anymore and can bring Dennis to work with her because her office now has a day-care center. That night, George explains that he's learned some things about kids: kids are kids, and that one has to play by their rules, roll with the punches, and expect the unexpected, in which afterward Dennis, trying to get a flame on a marshmallow to go out, then accidentally hits him in the forehead with it. The film's end credits are accompanied with Dennis inadvertently humiliating his mother's egotistical coworker, Andrea (Melinda Mullins), while she is using a photocopier. Dennis impishly whacks the "PRINT" button and runs away, with other workers looking on. Andrea loses her balance, and her head gets pinned face-down on the scanner-bed, and the machine relentlessly flashes its blinding light in her eyes as it repeatedly "takes her picture" and spews out page after page of black-and-white "photos" showing her various agonized facial expressions as she squirms about on the scanner bed.

Joey Boca (Kevin Kline) owns a pizza parlor, and is married to Rosalie (Tracey Ullman). He's also a serial womanizer. Rosalie goes to extremes when she finds he has been cheating. Joey Boca (Kevin Kline) works with Rosalie (Tracey Ullman) in their pizza parlor. She is convinced that he works all of the time for them and her world dissolves when she finds that he has been fooling around for years. Being Catholic, divorce is out of the question, so she, her mother, and her best friend decide to kill him. Hopelessly incompetent as killers, they hire incompetent professionals as they beat, poison, and shoot Joey, who remains oblivious to their attempts. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> In Tacoma, Washington, Joey Boca (Kevin Kline) and his loving wife, Rosalie Boca (Tracey Ullman), have two children, own and operate their own successful pizzeria, and own an apartment building, which Joey manages. All of their customers and tenants seem to love affable Joey, perhaps a little too much, as Joey is a chronic philanderer, something of which Rosalie is completely unaware. Things change when Rosalie secretly catches Joey undeniably cheating on her. After she gets over the initial shock and grief, which makes her want to kill herself, she instead figures a better idea is to have Joey killed. She decides to confide in her mother, handy woman Nadja (Dame Joan Plowright), who lives with them and has not liked Joey for a long time for taking Rosalie for granted, and Devo (River Phoenix), Joey and Rosalie's busboy and cleaner at the pizzeria, who Rosalie knows has always loved her. Unable to do the job to completion, they figure they need some professional help. Who Devo finds to do the job, are druggie cousins Harlan (William Hurt) and Marlon (Keanu Reeves), whose interest is solely in the money, as they have never killed anyone before. Through the entire proceedings, the truth may set them all free. —Huggo

A Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land. A Polish-Jewish family arrives in the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century and they and their children try to build themselves a better future in the promised land.