Michael Hoffman

The exiled royal doctor to King Charles II devotes himself to helping Londoners suffering from the plague, and in the process falls in love with an equally poor woman. An aspiring young doctor, Robert Merivel found himself in the service of King Charles II and saves the life of a spaniel dear to the King. Merivel joins the King's court and lives the high life provided to someone of his position. Merivel is ordered to marry one of the King's mistresses in order to divert the suspicions of another one of his mistresses. He is given one order by the king and that is not to fall in love. The situation worsens when Merivel finds himself in love with his new wife. Eventually, the King finds out and relieves Merivel of his position and wealth. His fall from grace leaves Merivel where he first started. And through his travels and reunites with an old friend, he rediscovers his love for true medicine and what it really means to be a doctor. —P. Wong <pwong@nt.net>

An ambitious television soap actress connives with her producer to scuttle the career of the show's long-time star, but nothing works as they plan. Celeste Talbert has been the queen of the soaps for over two decades. Montana Moorehead needs to get her out of her way before she can move on and begins her program to get her to leave. She hires an old boyfriend of Celeste to be on the show and has Celeste become a murderer in the script, but each attempt has unforseen consequences. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> Celebrated soap star Celeste Talbert gets support from her niece and from Rose, the script-writer, but is otherwise pretty unpopular at work. In particular, the producer is trying increasingly desperately to write her out of the script on the promise of favours from venomous co-star Montana Moorehead. So Celeste's life is not greatly improved by the re-appearance of an old flame she had insisted was fired from the show twenty years before. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

This gritty drama opens following two American male high school acquaintances a few years after graduation now suffering from deep anger and anguish over the fact that they are not as successful as they thought they would be. Hancock (Jason Gedrick) is the high school basketball star, that got into college on an athletic scholarship only to lose the scholarship to a better player. Unable to succeed in college based on his academic merit, he returns to his hometown, becomes a police officer and is slowly moving into a middle-class mediocrity with his cheerleader girlfriend, Mary, who is in college and plans to major in the arts. Hancock is still stewing over the fact that he is no longer the sports star and that his girlfriend is not only reluctant to marry him but may end up being more successful than he. Danny (Kiefer Sutherland)is the academic "nerd" that was supposedly destined to be so successful that he earned the nickname "Senator". It was felt by some that one day he would become a decent and just politician. He has returned home with his psychotic wife, Bev (Meg Ryan). After a quick Christmas Eve reunion with his parents, Danny learns that his father is dying. He is unable to come to grips with the fact that while he left town with great expectations, he has returned a poor drifter. He shows a sensitive side even though he has married this trampy, bossy and psychotic woman. His desire to run from his problems again,however, prompts Bev to mock his manhood in front of some of his high school friends at a bar and the two decide to hold up a convenience store perhaps as a means for Danny to prove his manhood or because that is just what "Hollywood white trash" would do. Just then, Hancock, unaware that Danny has returned to town, drives into the store's parking lot arguing with his girlfriend about the future of their relationship. Interrupting the robbery he fatally shoots Danny and wounds Bev. Hancock then suffers something of an emotional breakdown. Danny and Hancock are shown to really have little in common except that Danny once had a crush on Mary and perhaps a repressed crush on Hancock. As other police officers and paramedics arrive on scene, Hancock drives with his girlfriend to an open field where he had previously shared, with his police partner, some of his frustrations. He screams to Mary how he feels he has been lied to while growing up. While it is unclear who precisely lied to him, the film seems to implicate Reagan. The anger that Hancock shows probably stems from how he now perceives the universal achieveability of the so-called "American dream" to be nothing but an illusion! Later Hancock has to personally inform Danny's father that he has killed his son and thus the film ends with bleak social commentary on the limited economic opportunities for small town Americans in the twentieth century.