Drama Movies 2002 List

It's two odd stories in one. The plot follows the attempt of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) to adapt Susan Orlean's nonfiction novel "The Orchid Thief" for the big screen. As Kaufman tries to work with the book's true story — the tale of John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a Florida plant dealer who works with Seminole Indians to create clones of rare orchids, which he sells to collectors for huge profits — he nearly goes mad. Enter his fictional twin (also Cage), a more successful version of Charlie. Charlie finally manages to finish the script, finding that in the process, he's incorporated himself and his writer's block into the story.

A true story about four Allied POWs who endure harsh treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors during World War II while being forced to build a railroad through the Burmese jungle. Ultimately they find true freedom by forgiving their enemies.

Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) is all about the mighty dollar and fashions himself as a businessman on par with Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Bill Gates. With an iron fist, he runs a successful "street pharmaceutical" business that peddles a heroin mix he has named Empire. His beautiful fiancée, Carmen, a Baruch College student, befriends a classmate with an investment-banker boyfriend, Jack Wimmer. Victor meets Jack, and they instantly connect. Both are hard-core businessmen from two different sides of the legal fence. When Jack offers Victor a piece of the action on the stock market, he sees his ticket out of the violent streets of the South Bronx and jumps at the opportunity. But there is a bigger price to be paid than clean money for his gorgeous new Soho lifestyle. For the first time, Victor is confronted with a price tag that he will find difficult to pay.

Desmond Doyle is devastated when his philandering wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children, Evelyn, Noel and Brendan, make it clear to the authorities that his is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide the Doyle children put into Church-run orphanages. Although a sympathetic judge assures Desmond that when his financial situation reverses, he will be able to get his children back; money is hard to come by. During that time, Evelyn and her brothers suffer the abuses of living in orphanages while Desmond struggles to secure finances. Now he must battle the courts to get his children back.

Jack Nicholson stars as Warren Schmidt, a man who is set adrift following retirement and the sudden death of his wife. Uncertain about his future as well as his past, Warren packs up his 30-foot Winnebago to set out on a journey across the Nebraska plains to attend his daughter's (Hope Davis) wedding to a waterbed salesman (Dermot Mulroney). But every step he takes seems wrong, and Warren seems destined to end his life as he lived it: a failure. But along the way, Warren recounts his journey and shares his observations with an unexpected friend - a poor Tanzanian boy he is sponsoring for 73 cents a day. In his long letters to the boy, Warren begins to see himself and the life he has lived with new eyes.

The sequel to "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" follows the continuing quest of Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship that has joined together to destroy the One Ring and stand against the leader of the dark lord Sauron. The fellowship has divided and now find themselves taking different paths to defeating Sauron and his allies. Their destinies now lie at two towers: Orthanc Tower in Isengard, where the corrupted wizard Saruman waits, and Sauron's fortress at Barad-dur, deep within the dark lands of Mordor.

Based on a true story, a biographical drama centering upon Antwone "Fish" Fisher who—once a Sony Pictures security guard—eventually gained fame as an acclaimed writer and a Hollywood producer. In the earlier part of his life, he was a sailor prone to violent outbursts. On the verge of being kicked out of the Navy for repeated fighting, he is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood rife with abuse. With the help of a Navy psychiatrist, he turns his life around and decides to embark on a search to find the family that abandoned him as a baby. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew. In the course of that search, his life changes dramatically.

Set during the mid 1800s, this story is based upon the non-fiction book of the same title by Herbert Asbury, about the beginning of the mob in America. The story centers around two rival gangs, the Dead Rabbits and the Native Americans. When the leader of the Dead Rabbits is murdered, his son Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) seeks revenge on the man held responsible Bill "The Butcher" (Daniel Day-Lewis).

Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) worked as a doctor, a lawyer, and as a co-pilot for a major airline—all before his 18th birthday. A master of deception, he was also a brilliant forger, whose skill gave him his first real claim to fame: At the age of 17, Frank Abagnale, Jr. became the most successful bank robber in the history of the United States. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) had made it his prime mission to capture Frank and bring him to justice, but Frank is always one step ahead of him, baiting him to continue the chase.

This is the story of a young man, Sonny (James Franco), living in New Orleans and trained to follow the family tradition as a paid male prostitute for wealthy women, and he hates it. He wants to free himself from this predetermined life and find something for himself outside the business, perhaps even in the Army, but his family won't hear of it.

It's the long-awaited film version of the Broadway hit. Set in the roaring 20's, this is the story of Chicago chorus girl Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), who shoots her unfaithful lover (Dominic West). Landing in jail, she meets Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), another chorus girl and murderess, currently enjoying media attention and legal manipulation, care of her attorney, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), king of the old "Razzle Dazzle." Soon enough, however, Flynn takes Roxie's case as well, and Velma finds herself old news as Roxie is now the most famous murderess in town, on her way to getting out of jail and becoming a star. The two go through a series of attempts at getting what they both want: freedom and fame.

The film is adapted from the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who detailed his survival during World War II. A composer and a pianist, he played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. During the brutal occupation, he eluded deportation and remained in the devastated Warsaw ghetto. There, he struggled to stay alive even when cast away from those he loved. He would eventually reclaim his artistic gifts and confront his fears, with aid from the unlikeliest of sources.

An honest but provocative fictional examination of a critical month in the life of a young man named Jimmy (Eminem) as he searches for identity and a sense of purpose. Against the familiar backdrop of indifference and community decay, he learns to express his anger, fears and frustration as he struggles to transcend his bleak circumstances.

An unemployed cameraman finds an incredible story with a mysterious old neighbor who claims to have been the second gunman on the grassy knoll during the JFK assassination.

Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) is a young mother stuck in an abusive relationship with her husband of twelve years. One night after he brutally beats her, Delia finally attempts to reclaim some As a teenager, Delia was a tough girl from a small New York town who had survived an abusive father and found power amongst her peers through her sexuality. How did she end up a battered wife and mother of three? Greta is a sharp, spunky Ivy League editor who, to spite the hated infidel ways of her father, has settled into a complacent relationship with a blond, blue-eyed grad student. Sudden success leads her to confront her own issues of fidelity. Paula ran away from home only to find herself pregnant and in a relationship she doesn't want. When she narrowly escapes death's grip, what will she do with her second chance at life?

Superstar George Clooney turns in a stellar performance in this "brilliant sci-fi movie" ("New York Daily News") from Academy Award winners Steven Soderbergh (2000 - Best Director, "Traffic") and JamesCameron (1997 - Best Picture, "Titanic"). Aboard a lonely space station orbiting a mysterious planet, terrified crew members are experiencing a host of strange phenomena, including eerie visitors who seem all too human. And when psychologist Chris Kelvin (Clooney) arrives to investigate, he confronts a power beyond imagining that could hold the key to mankind's deepest dreams…or darkest nightmares.

After witnessing a horrible incident, a graduate student (Laura Regan) struggles to find the link between her childhood fear of the dark and the night terrors she now suffers, and must confront what may or may not be real.

Edward Norton stars as ex-FBI agent Will Graham, an expert investigator who quit the Bureau after almost losing his life in the process of capturing the elusive Dr. Lecter (Hopkins). Years later, after a series of particularly grisly murders, Graham reluctantly agrees to come out of retirement and assist in the case. But he soon realizes that the best way to catch this killer, known as the Tooth Fairy, is to find a way to get inside the killer's mind. And the closest thing to that would be to probe the mind of another killer who is equally brilliant and equally twisted. For Graham, that means confronting his past and facing his former nemesis, the now-incarcerated Lecter.

Dre and Sidney can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers to a single childhood moment - the day they discovered hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now some 15 years later, she is a revered music critic who leaves her L.A. Times music review gig to edit New York hip-hop magazine XXL, while he is a successful, though unfulfilled New York music executive. Dre and Sidney should be perfect for each other, except that Dre's about to get married and Sidney begins to be wooed by a handsome basketball player. Still, as they lay down the tracks toward their futures, hip-hop isn't the only thing that keeps them coming back to that moment on the corner...

Set in an affluent New England liberal arts college in the 1980's, an emerging sexual triangle emerges between Sean Bateman, who deals drugs on the side, Paul Owen, who's bisexual, and Paul's ex-girlfriend, Lauren.

The film follows four sons of well-known Brooklyn-based mobsters and their desperate fight to retrieve a bag of cash in a small Montana town ruled by a corrupt sheriff. As they unite to find the money, they come face-to-face with the bloodshed and betrayal that is their birthright.

Alexis Bledel (TV's 'Gilmore Girls') plays a free-spirited 15-year-od in a stuffy Victorian household who stumbles on the Tucks, a Based on the award-winning book by Natalie Babbitt, Walt Disney Pictures' "Tuck Everlasting" captures the story of Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel), a teenage girl on the cusp of maturity. Winnie longs for a life outside the control of her domineering mother (Amy Irving), and when lost in the woods near her home, she happens upon Jesse Tuck (Jonathan Jackson), a boy unlike any she's ever met before. He and his family (William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Scott Bairstow) are kind and generous, and they immediately take her in as one of their own. However, the Tucks hold a powerful secret, and with the mysterious Man in the Yellow Suit (Ben Kingsley) tracking them down, they fear that the world as they know it could end. Ultimately, Winnie must decide whether to return to her life or stay with her beloved Jesse and his family forever.

A story about the owner of a struggling phone-sex business with seven abusive sisters who soon finds that three thugs are chasing him. Meanwhile, one of his sisters tries to set him up on a blind date with a woman who plays the harmonium, but it doesn't quite work out. Eventually, his hobby of collecting pudding coupons pays off, and he's able to win enough frequent flyer miles to take a trip to Hawaii, in a quest to find the mysterious girl...

Ana, a first generation Mexican American teenager living in East Los Angeles, has just graduated from high school. Because she is a talented writer, a caring teacher urges her to apply to college. Ana secretly is excited about the possibility, but her overbearing and hypercritical mother Carmen insists that it is time for her to help provide for the family by working in her sister's sewing factory. When a crisis arises at the factory, it seems as if Ana's fate is unhappily sealed, but her indomitable will to reach beyond a sweatshop life eventually leads her to burst, defiant and resplendent, through every restriction on her life.

Set in a London working-class housing estate over a long weekend, it tells the story of Penny's love for her partner, taxi-driver Phil, has run dry. He is a gentle, philosophical guy and she works on the checkout at a supermarket. Their daughter Rachel cleans a home for elderly people, and their son Rory is unemployed and aggressive. The joy has gone out of Phil and Penny's life, but when an unexpected tragedy occurs, they are brought together to rediscover their love.

Director Rich Murray puts the Philadelphia hip-hop scene on the map with "Snipes", an urban crime thriller that breathes fresh life into the genre. Erik (Sam Jones III) is an ambitious teenager who spends more time posting flyers for his favorite rapper, Prolifik (Nelly), than sitting in the classroom. When he and his best friend stumble across a dead body one night, they trigger a series of tragic events. It turns out Prolifik, as well as the master tapes for his new record, have been kidnapped by a gang of thugs who want Bobby Starr (Dean Winters), the ruthless president of Prolifik's label, to dish out a meaty ransom. If he doesn't, they promise to make sure Bobby's uncle and chief investor, the dangerous Johnny Marandino (Frank Vincent), knows just how carelessly Bobby has been spending his money. Through a misunderstanding, Erik becomes the target of Bobby Starr, as well as the kidnappers. Fearful for his own life, as well as his father's, Erik must find a way to get his hands on the master tapes, before Bobby Starr gets his hands on him. Murray's energizing film boasts credible performances¯especially from rap superstar Nelly¯and a pulsating hip-hop soundtrack.

This film screened in April 2002 in New York City as part of the Gen Art Film Festival.

New York City homicide detective Vincent LaMarca has forged a long and distinguished career in law enforcement, making a name for himself as a man intensely committed to his work. But on his latest case, the stakes are higher for Vincent - the suspect he's investigating is his own son, Joey. Vincent and Joey have been painfully estranged ever since Vincent divorced Joey's mother and left the decaying boardwalks of Long Beach, Long Island for the anonymity of Manhattan and a successful career with the NYPD. He lives his life in solitude, keeping his girlfriend at arm's length; the closest relationship he maintains is with his partner, Reg - and Vincent makes sure that friendship stops at the precinct door. As long as Vincent lives in the protection of the present, he doesn't have to deal with the pain of his past - or his sorrow over his broken relationship with Joey. But this murder investigation is drawing Vincent home to Long Beach, the self-proclaimed "City by the Sea," where the past has been waiting for him to return. The agonizing memory that has tortured him all his life - the death of his father, a convicted murderer who was executed when Vincent was just a boy - still plagues him. In the course of the investigation, he discovers that his own unresolved pain and failures as a father have deeply influenced Joey's life, and the destructive choices he has made. As a cop, Vincent must bring a criminal to justice; as a father he must find a way to save his son. Now he will put his life on the line in order to do right by both his family and his profession.

In the late '60s, the self-proclaimed belles of the rock 'n' roll ball (Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon) rocked the worlds of every music legend whose pants they could take off - and they have the pictures to prove it. But it's been more than two decades since The Banger Sisters earned their nickname - or even laid eyes on one another. Their reunion is the collision of two women's worlds; one who's living in the past, and one who's hiding from it. Together they learn the value of living in the moment.

When Joe Nast's (Jake Gyllenhaal) plans for marriage change due to an unexpected loss, he wants to be the man he believes everyone wants him to be - dutifully bereaved husband-to-be and perfect would-be son-in-law to Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and JoJo (Susan Sarandon). But when another woman unexpectedly enters his life, he's quickly torn between fulfilling his new role and following his heart.

Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), a brilliant English academic given to doing things by the book, is researching the life and work of poet Christabel LeMotte (Jennifer Ehle). Roland Mitchell (Aaron Eckhart) is an upstart American scholar in London on a fellowship to study the great Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam), now best known for a collection of rapturous, late-life poems dedicated to his wife. When Maud and Roland discover a cache of love letters that appear to be from Ash to LaMotte, they follow a trail of clues across England to the Continent, echoing the journey of the impassioned couple a century earlier.

The career of a disillusioned producer, who is desperate for a hit, is endangered when his star walks off the film set. Forced to think fast, the producer decides to digitally create an actress "Simone" to sub for the star--the first totally believable synthetic actress. The "actress" becomes an overnight sensation, with a major singing career as well, and everyone thinks she's a real person. However, as Simone's fame skyrockets, he cannot bear to admit his fraud to himself or the world.

A heavyweight-boxing champ is accused of raping a woman and sent to prison. There he faces the prison-boxing champ.

Edward and Connie Summer (Richard Gere, Diane Lane) have the perfect life: a happy marriage, an eight year old son, and a beautiful house in the suburbs. But when Connie's chance encounter with a handsome stranger (Olivier Martinez) erupts into a full-blown affair, desire becomes obsession, and the true price of betrayal takes a shattering toll.

In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has lead to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.

Shane West and Mandy Moore star as two high schoolers -- she a straitlaced preacher's daughter and he an unmotivated delinquent. When events thrust him into her world, he begins an unexpected journey he'll never forget.