Browse Movies : Drama : P

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.

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...

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?

Obsessed by the world of pool, Johnny (Mars Callahan) could be one of the best. But his mentor and "trainer" Joe (Chazz Palminteri), a shady hustler who decides how and who Johnny plays, is holding him back from his dream. When the day finally comes, Johnny breaks from Joe, which leads to only one thing - violence. Joe is beaten up by some of Johnny's buddies as a sign to leave him alone, and with this final act of freedom, Johnny leaves the world of pool-sharking. After an ultimatum from his girlfriend Tara (Alison Eastwood), Johnny finally commits to a "real" job in the construction business, but is soon miserable there. He finds himself spending most of his time with his younger brother Danny (Michael Rosenbaum) who it seems is following in his footsteps on the road to a life Johnny left when he broke from Joe. As for Joe, he is bent on revenge for the beating he took, and soon he has a new protege Brad (Rick Schroder) who is just as good if not better than Johnny. And he's got his eye on Johnny's brother. The two play a high-stakes game of pool which ends in a huge debt owed to Joe and soon Johnny finds that his brother is in jail for trying to steal the money he owes. The only way out for Johnny is to play Brad, which results in a "race to nine" showdown that pits two of the greatest players against each other for large sums of money, and Johnny and Danny's lives.

A phone call can change your life, but for one man it can also end it. Set entirely within and around the confines of a New York City phone booth, "Phone Booth" follows a slick media consultant (Colin Farrell) who is trapped after being told by a caller - a serial killer with a sniper rifle - that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up.

April Burns (Katie Holmes) is a 21-year-old wild child with a very big problem. Against her better judgment, she's invited her straightlaced family for Thanksgiving dinner. Her boyfriend, Bobby, wants to help, but she banishes him from the apartment while she attempts to cook the meal. To make matters worse, she then discovers that her oven doesn't work. So, while April is forced to ask her eccentric neighbors for help in cooking her fifteen pound turkey, the Burns Family begins a reluctant journey from suburban Pennsylvania toward New York City's Lower East Side. April's Dad, Jim Burns (Oliver Platt) tries to convince the family that the day will be beautiful. Her mom, Joy (Patricia Clarkson) has her doubts and freely voices them. April's teenage sister and brother are squeezed between Grandma Dottie and a bag of snacks in the back seat as the Burns' family car hurtles toward Manhattan and what will most likely be certain disaster.

"Prey for Rock & Roll" is the adrenaline-filled story of a contemporary LA all-girl punk band led by singer/guitarist Jacki (Gina Gershon), bassist Tracy (Drea De Matteo), lead guitarist Faith (Lori Petty), and drummer Sally (Shelly Cole). The directing debut of esteemed music supervisor/producer Alex Steyermark, the film captures the color and energy of a veteran band struggling to make it while personal obstacles and disturbing new events threaten to tear them apart.

The paparazzi are the chroniclers of Hollywood glitz and glamour, and key players in the public's insatiable appetite for information and photos about their favorite stars. They are as much part of gala premiers as bright lights and red carpets. Their photos can make or break careers. For rising action star Bo Laramie, a quartet of paparazzi is at first an annoyance, then an ever-disturbing presence. One night they trap Bo and his family into a high speed chase that ends in a terrible accident, sending his wife Abby into intensive care and son Zach into a coma. Veteran Los Angeles detective Burton believes Bo's version of the accident, but when Burton can't make the case against the photographers, Bo seeks vengeance on his own. And the paparazzi start falling one by one.

At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?

Awakened by a rumbling that could only be made by the much-feared Heffalump, the Hundred Acre Wood crew sets forth to catch the dreaded creature. Disregarded as too young to partake in such a dangerous expedition, Roo opts to search on his own – with far greater success than his friends. But in meeting a young, playful Heffalump named Lumpy, Roo quickly discovers that Heffalumps are nothing like what he's been told, and that the creature is equally afraid of Roo's silly pals. Roo and Lumpy strike up a sweet friendship and work together to dispel the unfounded fears of their respective friends and families.

A fable of innocence: thirteen-year-old Aviva Victor wants to be a 'mom'. She does all she can to make this happen, and comes very close to succeeding, but in the end her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents. So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant itself with all sorts of strange possibility. She takes a road trip from the suburbs of New Jersey, through Ohio to the plains of Kansas and back. Like so many trips, this one is round-trip, and it's hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same again, or if she can ever be anything but the same again.

The true story of Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca, who passed himself off as the Spanish consul in an effort to save more than 5,000 Jews from the Nazi. Based on Perlasca's diaries and his book "The Banality of Goodness."

"Pretty Persuasion" is a dark satire of our present day do-it-yourself scandal, manipulate-the-media, easy fix pill-popping, overnight celebrity obsessed culture. When worldly-wise beyond her years high school student Kimberly Joyce (Evan Rachel Wood) accuses her English teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual harassment, she turns her exclusive Beverly Hills private school, and everything else in her wake, upside down. Hell hath no fury like a teenager scorned...

A devoted daughter comes to terms with the death of her father, a brilliant mathematician whose genius was crippled by mental insanity, forcing her to face her own long-harbored fears and emotions. She adjusts to his death with the help of one of her father's former mathematical students, who searches through her father's notebooks in the hope of discovering a bit of his old brilliance. While she comes to terms with the possibility that his genius, which she has inherited, may come at a painful price, her estranged sister arrives to help settle their father's affairs.

"Paradise Now" is the story of what may be the last 48 hours in the lives of two Palestinian men—friends since childhood - who have been recruited as suicide bombers. When they are intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handlers, a young woman who discovers their plan causes them to reconsider their actions. But with pressure mounting, time running out, and passions running high...there's no way to know which way they will go.

The glorious world of Jane Austen is at last brought back to the big screen in all its romance, wit and emotional force in "Pride & Prejudice". Faithful to the setting and period of the beloved novel and filmed entirely on location in the U.K., this is the first movie version of the story in 65 years.

The classic tale of love and misunderstanding unfolds in class-conscious England near the close of the 18th century. The five Bennet sisters – Elizabeth, or Lizzie (Keira Knightley), Jane (Rosamund Pike), Lydia (Jena Malone), Mary (Talulah Riley) and Kitty (Carey Mulligan) – have been raised well aware of their mother's (two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn) fixation on finding them husbands and securing set futures. The spirited and intelligent Elizabeth, however, strives to live her life with a broader perspective, as encouraged by her doting father (two-time Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland).

When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) takes up residence in a nearby mansion, the Bennets are abuzz. Amongst the man's sophisticated circle of London friends and the influx of young militia officers, surely there will be no shortage of suitors for the Bennet sisters. Eldest daughter Jane, serene and beautiful, seems poised to win Mr. Bingley's heart. For her part, Lizzie meet with the handsome and – it would seem – snobbish Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), and the battle of the sexes is joined.

Their encounters are frequent and spirited yet far from encouraging. Lizzie finds herself even less inclined to accept a marriage proposal from a distant cousin, Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander), and – supported by her father – stuns her mother and Mr. Collins by declining. When the heretofore good-natured Mr. Bingley abruptly departs for London, devastating Jane, Lizzie holds Mr. Darcy culpable for contributing to the heartbreak. But a crisis involving youngest sister Lydia soon opens Lizzie's eyes to the true nature of her relationship with Mr. Darcy.

The ensuing rush of feelings leaves no one unchanged, and inspires the Bennets and everyone around them to reaffirm what is most important in life.

A chubby, brainiac 18-year-old schoolgirl forms an unexpected bond with a thirtysomething pizza deliveryman/political activist with a history of failed relationships.

When a rogue wave capsizes a luxury cruise ship in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, a small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives. As the unstable vessel rapidly floods with water, they face unimaginable odds and life-altering decisions in their desperate fight to the surface.

An unlikely bond forms between a man determined to commit suicide and the man who saves him. Antoine is a reserved and placating maitre d' at a well-regarded bistro. He quickly rushes to the aid of Louis, an effusive, lovelorn bachelor who attempts to kill himself following a romantic breakup. But it's not long before Antoine's act of charity becomes a comedy of false pretenses and mixed motives.

Set in 1940s Spain against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain, a fairy tale that centers on Ofelia, a lonely and dreamy child living with her mother and adoptive father, who is a military officer tasked with 'ridding the area' of rebels. In her loneliness, Ofelia creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and secret destinies. With Fascism at its height, Ofelia must come to terms with her world through a fable of her own creation.