Told via twin timelines in the life of "Tony Webster"; this is quite a gentle introspective on the way we live our lives and of the relatively significant impact of some equally insignificant decisions we make as we go along. Billy Howle is the younger version who has a fling with "Veronica'. Fast forward forty-odd years and we find Jim Broadbent in the role - the owner of a small camera shop - who is left a diary in the will of the girl's mother. The ensuing story unravels what happened to their relationship back then, and we see something of how it may develop in the present (with Charlotte Rampling); and of how "Tony" has evolved via his failed marriage to Dame Harriet Walter and his relationship with his expectant daughter Michelle Dockery. There are a few good scenes with Matthew Goode as the teacher and Joe Alwyn also stands out as 'Adrian Finn". The adaptation of Julian Barnes' novel is, however, a wee bit stodgy - and the film relies very heavily on the charisma of Rampling, Broadbent and a good effort from Howle to make much impact. It is intelligently done, but told from a very one-sided perspective.
1920s Germany. Two sisters aged six years, no sooner see their remaining parent buried when they are torn apart. Lotte goes to live with her upper middle class Dutch aunt in Holland, Anna to work as a farm hand on her German uncle's rural farm. The World War II impacts each of their lives and finally in old age they meet again.
In the panicky, uncertain hours before his wedding, a groom with prenuptial jitters and his two best friends reminisce about growing up together in the middle-class African-American neighborhood of Inglewood, California. Flashing back to the twenty-something trio's childhood exploits, the memories capture the mood and nostalgia of the '80s era.
A murder opens up a bleak trail of long buried secrets and small town corruption for a worn out police detective and his squad.
When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing.
Charles, an attorney, and Helen, his devoted wife, seem to have everything – money, a beautiful mansion – the American Dream. However, as Helen prepares to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary, her life takes an unexpected twist when she comes home to find her clothes packed up in a U-Haul van parked in the driveway. Charles is divorcing her and kicks her out. Helen moves in with her grandmother Madea, an old woman who doesn't take any lip from anyone. Madea helps Helen through these tough times by showing her what is really important in life. Helen is forced to rediscover love, life, and religion in her pursuit for happiness.
I didn't worry about it, until the symptoms got worse. The doctors said I had no cure, I'd be sick for the rest of my life. I wish they had been right.
Set in the period between the two world wars in a seaside village in the bay of Amvrakikos. Two children, Petros (8 years old) and Anthoula (7 years old) spend their summer holidays. During a walk they discover in an isolated shack a boy who lives with his mother. He is rejected by the community because of tuberculosis. Petros and Anthoula become friends with the boy. They encounter the cruelty of the adults and they decide to resist.
Michael Morda, a young sculptor living in San Francisco, is madly in love with Elinor Hunter, and they plan to be married. When Elinor becomes jealous of Julie Stressman, an old friend of Michael's and one of his models, Michael reluctantly asks Julie not to visit him at his studio. They agree to meet only at the construction site where he is working on a sculpture for which Julie is modeling. When Elinor also shows up at the site, Julie leaves so as to avoid a confrontation, but she is killed by some falling materials. Julie's dying request is that Michael adopt her daughter Mitzi, whose father died years earlier. In order to prevent Mitzi from being taken to an orphanage, Michael lies and says he is her father. Elinor hears this, and without asking questions, leaves him and marries another man the same night.
Mihajlo, an introvert piano teacher starts romance with a pretty careerist who teaches modeling at the university in Belgrade where they both work. His feelings are awakened after a long period, but this relationship makes him see the flashbacks, as well as yet unseen images that remind him of his troubled childhood - as if he experienced this already. When their university wins a contest to hold public TV performance, Mihailo fails to play the piano on the decisive night and she dumps him. The boiling point is about to come.
Soon after his insufferably arrogant father wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Barkley Michaelson is kidnapped by Thaddeus James, a young genius who claims to be Barkley's illegitimate half-brother. Motivated not so much by money as revenge, Thaddeus tries to convince Barkley to help him carry out a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against their patriarch.