Nicole Kidman: A Kind of Life

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Nicole Kidman: A Kind of Life Page 26

by James L. Dickerson


  Producers: Fernando Bovaira, Jose Luis Cuerda, Sunmin Park

  Director: Alejandro Amenabar

  Writer: Alejandro Amenabar

  Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives in a darkened house with her two children, convinced that they will die if exposed to sunlight. Her husband has gone off to war and not returned, and her servants have disappeared without warning. Just getting by day-to-day is all she can manage. Luckily, three servants appear at her door one day and take over Grace’s household duties. Soon it becomes clear that Grace is in for the fight of her life, though what that fight is does not become clear until the final scenes.

  Birthday Girl (2001)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Ben Chaplin

  Vincent Cassel

  Mathieu Kassovitz

  Kate Lynn Evans

  Stephen Mangan

  Alexander Armstrong

  Sally Phillips

  Jo McInnes

  Ben Miller

  Producers: Eric Abraham, Steve Butterworth, Julie Goldstein, Colin Leventhal, Diana Phillips, Sydney Pollack, Paul Webster

  Director: Jez Butterworth

  Writers: Tom Butterworth, Jez Butterworth

  Nicole Kidman plays a Russian main-order bride, Nadia, who travels to England to marry a mild-mannered bank teller named John (Ben Chaplin). He is distressed to learn that she speaks no English and he tries to send her back, only the Internet dating service that connected them will not return his telephone calls. He learns to make the most of it and things seem to be progressing well until Nadia’s cousin Alexei shows up with his friend Yuri. One thing leads to another, and before John knows what has happened he is robbing his own bank to keep Yuri from hurting Nadia. It is at that point that the story takes a wicked turn and heads into unforeseen territory.

  The Hours (2002)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Julianne Moore

  Meryl Streep

  Eileen Atkins

  Toni Collette

  Claire Danes

  Stephen Dillane

  Producers: Robert Fox, Scott Rudin

  Director: Stephen Daldry

  Writers: Michael Cunningham (novel), David Hare

  Nicole Kidman plays lesbian writer Virginia Woolf in this film based on the Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, The Hours. It is about women living in different eras who are affected by the feminist’s writing. Julianne Moore plays a housewife who is influenced by Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Mery Streep plays a contemporary woman who throws a party for a friend who is dying of AIDS. Nicole changed her appearance drastically to play the role and preview audiences did not recognize her.

  Dogville (2002)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Stellan Skarsgard

  Siobhan fallon

  Chloe Sevigny

  Patrica Clarkson

  Jeremy Davies

  Philip Baker Hall

  Paul Bettany

  Lauren Bacall

  Producer: Gillian Berrie, Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Lars Jonsson, Vibeke Windelov

  Director: Lars von Trier

  Writers: Lars von Trier

  Grace (Nicole Kidman) is a woman who movies to a small town in the Rocky Mountains in the 1930s and finds herself treated as an outsider. Based on the song “Pirate Jenny” from The Threepenny Opera, in which a town is attacked by its enemies and leaves an unwanted woman as the only survivor, it deals with themes of violence and vengeance. It was filmed in Sweden entirely on sets.

  The Human Stain (2003)

  CAST

  Anthony Hopkins

  Nicole Kidman

  Ed Harris

  Producers: Ronald M. Bozman, Andre Lamal, Gary Lucchesi, Michael Ohoven, Tom Rosenberg, Scott Steindorff

  Director: Robert Benton

  Writer: Philip Roth (novel, Nicholas Meyer

  Based on Philip Roth’s novel, The Human Stain is about a college professor, Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), whose life is shattered when it is disclosed that he had an affair with a young, female janitor, Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman). The film contains Nicole Kidman’s most explicit sex scenes since Eyes Wide Shut.

  Cold Mountain (2003)

  CAST

  Jude Law

  Nicole Kidman

  Renee Zellweger

  Natalie Portman

  Philip Seymour Hoffman

  Giovanni Ribisi

  Brendan Gleeson

  Charlie Hunnam

  Ray Winstone

  Donald Sutherland

  Jena Malone

  Producers: Steve Andrews, Albert Berger, Tim Bricknell, William Horberg, Sydney Pollack, Iain Smith, Ron Yerxa

  Director: Anthony Minghella

  Writer: Charles Frazier (novel, Anthony Minghella)

  Jule Law plays the role of Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier who makes a journey back to his mountain community to reunite with his pre-Civil War sweetheart, Ada (Nicole Kidman). It was filmed in Romania.

  The Stepford Wives (2004)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Matthew Broderick

  Bette Midler

  Glenn Close

  Faith Hill

  Producers: Ronald Bozman, Leslie Converse, Donald De Line, Scott Rudin

  Director: Frank Oz

  Writer: Ira Levin (book), Paul Rudnick (screenplay)

  A remake of the 1975 film starring Katherine Ross, The Stepford Wives is a satirical thriller about a group of married men in a small town named Stepford, Connecticut. What the men have in common are beautiful wives who cater to their every need. When the character played by Nicole Kidman arrives in time she is horrified by the women and concludes that they have been brainwashed by their husbands, perhaps with the help of environmental toxins.

  Birth (2004)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Cameron Bright

  Danny Huston

  Lauren Bacall

  Alison Elliott

  Director: Jonathan Glazer

  Writers: Jean-Claude Carriere, Milo Addica

  A young widow played by Nicole Kidman gets on with her life after the death of her husband. She falls in love with someone new and not long after she is engaged to be married she meets a ten-year-old boy who informs her that he is the incarnation of her late husband.

  Bewitched (2004)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Will Ferrell

  Shirley MacLaine

  Michael Cain

  Jason Schwartzman

  Kristin Chenoweth

  Heather Burns

  Jim Turner

  Stephen Colbert

  David Allan Grier

  Director: Nora Ephron

  Writers: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron, Sol Saks (television series)

  A big-screen remake of the popular television series. With an impressive cast such as this and the legendary Nora Ephron calling the shots, you would think something magical would happen. Instead, moviegoers were offered the oddest leading man and leading woman pairing in movie history and a plot that did a good impression of a 1960s television script.

  The Interpreter (2005)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Sean Penn

  Catherine Keener

  Jesper Christensen

  Yvan Attal

  Director: Sydney Pollack

  Writers: Martin Stellman (story), Brian Ward (story)

  When a U.N. interpreter played by Nicole Kidman overhears a conversation in a rare dialect that indicates that an African head of state may be killed, her life is thrown into chaos as she becomes a target of the killers. She is put under the protection of a federal agent who concludes that she may be one of the conspirators.

  Fur (2004)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Robert Downey Jr.

  Ty Burrell

  Harris Yulin

  Jane Alexander

  Emmy Clarke

  Genevieve M
cCartkhy

  Boris McGiver

  Director: Steven Shainberg

  Writers: Patricia Bosworth (book), Erin Cressida Wilson (screenplay)

  Based on a book about photographer Diane Arbus, played in this film by Nicole Kidman, the plot focuses on Arbus’s obsession with photographing everything freakish. She falls in love with the character played by Robert Downey Jr., a man with werewolf syndrome, a disease that has caused his entire body to be covered with human fur.

  The Invasion (2007)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Daniel Craig

  Jeremy Northam

  Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel,

  Writers: David Kajganich (screenplay), Jack Finney (novel)

  Nicole Kidman’s character, a Washington psychiatrist, uncovers evidence of an alien epidemic and learns that her son might be key to stopping it.

  Margot at the Wedding (2007)

  CAST

  Zane Pais

  Susan Blackwell

  Nicole Kidman

  Jack Black

  Flora Cross

  Jennifer Jason Leigh

  Seth Barrish

  Matthew Arkin

  Brian Kelley

  Director: Noah Baumbach

  Writer: Noah Baumbach

  Margot, played by Nicole Kidman, and her teenage son travel from Manhattan to her family’s Long Island home to engage in sibling dysfunction. Not much plot. Lots of family jealousies and backbiting.

  The Golden Compass (2007)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Daniel Craig

  Dakota Blue Richards

  Ben Walker

  Freddie Highmore

  Ian McKellen

  Eva Green

  Director: Chris Weitz

  Writer: Philip Pullman (novel), Chris Weitz (screenplay)

  This is a fantasy in which an orphan, played by Dakota Blue Richards, overhears a conversation about a research project in the Arctic and a powerful dust with mystical powers, and then goes to the Arctic with the help of a golden compass. All about witches and goblins.

  Australia (2008)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Hugh Jackman

  Shea Adams

  Jack Thompson

  Bryan Brown

  Director: Baz Luhrmann

  Writers: Stuart Beattle, Baz Luhrmann

  This is an epic adventure set in pre-World War II Australia about an English aristocrat, played by Nicole Kidman, who inherits a large ranch that is targeted for a takeover by an unsavory cattle baron. To fight them off, she partners with one of her cowboys (Hugh Jackman).

  Nine (2009)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Daniel Day-Lewis

  Marion Cotillard

  Penelope Cruz

  Judi Dench

  Sophia Loren

  Kate Hudson

  Fergie Duhamel

  Director: Rob Marshall

  Writers: Michael Tolkin, Anthony Minghella

  A famous filmmaker makes an effort to make sense of his personal and professional life as he engages in dramatic relationships with his wife, his agent, his muse, his mistress, and his mother.

  Rabbit Hole (2010)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Aaron Eckhart

  Dianne Wiest

  Miles Teller

  Sandra Oh

  Mike Doyle

  Ali Marsh

  Director: John Cameron Mitchell

  Writers: David Lindsay-Abaire

  A happily married couple suffer the loss of their young son in a car accident. The mother, played by Nicole Kidman, finds solace in a relationship with the teenage driver of the car that killed her son. The father cannot extricate himself from the past and seeks refuge in the company of outsiders.

  Just Go With It (2011)

  CAST

  Adam Sandler

  Jennifer Aniston

  Brooklyn Decker

  Nicole Kidman

  Nick Swardson

  Dave Matthews

  Griffin Gluck

  Director: Dennis Dugan

  Writer: Allan Loeb, Timothy Dowling

  A plastic surgeon played by Adam Sandler enlists the help of his assistant (Jennifer Aniston) to pose as his soon-to-be divorced wife in an attempt to cover up a lie he has told his girlfriend.

  The Paperboy (2012)

  CAST

  Zac Efron

  Matthew McConaughey

  Nicole Kidman

  John Cusack

  David Oyelowa

  Scott Glenn

  Ned Bellamy

  Nealia Gordon

  Macy Gray

  Director: Lee Daniels

  Writers: Peter Dexter, Lee Daniels

  Ward Jansen, played by Matthew McConaughey, is a newspaper reporter who returns home to investigate a murder case and takes on his younger brother Jack (Zac Efron) as his driver. Conflict arises when the love letter pen pal (Nicole Kidman) of the imprisoned convict stirs up the romantic feelings of young Jack and urinates on him in a controversial scene in the film to lessen the effect of a painful jellyfish attack. This is an anti-hero film about Southern gothic violence in which there are no likeable characters.

  Stoker (2013)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Mia Wasikowska

  David Alford

  Matthew Goode

  Peg Allen

  Lauren E. Roman

  Phyllis Somerville

  Harmony Korine

  Lucas Till

  Director: Chan-wook Park

  Writer: Wentworth Miller

  India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) loses both her father and best friend Richard (Dermot Mulroney) in a car accident. As she deals with that loss, her Uncle Charlie comes to live with her and her emotionally challenged mother, played by Nicole Kidman. Soon it becomes obvious that Uncle Charlie has ulterior motives for moving into the home. Instead of being horrified or offended by her uncle, India is infatuated with him.

  The Railway Man (2014)

  CAST

  Nicole Kidman

  Colin Firth

  Hiroyuki Sanada

  Stellan Skarsard

  Jeremy Irvine

  Sam ReidMarta Dusseldorp

  Tom Hobbs

  Director: Jonathan Teplitzky

  Writers: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Andy Paterson

  Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) was one of many Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during World War II. Years later, he meets a beautiful woman (Nicole Kidman) on a train and falls in love with her. Determined to help Eric rid himself of his demons she discovers that the Japanese officer who tortured him is still alive.

 

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