Stars:
Albert Finney,
Ioan Gruffudd,
Ciaran Hinds,
Michael Gambon,
Benedict Cumberbatch,
Rufus Sewell,
Renee Zellweger,
Ewan McGregor,
Edward Norton,
Naomi Watts,
Liev Schreiber,
Diana Rigg
Director:
Michael Apted
Summary: A collection of three powerful dramas. Includes AMAZING GRACE, THE PAINTED VEIL and the Beatrix Potter bipic, MISS POTTER, starring Rene Zellweger.
AMAZING GRACE is based on the true tale of the 18th-century British politician William Wilberforce. Though as a young man Wilberforce is torn between politics and the church, he is inspired to action by John Newton (Albert Finney), a penitent monk who is haunted by his past as a slave-ship captain. Wilberforce makes it his mission to end slavery in the British Empire, and, aided by a small band of radical thinkers and unlikely supporters, he annually presents a bill for abolition to Parliament. When the war with France generates a patriotism in the people that makes opposition to slavery seem seditious, Wilberforce becomes disillusioned, and he retires to his cousin’s (Nicholas Farrell) house, physically ill and emotionally destroyed by his perceived failure. When he meets the beautiful and righteous Barbara Spooner, however, he gains new determination to pursue his dream of abolition.
MISS POTTER is a biopic of best-selling children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. Not content with a life of social posturing, she sets her sights on a writing career. After landing a lucrative book deal, Beatrix starts work on her debut release THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT, and in the process, falls in love with her publisher.
THE PAINTED VEIL is a complex and beautiful international production, this adaptation benefits greatly from the lack restrictions that inhibited it’s previous incarnations in 1925 (with Greta Garbo) and in 1957 (as THE SEVENTH SIN). After pressure from her wealthy parents to settle down, Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries mild-mannered bacteriologist Walter (Edward Norton), despite her lack of love for him. Shortly after their vows, he takes her to Shanghai, where she immediately has an affair with Charles Townsend (Liev Shrieber), an English Vice Consul. Walter becomes aware of Kitty’s indiscretion and promptly whisks her away to the mountain village of Mei-tan-fu, where they befriend another English expat, the secretly decadent Deputy Commissioner Waddington (Toby Jones, in an extremely likeable performance). Walter begins working to hold an encroaching cholera epidemic at bay---leaving Kitty to ponder her role in the situation as death looms over the village like a spectre.