- Footloose
- In this musical drama about teens struggling against repression
in
small
town America, she plays Rusty, the best friend of the female lead. She
doesn't have any particularly memorable scenes in this film, although
her
budding sex appeal is displayed when two men get into a fight over her
at a club. This is an enjoyable movie with some good songs and it stars
the Internet's favorite actor, Kevin Bacon.
- First Born
- She has a small part as the girlfriend of the main
character,&enspa
teen trying to rescue his mother from the evil influence of her
drug-pushing
boy friend. Ms. Parker has one good scene, one-upping her fella while
shopping
for jeans. Unfortunately, the film becomes relentlessly downbeat over
the
last hour. It would have benefited from some more light touches like
that
one, but her character has disappeared by this time.
- Girls
Just Want
To Have Fun
- A silly teen comedy about a girl who wants to be on a TV dance
show and
falls in love with the boy who becomes her dance partner. The movie's
main
virtue is that Ms. Parker is on screen virtually the entire movie. Also
featuring Helen Hunt as her best friend and Shannen Doherty.
- Somewhere Tomorrow
- One of her best. She plays a troubled teen who, after falling
from a
horse,
meets the ghost of a boy killed in a plane crash. They fall in love,
which
naturally leads to complications. A wonderfully sappy romance film, the
type I am a sucker for.
- Flight of the Navigator *
- This Disney film about a 12-year-old boy who is taken forward in
time
by
a robotic alien spacecraft was Ms. Parker's last "teenager" role in a
theatrical
film. She plays Carolyn McAdams, a NASA employee who helps alien
abductee
David Freeman (played by Joey Cramer) escape the curious government
scientists
who are holding him for research.
- L.A. Story
- Her big breakthrough role. Steve Martin wrote and stars in this
left
coast
version of Manhattan. He plays a TV weatherman whose girlfriend
dumps him. After striking out with a British beauty, he takes up with
SanDeE*,
a free- spirited saleswoman at a clothing store. SanDeE* is played
delightfully
by Ms. Parker in her first adult film role. This film is full of laughs
and affectionate jabs at L.A. It is highly recommended.
- Honeymoon In Vegas
- In this film, she plays schoolteacher who wants to marry her
longtime
boyfriend,
who is played by Nicholas Cage. However, he has a fear of commitment,
due
to a mother complex. They finally go off to Las Vegas to wed, but
problems
ensue when he gets into a poker match before the ceremony. After
running
out of funds, he pays off his debt by agreeing to allow a professional
gambler played by James Caan to spend the weekend with his fiancee.
Enraged
by Cage's behavior, she actually goes off to Hawaii with Caan, and
finds
herself questioning her future. Of course, it all comes out right in
the
end, thanks to some help from a troop of skydiving Elvis Presley
imitators.
- Ed Wood *
- Playing the "worst actress all time" is quite a stretch for the
talented
Ms. Parker. But she pulls it off admirably as Dolores Fuller,
girlfriend
and first leading lady of "the worst director of all time," the
infamous
Ed Wood (played by Johnny Depp), in Tim Burton's biopic. Her character
leaves Ed, and thus the film, about halfway through. Filmed in black
and
white.
- Hocus
Pocus *
- Ms. Parker plays Sarah Sanderson, a "dumb blonde," boy-obsessed,
17th
Century
Salem witch who, along with her two sisters played by Bette Midler and
Kathy Najimy, are summoned into the 20th Century on Halloween night by
three unsuspecting youngsters. Though Ms. Parker's part was edited down
to about 22 minutes of screen time, and the film got only lukewarm
reviews,
several critics mentioned her performance as one of the movie's saving
graces. (See also Hocus
Pocus Online).
- Striking Distance
- A routine action-thriller, starring Bruce Willis as a standard
issue
"cop
who breaks the rules but catches the bad guys." Ms. Parker plays his
partner
on the Pittsburgh River Patrol. She plays tough well, even going so far
as to threaten her partner with a gun, although, unlike Scully on The
X-Files, she doesn't actually shoot him. She also has a fairly
discrete
sex scene with Mr. Willis.
- Miami Rhapsody
- In contrast to Honeymoon In Vegas, this time it is Ms.
Parker's
character, Gwen, who panics at the thought of her upcoming nuptials. It
doesn't help matters when she discovers that both of her parents and
her
two siblings are all having extramarital affairs. The first time I saw
this film, I dismissed it as a Woody Allen knock-off without enough
good
jokes. On my second and third viewings, though, I was impressed with
what
the movie had to say about the nature of marriage. Although nominally a
romantic comedy, it doesn't take the normal, rose-colored, "happily
ever
after" view of matrimony. Gwen, and her family, learn that marriages
take
a lot of work to make them succeed, and that everyone involved must
compromise,
even to the point of settling for Mr. Goodenough instead of Mr. Right,
because the alternative is worse. What is left hanging at the end of
the
picture is whether Gwen will ever be willing to make those compromises.
As one who has difficulty making even the smallest compromises and has
chosen to live alone, I am quite sympathetic to her plight. Ms.
Parker's
acting is excellent in this movie. She tosses off bon mots with aplomb,
while her reaction when her fiance leaves her really opens up the tear
ducts.
- If Lucy Fell
- She plays the title character, a psychotherapist who is
dissatisfied
with
her life. She convinces her platonic roommate and best friend, Joe,
that
they should honor the pact they made in college: to commit suicide if
they
are not in loving relationships when Lucy turns 30. Since that event is
only a month away, it adds a needed element of desperation to their
love
lives. She hooks up with an inarticulate artist named Bwick, while Joe
finally gets up the nerve to talk to beautiful neighbor Jane. In the
end,
they find true love with each other just in time to save their lives. A
lot more romance and less comedy than Miami Rhapsody, it
doesn't
offer anything new, but is a pleasant time waster.
- Mars Attacks!
- A mildly amusing special effects extravaganza. In a smallish
role, Ms.
Parker plays a lightweight TV reporter who becomes the subject of a
bizarre
Martian experiment. This film could have been a lot better, but suffers
from a weak script. Features a large, big-name cast, including a cameo
by Godzilla. This, I suppose, lowers his score in the Kevin Bacon game
to 2.
- Til There Was You
- It was billed as a romantic comedy, but it is the most cynical,
anti-romantic
comedy you'll ever see. Up until the artificial, Hollywood-style happy
ending, every single relationship in this movie is a failure. The
married
couples are all unhappy, the single people can't keep a love affair
alive,
even best friends can't connect. The lead couple (played by Dylan
McDermott
and Jeanne Triplehorn)'s story parallels that of her parents, which is
revealed during the movie to be a complete myth, so you can't believe
that
they will live happily ever after. In fact, you might conclude from
watching
this film that it is impossible to have a successful relationship. All
the characters are deeply flawed, just as you and I are. If the
hopelessness
of romance in this film doesn't give you hope, nothing will.
Ms. Parker is, of course, wonderful. Her character, Francesca, is
a former child actress (she played a barely disguised Marcia Brady) who
became a drug addict and is now alone, miserable, and afraid to love.
She
is shallow, foul-mouthed, and manipulative. She also suffers her first
broken heart. Ms. Parker does it all with aplomb.
- Extreme Measures
- A not-bad thriller starring Hugh Grant as a doctor investigating
the
strange
death of a patient. Gene Hackman appears as another physician who
presents
him with a moral dilemma. Ms. Parker has a secondary role as a nurse
who
both helps and hinders the investigation. The good news is, her
character
and Grant's don't fall in love.
- The Substance of Fire
- While not as dour as I had anticipated, this is a rather
humorless
drama
about family relations. Ron Rifkin heads the cast as a book publisher
committed
to publishing books no one wants to read, while his oldest son, played
by Tony Goldwyn, wants to keep the family business alive with a trashy
novel. Sarah Jessica Parker plays the daughter, who doesn't know which
side to take.
- First Wives Club
- A witless, soulless "comedy" which seems more interested in
getting
cheers
from its audience than laughs. Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane
Keaton
play three old bags who seek revenge on their ex-husbands for leaving
them
for younger women. Ms. Parker's main purpose in this film is to be thin.
- State and Main
- Sarah Jessica has what amounts to a supporting role in this funny
ensemble
comedy by David Mamet. She plays an actress who tries to get out of
doing
a nude scene while hopping in the sack with every guy who looks her
way.
Be sure to read the credits.
- Life Without Dick
- She starts as Colleen in this unreleasable comedy about a woman
who falls in love with the hitman sent to kill her boyfriend. Harry
Connick, Jr. as the hitman shows why he achieved renown as a singer
rather than as an actor. It is hard to see what attracted Ms. Parker to
this film.
- Failure to Launch
- A pretty typical Hollywood studio comedy. Rather
low-brow humor consisting of various wild animals biting the male lead.
Story leads into a typical sappy romantic comedy ending. Luckily
I like sappy endings. Not terrible, but nothing much to recommend
it, either. Some good supporting performances from Zooey
Deschanel and Rob Corddry.
