"Actor: Meryl"

• Silkwood | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  As a tale of self-discovery, Silkwood, Mike Nichols' 1982 biopic of the plutonium factory worker who uncovered negligence and dangerous practices at the heart of her employer's company, works well enough. Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) is no saint. She drinks, cheerfully gets 'em out for the boys, has left her husband and kids and lives in a curious ménage à trois with her lover, (Kurt Russell) and their lesbian friend (Cher). But, through her own dawning suspicions, she is drawn into union activism and embarks on a crusade to expose the rottenness of her paymasters, only to die in a mysterious car crash. And here is the flaw. The film can't decide whether it's quirky soap opera, a campaigning blow for the anti-nuclear lobby or an allegory for the conflict between the rights of the individual and the demands of the corporate giant. It stops short of providing some important conclusions about what really happened to its central character, and why. Streep is fine though, injecting her character with a studied mixture of innate intelligence and trailer park trash. Russell offers solid support and Cher is outstanding as housemate Dolly Pelliker. Their performances give Silkwood its heart as a powerful human drama. On the DVD: Silkwood is well-served on this DVD release by sharp picture and sound quality (Georges Delerue's poignantly jaunty country and western soundtrack benefits in particular), but the extras are static and add little to the package apart from a strictly "budget" feel: standard biographies of the stars and director with some pretty pointless trivia facts, and a brief history of the production. There's nothing here that even the most generalist of film fans won't already know. A director's commentary explaining why the film loses its bottle in the final reel would be more interesting. --Piers Ford

• Ken Burns - The Roosevelts | DVD | (15/09/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY chronicles the lives of Theodore Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part 14 hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962. The series encompasses the history the Roosevelts helped to shape: the creation of National Parks the digging of the Panama Canal the passage of innovative New Deal programs the defeat of Hitler and the postwar struggles for civil rights at home and human rights abroad. It is also an intimate human story about love betrayal family loyalty personal courage and the conquest of fear. Features: A definitive look at one of the great families in American history. An all-star cast includes Paul Giamatti as Theodore Roosevelt Edward Herrmann as Franklin Roosevelt and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Roosevelt. Release timed to coincide with the UK television premiere on PBS America (Sky 534 & Virgin Media 243). Packed with bonus material.

• The Hours | Blu Ray | (10/10/2011) from £33.73   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Virginia Woolf (Kidman), in a suburb of London in the early 1920s, is battling insanity as she begins to write her first great novel, Mrs Dalloway. A wife and mother in post-World War II Los Angeles, Laura Brown (Moore) is reading Mrs Dalloway and finding it so revolutionary that she begins to consider making a devastating change in her life. Clarissa Vaughan (Streep), a present day version of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, lives in New York City and is in love with a friend (Ed Harris - A Beautiful Mind) who is dying of AIDS. Also starring John C. Reilly (Gangs Of New York), Claire Danes (Brokendown Palace) and Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense) - their engaging stories intertwine until they come together in a surprising moment of shared recognition.

• The Tribe - Season 1 | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Keep the dream alive. In the wake of a deadly virus that has wiped out the adult population the children of the world must now survive on their own. The sophisticated hi-tech society that their forefathers created has collapsed into confusion anarchy and fear. It is in this dangerous new world where The Tribe must construct a new culture in their own image and learn that in the aftermath of a disaster there come fresh opportunity and new responsibility. The future is theirs

• Sophie's Choice | Blu Ray | (04/08/2014) from £6.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Rendition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.85   |  Saving you £16.14 (419.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  With the disappearance of her husband, an Egyptian born terrorism suspect, Isabella travels to Washington DC to discover the truth.

• A Cry In The Dark | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A family torn apart. A public filled with outrage. A woman accused of murder. Based on true events Fred Schepisi's film stars Sam Neill and Meryl Streep as an Australian couple who are accused of murder when their claims that their baby was taken by a dingo in the outback fall under suspicion...

• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2-disc Special Edition) | DVD | (27/05/2005) from £7.65   |  Saving you £17.34 (226.67%)   |  RRP £24.99

  If you spliced Charles Addams, Dr. Seuss, Charles Dickens, Edward Gorey, and Roald Dahl into a Tim Burtonesque landscape, you'd surely come up with something like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Many critics (in mostly mixed reviews) wondered why Burton didn't direct this comically morbid adaptation of the first three books in the popular series by Daniel Handler (a.k.a. "Lemony Snicket," played here by Jude Law and seen only in silhouette) instead of TV and Casper veteran Brad Silberling, but there's still plenty to recommend the playfully bleak scenario, in which three resourceful orphans thwart their wicked, maliciously greedy relative Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), who subjects them to... well, a series of unfortunate events. Along the way they encounter a herpetologist uncle (Billy Connolly), an anxious aunt (Meryl Streep) who's afraid of everything, and a variety of fantastical hazards and mysterious clues, some of which remain unresolved. Given endless wonders of art direction, costume design, and cinematography, Silberling's direction is surprisingly uninspired (in other words, the books are better), but when you add a throwaway cameo by Dustin Hoffman, Law's amusing narration, and Carrey's over-the-top antics, the first Lemony movie suggests a promising franchise in the making. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• It's Complicated | Blu Ray | (14/03/2011) from £20.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (24.95%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Writer/director Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want", "Something's Gotta Give", "The Holiday") directs Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in "It's Complicated", a comedy about love, divorce and everything in between.

• Fantastic Mr Fox (with Bonus Digital Copy and DVD) | Blu Ray | (01/03/2010) from £11.70   |  Saving you £13.29 (113.59%)   |  RRP £24.99

  "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is visionary director Wes Anderson's first animated film, telling the cherished story of Roald Dahl's intrepid, fantastic Mr. Fox. Featuring the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep.

• It's Complicated | DVD | (14/03/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It's delightful to see Meryl Streep come into her own as a romantic comedian in her later career years--after all the accolades, the Oscars, the serious-as-marble dramatic roles. Streep is in fact a true cutup, as she has demonstrated in films like Mamma Mia and Julie & Julia--and she gets the guy. So if Nancy Meyers's It's Complicated is perhaps a bit facile in the plot department, it's saved by a splendid romp of a performance by Streep (as Jane), along with her two leading men, Alec Baldwin (Jane's ex-husband, Jake) and Steve Martin (her supposed boyfriend, Adam). Meyers, as she did in Something's Gotta Give and Baby Boom, turns notions of over-the-hilldom--at least for women--on their ear. Streep's Jane is a contented, affluent divorcée with excellent taste in furnishings, happily about to preside over an empty nest and feeling just fine about it. Who should bump into, and ruin, this perfect solitude but Jane's ex, Jake, played to a pompous (and hilarious) fare-thee-well by Baldwin. "Turns out I'm a bit of a slut," chirps the sexually awakened Jane. The beauty of It's Complicated is that it really isn't all that complicated--its chemistry depends on the wonderful actors (including the supporting cast of John Krasinski, Lake Bell, Mary Kay Place, and Rita Wilson) and the oft-forgotten reality that people over 25 can have great sex, and fall head over heels. --A.T. Hurley

• Doubt | DVD | (30/05/2011) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  "Doubt" is a gripping story about the quest for truth, the forces of change and the devastating consequences of blind justice in an age defined by moral conviction.

• Plenty | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £8.77   |  Saving you £4.22 (32.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  She would settle for nothing less... Susan Traherne (Streep) has been irreparably changed by her wartime experiences as a Resistance fighter. She sets out in the post-war world to make her way to what she wants no matter who is hurt or how.

• The Iron Lady / The Queen / The Duchess Triple Pack | DVD | (29/07/2013) from £6.39   |  Saving you £6.60 (103.29%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Iron LadyOscar-winning actress Meryl Streep gives one of her finest-ever performances (Empire Magazine) in The Iron Lady. Telling the compelling story of Margaret Thatcher a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world the story concerns power and the price that is paid for its gain. The Iron Lady is a surprising and intimate portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman with acclaimed supporting performances from Jim Broadbent and Olivia Colman. The QueenFollowing the death of Diana the 'People's Princess' the Queen (Helen Mirren) and her family remain hidden behind tradition and the closed doors of Balmoral Castle. Whilst the heartbroken public becomes disillusioned with their Queen's absence an increasingly popular Prime Minister Tony Blair must battle to convince the monarchy that its desire for privacy could lead to its ultimate downfall. With an outstanding performance from Helen Mirren The Queen is Director Stephen Frears' engrossing intimate and intelligently witty portrait of our monarchy's darkest days in the week following one of the nation's greatest tragedies. The DuchessA chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire an ancestor of Princess Diana who was alternately celebrated and reviled for her extravagant political and personal life. From Georgiana's passionate and doomed affair with Earl Grey to the complex ménage à trois with her husband and her best friend Lady Bess Foster The Duchess is a very contemporary tale of fame notoriety and the search for love.

• Plenty | DVD | (11/08/2014) from £7.75   |  Saving you £2.24 (28.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  There will be days and days and days like this... Meryl Streep delivers one of her greatest performances in David Hare's adaptation of his own stage play which spans two decades in the life of a French Resistance operative who struggles to build a new life amid the apathy of post-war England. Featuring a stellar supporting cast and winning a brace of awards and nominations in 1985 this masterly feature is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements. At the end of World War Two Susan Traherne a young Englishwoman who has worked as a courier in Nazi-occupied France returns home full of hope for a golden future. Yet peacetime brings its own difficulties for Susan; she finds her marriage to a Foreign Office diplomat arid and unfulfilling and the seemingly trivial concerns of others leave her cold. As the danger and intensity – and undeniable excitement – of her wartime days give way to a new mundane life her fragile mental and emotional stability begins to crumble… Special Features: Original Theatrical Trailer Image Gallery Promotional Material PDF

• The River Wild | DVD | (13/08/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Meryl Streep tried her hand at action films with this Curtis Hanson film and proved herself quite credible, bringing emotion as well as the willingness to kick butt. She plays a suburban mum and former white-water rafting guide who is taking her family on a raft trip for summer vacation. But overworked Dad (David Strathairn) can't make the trip so she and her son leave without him--and walk right into trouble. Killers on the run (Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly) abduct them and force Streep to take them down the most dangerous stretch of river to elude the cops. Hanson understands how to pace and construct this kind of action fodder but it's strictly formula stuff, enlivened only by the depth of Streep's portrayal and the viciousness of Bacon's character. --Marshall Fine

• Ricki and the Flash | Blu Ray | (28/12/2015) from £5.07   |  Saving you £19.92 (392.90%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Meryl Streep takes on a whole new gig – a hard-rocking singer/guitarist – for Oscar®-winning director Jonathan Demme and Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody in Ricki and the Flash. In an original and electrifying film loaded with live musical performances, Streep stars as Ricki Rendazzo, a guitar heroine who made a world of mistakes as she followed her dreams of rock-and-roll stardom. Returning home, Ricki gets a shot at redemption and a chance to make things right as she faces the music with her family. Streep stars opposite her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer; Rick Springfield, portraying a Flash member in love with Ricki; Kevin Kline as Ricki’s ex-husband; and Audra McDonald as Kline’s new wife. Click Images to Enlarge

• Sophie's Choice | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £6.50   |  Saving you £0.49 (7.54%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• House of Spirits | DVD | (25/08/2008) from £8.08   |  Saving you £7.91 (97.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Bille August's adaptation of Isabel Allende's best-selling novel stars Meryl Streep as the supernaturally gifted Clara and Jeremy Irons as her controlling husband Esteban. The House Of The Spirits is a haunting tale of romance and passion which spans three generations of the Trueba family. It's a timeless classic which deals with secrets seduction revenge and forgiveness and most importantly the power of love to overcome anything.

• Mamma Mia! Gift Set | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Meryl Streep leads an all-star cast in the feature-film adaptation of the beloved musical bringing the timeless lyrics and melodies of iconic super group ABBA to audiences everywhere.