Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore is back on the big screen this week with her latest movie Shelter, which sees her star alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

It's so far been a great year for the actress with critical acclaim for her last movie A Single Man, which saw her nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe.

Shelter sees her star as Dr Cara Jessup who has made a career from debunking the notion of multiple personality disorders, with her testimony resulting in the death sentence for numerous convicted killers.

Cara is devoted to science, but even her husband's horrific murder did not cause Cara to lose her faith in God.

Not so for her young daughter Samantha (Brooklynn Prolux), a committed unbeliever. After a particularly troubling court case, Cara's father Dr Harding introduces her to his new patient Adam (Meyers).

As she explores Adam's past, Cara's world begins to fall apart and she is forced to question her strong beliefs in both science and God.

So to celebrate the release of the movie we take a look over Moore's career and pick out the movies that really should be in anyone's collection.

Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights was released back in 1997, hard to believe the movie is over a decade old, and saw Moore kick off a period in her career when she was drowning in award nominations.

It's Los Angeles, 1977, and adult film director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) meets Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a well-endowed dishwasher in a nightclub. Jack recruits Eddie to be his newest star and Eddie, hungry for fame, quickly agrees, changing his name to Dirk Diggler.

Soon Dirk is the hottest star in the porn industry, alongside Rollergirl (Heather Graham), a high school dropout who never removes her roller skates, and Amber Waves (Moore), the veteran star who pines for the son she's not allowed to visit.

On the fringes, Little Bill (William H. Macy) fumes while his wife cheats on him in public, and Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) tries to escape the stigma of being a porn actor.

The good times roll, but before long Dirk falls victim to the pressures of stardom and a drug habit that ruins his career while Jack struggles with porn's conversion from film to cheaper videotapes.

The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film festival and went on to gross over $43 million, as well as doing well with the critics.

For Moore the role of Amber Waves brought her her First Oscar nomination as she bagged a nod for Best Supporting Actress, losing out to Kim Basinger.

The End of the Affair

Based on the novel The End of the Affair by British author Graham Greene it was this movie that brought Julianne Moore her first Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1999.

On a rainy night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) has a chance meeting with Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), husband of his ex-mistress Sarah (Moore), who abruptly ended their affair two years before.

Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed. As the investigation progresses, Bendrix relives his passionate memories of their affair during The Blitz in London.

He discovers her diary and reads her account of the affair. It is as different from his as night is from day. He re-enters her life and confronts once more the consuming love they had for each other and the reason for its annihilation.

The End of the Affair brought hordes of award nominations Moore's way including Golden Globe and Bafta but she lost out to Hilary Swank at the Oscars.

Magnolia

Moore re-united for her Boogie Nights filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson in 1999 when she joined the all star ensemble cast of Magnolia, which also included Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alfred Molina.

In a single day in Los Angeles, a number of interconnected lives are changed forever. A lonely police officer (John C. Reilly) falls in love with a disturbed cocaine addict (Melora Walters). Her father (Philip Baker Hall), the host of the game show "What Do Kids Know?" has terminal cancer and tries to make amends for his past mistakes.

A former champion of the show (William H. Macy) struggles to find love while the current champion (Jeremy Blackman) suffocates under the pressures of being a boy genius.

An elderly man (Jason Robards) lies on his deathbed, tended by nurse Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman), while his trophy wife (Julianne Moore) wrestles with grief and guilt, and his estranged son (Tom Cruise), an infomercial host, teaches workshops on how to trick women into having sex. Throughout all of this, past deeds are lamented and strange forces loom in the air.

Despite being received well by the critics the movie did struggle at the box office. The movie went on to be nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture.

It also went on to pick three Oscar nods including Best Supporting Actor for Cruise, Best original Screenplay and Best Original Song.

Far from Heaven
 
Far From Heaven was released 2002 and saw Moore star alongside Dennis Quaid and Patricia Clarkson in the Todd Haynes directed movie.

It is the fall of 1957. The Whitakers, the very picture of a suburban family, make their home in Hartford, Connecticut. Their daily existences are characterised by carefully observed family etiquette, social events, and an overall desire to keep up with the Joneses.

Cathy Whitaker is the homemaker, wife and mother. Frank Whitaker is the breadwinner, husband and father.Together they have the perfect '50s life: healthy kids and social prominence.

Then one night, Cathy discovers her husband's secret life and her tidy, insular world starts spinning out of control. Fearing the consequences of revealing her pain and confusion to anyone in her own social circle, she finds unexpected comfort and friendship with her African-American gardener, Raymond Deagan.

Cathy's interactions with Raymond; her best friend Eleanor Fine; and her maid, Sybil, reflects the upheaval in her life. Cathy is faced with choices that spur gossip within the community, and change several lives forever.

For her role as Cathy the awards came flooding in for Moore as she picked up the Independent Spirit Award,Chicago Film Critics Association Award and National Board of Review awards for Best Actress.

She was also nominated at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Oscars for her central performance.

The Hours

Moore teamed up with Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep in 2002 for The Hours, which was based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham.

Spanning across various time periods in the 20th Century, a drama which revolves around three very different women: two of whom have been profoundly affected by the works of Virginia Woolf; the other woman is Woolf, herself.

All three are battling with issues of freedom, responsibility and identity. As the story unfolds, they are negotiating their way through different depressive states.

Virginia Woolf is struggling to write her novel "Mrs. Dalloway" in 1923, as she recovers from depression; Laura Brown is a depressed and pregnant L.A. housewife who reads Woolf's novel in 1951, as she plans her husband's birthday party.

And the exasperated Clarissa Vaughn is a book editor in modern-day New York, who is planning a farewell party for her AIDS-inflicted former lover, Richard--a famous author who had nicknamed her Mrs. Dalloway.

The movie was a critical hit and did reasonably well at the box when it was released. For her performance Moore picked up yet another Oscar nomination, but was denied by Catherine Zeta Jones,

Shelter is released 9th April.

Julianne Moore is back on the big screen this week with her latest movie Shelter, which sees her star alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

It's so far been a great year for the actress with critical acclaim for her last movie A Single Man, which saw her nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe.

Shelter sees her star as Dr Cara Jessup who has made a career from debunking the notion of multiple personality disorders, with her testimony resulting in the death sentence for numerous convicted killers.

Cara is devoted to science, but even her husband's horrific murder did not cause Cara to lose her faith in God.

Not so for her young daughter Samantha (Brooklynn Prolux), a committed unbeliever. After a particularly troubling court case, Cara's father Dr Harding introduces her to his new patient Adam (Meyers).

As she explores Adam's past, Cara's world begins to fall apart and she is forced to question her strong beliefs in both science and God.

So to celebrate the release of the movie we take a look over Moore's career and pick out the movies that really should be in anyone's collection.

Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights was released back in 1997, hard to believe the movie is over a decade old, and saw Moore kick off a period in her career when she was drowning in award nominations.

It's Los Angeles, 1977, and adult film director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) meets Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a well-endowed dishwasher in a nightclub. Jack recruits Eddie to be his newest star and Eddie, hungry for fame, quickly agrees, changing his name to Dirk Diggler.

Soon Dirk is the hottest star in the porn industry, alongside Rollergirl (Heather Graham), a high school dropout who never removes her roller skates, and Amber Waves (Moore), the veteran star who pines for the son she's not allowed to visit.

On the fringes, Little Bill (William H. Macy) fumes while his wife cheats on him in public, and Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) tries to escape the stigma of being a porn actor.

The good times roll, but before long Dirk falls victim to the pressures of stardom and a drug habit that ruins his career while Jack struggles with porn's conversion from film to cheaper videotapes.

The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film festival and went on to gross over $43 million, as well as doing well with the critics.

For Moore the role of Amber Waves brought her her First Oscar nomination as she bagged a nod for Best Supporting Actress, losing out to Kim Basinger.

The End of the Affair

Based on the novel The End of the Affair by British author Graham Greene it was this movie that brought Julianne Moore her first Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1999.

On a rainy night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) has a chance meeting with Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), husband of his ex-mistress Sarah (Moore), who abruptly ended their affair two years before.

Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed. As the investigation progresses, Bendrix relives his passionate memories of their affair during The Blitz in London.

He discovers her diary and reads her account of the affair. It is as different from his as night is from day. He re-enters her life and confronts once more the consuming love they had for each other and the reason for its annihilation.

The End of the Affair brought hordes of award nominations Moore's way including Golden Globe and Bafta but she lost out to Hilary Swank at the Oscars.

Magnolia


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