The Girl in the Cafe
As a pop star on the comeback trail, Bill Nighy handily stoleLove Actuallyaway from his more famous co-stars. In BBC/HBO co-productionThe Girl in the Café, he takes the lead--and runs with it. Written by Richard Curtis (Notting Hill), the offbeat political-romance concerns Lawrence, a 57-year-old Londoner with a successful governmental career and nonexistent social life. One day he stops in a café and meets the mysterious, considerably younger Gina (Kelly Macdonald,Trainspotting). To their mutual amazement, they hit it off and agree to meet again (and yet again). Then he invites her to accompany him to the G8 Summit in Reykjavík, where she upends his carefully ordered world in ways both wonderful and terrible. Suddenly this "man who has nothing in his life but his work" must find a way to make room for something "tender and true." With Corin Redgrave as the Prime Minister.--Kathleen C. Fennessy