Amazon.com

Actor Griffin Dunne improves a bit on his first film as a director, Addicted to Love, with this drama-comedy about a family of witches. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock play spell-casting sisters of different temperaments: the former is a high-living, free-spirited sort, while Bullock's character is a homebody who can't get around a family curse that kills the men in their lives. A widowed single mom, Bullock gets into a jam with an abusive Bulgarian (Goran Visnjic) and is helped out by her sibling, but the result brings a good-looking, warm, inquisitive cop (Aidan Quinn) into their lives. The film has a variety of tonal changes--cute, scary, glum--that Dunne can't always effectively juggle. But the female-centric, celebratory nature of the film (the fantasies, the sharing, the witchy bonds) is infectious, and supporting roles by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing as Kidman and Bullock's magical aunts are a lot of fun. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (231)

I loved this movie.
No matter what religion you are or how you feel about witchcraft, if you enjoy good acting & a great storyline, you'll like this film. Both Bullock & Kidman are excellent & their characters are well-drawn, likable & familiar. Most women will relate to the loves & losses, trials & errors of these independent young women.

They are, of course, different in some ways. Born into a legacy of witches & dark history, the Owens females live under a curse that destroys any man who gets too close to them. (Then again, some of us may have felt 'cursed' more than once in our love lives...)

Bullock plays Sally, the levelheaded one who is determined to have a "normal" life. She falls in love early (w/a little crafty help from the aunts -Stockard Channing & Dianne Wiest), then marries & has two daughters who look exactly like she & 'Gillie' (Kidman). For a few years, Sally is blissfully happy until the day she hears the cricket chirp - a sign of impending death. After her husband is killed, Sally falls into a depression so deep that only her sister can pull her out.

They have an unbreakable bond - not only of blood & love, but of spirit. The strength of this bond actually saves Gillie's life, when she manages to hook-up with an evil madman who 'comes back' from death. The ending is quite well done.

This was a movie about belief, trust, family & a very old fight - good vs. evil. It was also about a love strong & pure enough to break a centuries-old curse, true enough to save a woman pulled in the depths of true evil. It is touching, satisfying & emotionally uplifting. Rent it! Then rent it again for the soundtrack alone!

Powerful Performance by Kidman
While many reviews are positive and a few of them negative in this section, I found it to be a fantastic tale about women and the Craft. Yes, Bullock could give a better performance, but I don't think it is about her or Kidman. Instead, I challenge all of the people who have written negative reviews to examine EVERY DAY LIFE and then watch the movie. I found this a heart-warming tale about the "magical" instances in our childhood. As a child, I was told of curses, boogey stories, voodoo, magic and it was left for me to decide what to believe. Depending on the viewer's BELIEFS, the story could or could not happen. The thing that I ultimately think made the movie was the special effects and the composition of the scenes. The director (Dunne) utilized them in a way that they did not stand out. Rather, the effects were blended seemlessly into the film. To those doubters, watch it first, then again, noting the effects. Only after the second time, decide wheather you like it or not. Overall, I found the movie (DVD) captivating. I will be buying this on DVD very soon.

To live and to die in strange circumstances.
This was a fun movie, a romp through a fantasy life of three generations of witches. The house was set somewhere in Maine but the action took place in some strange places. It almost makes one belief that witchcraft is alive and well in the modern age.

The two older witches were especially good. Sandra Bullock, on the other hand, was playing a continuation of her character in HOPE FLOATS, same funky outfits and the acting just the same.

These beautiful witches had the bad luck to always kill the men they love. No matter how many potions they tried to concoct, nothing ever came out right. The little ones had no special magic, and yet their peers called them witches just the same.

The living dead had eyes like Riddick. Now, I understand where he got his strength; he was already dead. What'd he have to lose?

I enjoyed this romp, but I have always been interested in how the women in Salem and along the Eastern coast were burned as witches. Even Guinevere in Richard Harris' version of CAMELOT was 'almost' killed as a witch. Thank God, she was rescued by her Sir Lancelot to waste away in a nunnery. What a price women have to pay when they love the wrong men!

Can love travel back in time and heal a broken heart? I like to think so.

Great! Two Thumbs to the sky!
It was great! According to real witchcraft, it was pretty accurate!

Fantastic!
The story line is fantastic--that of friendship, sisterhood, attaining dreams, and love. This movie shows witches in a more realistic light incomparison to the ole tale of green skin and bubbling eyes of newt. It, also, shows the politics that they face due to these deeply rooted tales and lends hope that the general populus will become more embracing/accepting of others' beliefs--particularly that of earth-based religions. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Lisa Picard (Laura Kirk) isn't famous, but she wants to be. She's an aspiring actress who's been chosen by a documentary filmmaker (Griffin Dunne) who wants to record what happens when someone hits it big; does the new star change, or does the surrounding world change? Lisa Picard Is Famous is a brutal satire of actors, as funny and as savage as its sister mockumentary Waiting for Guffman. The movie follows Lisa as she goes from a soft-porn cereal commercial to a bit part in a TV movie with Melissa Gilbert, while her best friend Tate (Nat DeWolf) writes and stars in an off-Broadway hit. Along the way are genuine (maybe) interviews with celebrities like Buck Henry and Carrie Fisher, who have their own mordant perspective. Theater and movie people may find that Lisa Picard Is Famous cuts a little too close for comfort. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Laura Kirk is a Gem!
The show is a hoot, a trainwreck in slow motion. Fun set up as a mockumentary. Griffin Dunne gives us a knowing and askance take on the desperate search for fame. The show belongs to Laura Kirk,an avalanche of talent with a range of skills that puts many notables who make cameo appearances to shame. She is heart rendingly funny, touching and vulnerable. Lisa Pickard is never going to be famous as Ms. Kirk reveals her to us. But there is no reason this gifted performer should stay in the shadows, she is dynamite and worth the price of admission by the end of the audition scene which is 15 minutes into the movie.

Actors get it but not for anyone else
Great fun for actors but anyone outside the industry won't appreciate it. Does give a great comedic view of how to become a star. (and how not to)
Get this if you want to see some of what goes on in trying to become an actor.

Blair fans BEWARE
Being a major Linda Blair fan, when I saw that she was credited with being in this movie I went ahead and purchased it. Bad move. The extent of Blairs performance is a black and white inset photo as Carrie Fisher tells the audience how she is sometimes mistaken for Linda. THAT'S IT !
The movie itself isn't bad, just not the sort of movie one would watch over again, hence negating the need for purchase. The whole movie has an admirable student film feel about it, and has some surprising cameo's, and the performances by the leads are quite good, showing promise.
There are no extra's on the DVD release, and my biggest piece of advice is "Try before you buy". Go out and rent this movie first !

Acting vs. Fame
I enjoyed the many facets of this movie. There were painful scenes and funny scenes and I really got the sense of how much courage actors have to have to put themselves out there all the time and how much disappointment is a part of acting. The most centered actors in the movie seemed to be the ones not going for the fame that acting can bring, the centered actors seemed to be the ones who was going for the love of their craft.

Famous wannabe's
I like Griffin Dunne and found this "mockumentary' style film amusing with good cameo-appearances from Buck Henry, Carrie Fisher, Fisher Stevens recollecting experiences in the fame-game acting world.
As a former actor myself whom gave-up I found this comedy pretty close to the mark and laughed out loud many times.
The blinding ambition, self-delusions and self-absorption true to life.
The focus is little known actress Lisa Picard whose main claim to some fame and notoriety are hilrariously rauchy breakfast cereal commercial whom's next big-break is a bit-part in up-coming telemovie starring Melissa Gilbert called A Call for Help.
Trials and tribulations ensue in the private life of Lisa behind-the-scenes filmed by documentary director Dunne.
The cast parties, TV-VCR premieres in the living-room's, Internet Site and rivalrys between actor friends and off-off Broadway one-man show's really took me back to my own acting days.
Laura Kirk and Nat DeWolf were charming as the two acting friends sprinkled with cameo encounters by Charlie Sheen, Spike Lee, Sandra Bullock, Mira Sorvino, Melissa Gilbert and Penelope Ann Miller.
All the aspirations, dissapointments, setback's, frustrations and large doses of delusions make Lisa Picard is Famous a funny take on what it's mostly like for those trying to play the fame game and break in anyhere/way they can.
Recommended viewing but won't be everybody's choice of a night at home's entertainment.
You really have to of lived it to get it. ... Read more