Opening This Week: January 19th, 2007

Monday, January 15, 2007 | 12:00 AM

By Christopher Bonet

IFC News

[Photo: "The Hitcher," Rogue Pictures, 2007]

A round-up of the best (or worst) $10 you'll spend this week.

"Alone with Her"

It can often seem like indie movies can be summed up as part of one of three categories: 1) the self-important road movie where everybody learns something, 2) the depressing story about a depressed person in a depressed town (sadness!), or 3) the supremely creepy low-budget thriller. Writer/director Eric Nicholas opts for door number three in this film about a young man who manipulates the beautiful young woman he's spent months stalking into a love affair. Colin Hanks stars as the film's resident voyeur and Mexican actress Ana Claudia Talancón plays his target.

Opens in New York (official site).

"Funny Money"

"Funny Money" may have been the biggest hit of last year's Sarasota Film Festival, but to us the film reeks a little of 1986. Based on the popular Ray Cooney play of the same name, the film stars Chevy Chase as a wax fruit factory foreman who mistakenly winds up with a briefcase holding five million dollars and must try to convince his wife (Penelope Ann Miller) to hold on to the money. Where's John Candy when you need him? Oh, right — dead.

Opens in limited release (official site).

"The Hitcher"

Sean Bean may be one of the great villainous character actors working today. Not to discredit his work elsewhere, but we don't think there's been a consistently great bad guy since Alan Rickman's "Die Hard" days. Bean chases after 20-somethings Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton in this remake of the 1986 horror film of the same title.

Opens wide (official site).

"The Italian"

This import from Russia tells the story of a five-year-old orphan's journey to find his birth mother, leaving his comfortable Italian family for a treacherous unknown world. The film won the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix prize at the Berlin International Film Festival two years ago and is Russia's submission for this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Opens in New York and Los Angeles (official site).

"Mafioso"

Rialto Films offers up a reprint of Alberto Lattuada's 1962 comedy about a happy-go-lucky Sicilian man who returns home for a holiday with his family and is asked to fulfill a favor for the local Don.

Opens in New York (official site).