A Valentine’s Day for the Economically Depressed

This Valentine's Day weekend, there's plenty to make you want to clutch your significant other...

“The International”
Following up his intoxicating 2006 adaptation “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” director Tom Tykwer continues his career renaissance with this high-concept (almost orbital, really) conspiracy thriller that capitalizes on just how badly the average Joe wants his financial adviser to somehow wind up in the next “Saw” sequel. Naomi Watts, who’s built a career on making the downright preposterous seem credible and threatening, co-stars alongside Clive Owen in this global high-stakes game of cat and mouse. As a New York D.A. and an Interpol agent respectively, Watts and Owen risk their lives and their credit ratings attempting to bring to justice the corrupt, evil and imaginatively titled International Bank of Business and Credit (as opposed to other banks that don’t deal in those things).
Opens wide.

“Two Lovers”
While the world might have reacted with a collective shrug to the news that Joaquin Phoenix was quitting the movie biz to record a hip-hop album, one person who was surely devastated was director James Gray, who’s used Phoenix as a muse in all but one of his films to date. Debuting this year at Cannes, this supposed dramatic swansong from the idiosyncratic actor is an understated, traditionalist romantic drama that’s equal parts heart and head. Carrying a rare genetic ailment that scuppered his first engagement, the deeply troubled Leonard (Phoenix) now lives under the watchful, interfering eye of his Jewish parents in Brighton Beach. With his folks desperate to cement a business alliance by having him marry the safe and secure Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), Leonard gravitates to the infinitely more alluring yet equally troubled Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow).
Opens wide.

“Under The Sea 3D”
Lifelong deep sea divers and occasional filmmakers Howard and Michelle Hall follow up their 2006 spiritual salve “Deep Sea 3D” with another look at the beauty of life beneath the waves in all its amniotic glory. Hoping that Jim Carrey can do for jellyfish what Morgan Freeman’s reassuring warbling did for penguins, the “Yes Man”‘s voiceover accompanies the Halls’ five-month expedition from Southern Australia to Papua New Guinea and the Indo Pacific, illustrating the natural grace and wonder of nature’s most diverse and spectacular ecosystem, all of course, in IMAX 3D.
Opens in IMAX.

[Photo: "As Seen Through These Eyes," Menemsha Films, 2008]

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