Weekend Movie Forecast: The International or Gomorrah

Of course there's a reason why we saw Joaquin Phoenix mumbling through an instantly classic David Letterman appearance this week; he's contractually obligated to plug what's supposedly his last film appearance, the torrid romantic melodrama Two Lovers, which was filmed on location in Brighton Beach. The Times's A.O. Scott says, "Though it is set in the present, Two Lovers takes place in what often feels like an earlier incarnation of New York, a world of lower-middle-class neighborhoods and workaday aspirations that is still very real but that seems less interesting to ambitious filmmakers and writers than it used to be.

"It can be argued that with Two Lovers, James Gray has traded in one set of clichés for another. But perhaps because the conventions of romantic melodrama have lain dormant for so long, there is something fresh and vivid about the way he uses them here. He is also a generous and sympathetic director of actors, and he makes the most of Vinessa Shaw’s grace, Gwyneth Paltrow’s unpredictability and Joaquin Phoenix’s odd, intriguing blend of solemnity and mischief. Their performances go a long way toward preventing the movie from becoming overwrought or schematic."