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Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>The Other Woman</em> Vs. <em>Cold Weather</em>

2011 seems to be the year for Nat-Port. The frighteningly beautiful 13-year-old from Leon: The Professional has all but grown up, and there's a lot of "Oscar buzz" (how Access Hollywood!) surrounding the starlet's role in The Black Swan. And as if she had already won, our little Natalie is already making horrendous career moves. Following up on her Reitman comedy role in No Strings Attached comes her latest noodle-scratcher The Other Woman. In her defense, it appears the movie was done all the way back in the good ol' year of 2009 but was for unknown reasons (hmmm...) never released till now. Portman plays a Jezebel who marries her already married boss, has a baby, has that baby die (unintentionally), and is now stuck with her Beau's son trying to figure out what went wrong. This movie seems to have appeared out of nowhere like some sex-tape she made in college, but hopefully it won't haunt the poor girl come Academy Awards time.Reviews have been awful, with Melissa Anderson from The Village Voice saying: "Director Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Happy Endings), who also scripted, wobbles tonally, sometimes disastrously: A memorial walk in Central Park for those who have lost infants at first cruelly invites derision before being validated as healing, only to then spiral into petulant tears and recriminations."Though lazily mocking hyper-vigilant parenting, the film treats the moldiest clichÃ©sâ'We all end up marrying our fathers anyway'; 'Itâs the people who love you youâre the hardest on'âas gospel. Portman, neither courageous nor complex enough to fully embody an often unlikable character, succeeds merely in enervating us." — Gothamist

Published Feb 4, 2011

Modified Feb 4, 2011

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Click on the film stills for more details and reviews of this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which include: The Other Woman, Cold Weather, Troubadours, Sanctum, How I Ended This Summer, The Roommate, Dressed, American Grindhouse, Into Eternity, and Rear Window.